Walter Conway memorials, Tredegar
Healthcare reformer Walter Conway has several memorials in Tredegar, including a mural at the shopping centre and a blue plaque at his former home in Rawlinson Terrace, Georgetown. Walter Conway Avenue, named after him, is part of the post-war house building programme overseen by his friend Aneurin Bevan.
John Walter Conway was born in 1872 in Plantation Street, Rhymney. He lost his mother in childhood and the family moved to Tredegar, where his father soon died. Walter and his brother Thomas went to live in the Bedwellty Union Workhouse, successor to the early workhouse at Queen Square.
The workhouse master encouraged his young boarders to get a sound education. Walter developed his love of books, which he often referred to as his best friend. At the workhouse he was also was taught to “do everything well”, a mantra that stayed with him for life.
From the workhouse Walter moved into “digs” and became a coal miner at Pochin No. 1 Colliery. He married Mary Elizabeth Morgan in 1898. They had three daughters and a son. The family worshiped at Park Place Presbyterian Church, where Walter was a deacon and Sunday School teacher. The old photo shows the Sunday School with Walter in the centre of the front row.
Walter was an early member of the Independent Labour Party and later, in 1911, an inaugural member of the Tredegar branch. In 1908 he was elected to the Bedwellty Board of Guardians, the organisation that was responsible for his earlier care in the workhouse.
When he was the Tredegar Workmen’s Medical Aid Society secretary from 1915 to 1933, the society grew and attracted membership from a wider area. It provided medical services to 20,000 local people. Its surgeries employed five doctors, two dentists, nurses and support staff. The society’s headquarters were at 10 The Circle, now a heritage centre.
Walter was a mentor to the young Aneurin Bevan. In 1920 Walter, Aneurin and other friends formed the Query Club, a socialist debating society. Club members paid a weekly subscription to create an insurance fund for members who fell into in financial difficulty.
Walter died in 1933, too soon to witness Aneurin creating the National Health Service as Minister for Housing and Health in the post-war Labour government. Aneurin’s belief in free healthcare was heavily influenced by Walter’s legacy: the Tredegar Workmen’s Medical Aid Society.
With thanks to Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council
Postcode: NP22 4LF View Location Map