Kit's Memories

John Ryan: An Addiewell M.P.

By Billy Kane

My cousin, John Ryan, was born in Livingstone Street the same day as Pat Kane (Billy's brother). My aunty Mary belonged to Addiewell, but when she married she moved to Wilsontown in Lanarkshire. John was brought up there and visited Loganlea every Sunday faithfully to see his grandparents Mr and Mrs Tommy Foley, who lived at 119 Mooreland Gardens. John went to school in Forth and Lanark Grammar School and then the University of Glasgow, where he graduated with a First Class Honours Degree: he was extremely clever.

 John was politically minded even when he was a young man and would take part in all the discussions held each Sunday in my Grandparents house. He was a lifelong member of the Labour Party and what is known as a 'Left Winger'. He left Forth and moved to London where he had his own Market Research Company for a few years before entering the Political arena full time. He was elected to Parliament as the M.P for Uxbridge near London, which made him the youngest ever MP up until then. The Prime Minister then was Harold Wilson. When he left politics, he became a Professor of a College in Arundel in Sussex.

 He eventually returned to Scotland to be nearer his parents as his Dad suffered from pnuemoconiosis (the miner's disease) and could not get around easily. John was a man of many talents and a very generous person. He died in 2002 from a heart attack, just before he had finished all the work he had started for The Bulgarian Health Service, which he did free of charge. He never forgot his coal mining roots and would help anyone in need.

As a family we were all very proud of what John achieved, the only child of a Lanarkshire Coal Face worker and an Addiewell mother. Addiewell has produced many good men and women.

Catherine Cassidy Alleyne