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National Federation of Old Age Pensions
Associations
Notable events
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1938 Groups of people horrified at the
treatment being meted out to old folk, began to band themselves
together in order to get justice.
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1939 Monster petition to Parliament
signed by 2,000,000 people; presented July, 1939.
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1940 Formation of the
National Federation of Old Age Pensions Associations at Preston.
"OLD AGE PENSIONER" FOUNDED. Mr. J. C. Birtles, J.P., elected
President, Mr. H. W. Tyrrell (General Secretary), Mr. E. Melling
(Editor). First Conference held September at the Y.M.C.A.,
Manchester, with 38 delegates present. Supplementary Pension
introduced for first time.
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1941 Second Annual Conference held at
Huddersfield. One day Conference attended by 100 delegates, and
principal resolution passed was one demanding a basic pension of 30s
a week.
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1942 Federation submitted oral and
written evidence to the Beveridge Committee. Our evidence caused a
debate in the House of Commons, in which tribute was paid to the
work of the Federation.
Third Annual Conference was held at Derby, where no branch of our
Federation existed at that time. Alderman A. T. Neal became the
first President of the Derby branch, and under his guidance over 100
branches of the Federation were formed in this region. There were
250 delegates present at this Conference which lasted for two days.
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1943 Fourth Annual Conference held at
Darlington, attended by 350 delegates. This Conference decided on
our second Petition to Parliament, which was presented to the House
of Commons on November 2nd., 1943- Mr. Birtles, our National
President, was absent from this Petition Meeting, as he had been
suddenly taken seriously ill and was in hospital; happily he made a
complete recovery.
The 1943 Petition was ruled "out of order", on the grounds that any
petition dealing with money should have been addressed to H.M. The
King. The Petition, however, achieved its purpose, for the Scale
Rate of the Assistance Board was raised to ?1 per week and 35s per
week for single and married pensioners, plus an allowance for rent.
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1944 The fifth Annual Conference took
place at Southport, attended by 400 delegates, and the number of
affiliated branches was now nearing 500; it was publicly stated that
no movement of modern times had made the spectacular progress
achieved by the pensions movement. The circulation of "The Old Age
Pensioner", which had commenced with 4,000, was now 10,000 copies
per issue, and had become the acknowledged mouthpiece of the
movement.
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1945 The Coalition Government had put
out a White Paper outlining their pension proposals, and these were
examined by the Federation officials. These proposals were not found
satisfactory, and a deputation met Sir Wm. Jowitt, the Minister of
Social Insurance, to discuss the matter; in passing it may be said
that many deputations met the various Ministers as required by
circum- stances.
The sixth Annual Conference was held at Morecambe, attended by 500
delegates, and it was decided there to have our third Petition to
Parliament. During 1945 the Labour Government was elected to power,
and formed the Government; our Petition was presented on November
21st 1945, and undoubtedly had much to do with the Pensions portion
of the Act passed in 1946 by the Labour Government. The first Annual
Rally was held on November 21st 1945, at the Caxton Hall, London,
attended by 500 delegates (and many hundreds were unable to gain
admission to the Hall).
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1946 The seventh Annual Conference was
held at Brighton from July 29th to August 2nd. at the Dome. At this
Conference our demand was raised from 30s to ?2 per week. There were
well over 500 delegates present. The Annual Rally took place at the
Caxton Hall on Oct. 17th,, 1946, and was again a great success.
During this year a great deal of research work was con- ducted in
the cost of living, and it was proved beyond doubt that pensioners
were having to exist on the starvation level.
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1947 The eighth Annual Conference was
held in Glasgow, and the number of delegates exceeded 600; at this
Conference the forthcoming marriage of our National President was
announced by Mr. H. W. Tyrrell, who also announced that as he was
taking a holiday and going with his family to visit his sons in
Australia, he was for the time being relinquishing the position of
General Secretary;
Mr. E. Melling had consented to take over this position as a
temporary measure, and Mr. Tyrrell asked the dele- gates to give to
Mr. Melling the support which had been given to him, and for which
he gave his best thanks. The Annual Rally was held in the Central
Hall, Westminster, for the first time, as we had outgrown the Caxton
Hall. The Rally was attended by nearly 3,000 delegates, and
attracted much publicity
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1948 Rhyl was the venue of the ninth
Conference, held in the Pavilion, Rhyl, from June 15th to 18th,
1948; the attendance was over 1,000 delegates for the first time. We
presented our fourth Petition on November 3rd, 1948, with 2,300,000
signatures, which had been taken by our members from all parts of
the Kingdom, in the short space of ten weeks.
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1949 This year was notable for a great
surge of enthusiasm for our cause in every part of the country, for
membership of the Federation had grown from 538 in 1947 to well over
900 branches, and it was difficult for Head Office to keep pace with
the growing demand for leaflets, etc. The tenth Annual Conference
was held at Paignton from May 31st to June 3rd, and at this
Conference the delegates appointed Mr. E. Melling as General
Secretary, due to the fact that Mr. H. W. Tyrrell had intimated that
he was not returning from Australia.
The number of delegates to this Conference was nearly 1,500, and was
so large that the Paignton Conference Hall was found to be too small
to hold everybody, and we had to find a Hall far bigger, to house
those present. We held the Conference in a Film Studio! Our Annual
Rally in the Central Hall, London, on October 3ist was attended by
3,300 delegates.
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1950 The eleventh Conference was held
at the Empress Ballroom, Blackpool, from May 9th to 12th 1950, and
was the biggest Conference so far held, the number of delegates was
1,800, and the number of branches had grown to over 1,000; there
were too, in existence, 50 Area Councils, and branches had been
formed in Northern Ireland, where there were six branches
established, and delegates attended from Northern Ireland.
Our Annual Rally in the Central Hall was again a huge success, the
great Hall being packed with well over 3,000 delegates who had come
from every part of Great Britain, and, as in former years, was
visited by many M.P's who expressed keen interest in the
proceedings.
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1951 Deputations from the Federation
visited the National Assistance Board, the Ministry of National
Insurance, and had interviews with representatives of the
Conservative and Labour Party Executives. An intensified press
campaign was opened, and frequent letters sent out to every daily
and Sunday newspaper in the land, with excellent results. The
twelfth Annual Conference was again held in the Empress Ballroom,
Blackpool, and 2,000 delegates were present; this year also showed
further progress in the number of branches, which had now reached
over 1,100. The Federation paper, "The Old Age Pensioner" now had a
circulation of nearly 50,000 copies per issue.
The successes achieved by the Federation are all well and truly
listed in the article written by the National President, Mr. J. C.
Birtles, under the title of "Our Progress*
THE FUTURE.
What of the future for our movement? There is no doubt that so long
as the National Federation keeps together, that the interests of old
age pensioners will be carefully watched.
ALL PENSIONERS SHOULD SUPPORT THE FEDERATION
UNION IS STRENGTH.
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History
of Pensions 
