473369 John Wheatley, M.P., 1926 (colour litho) by Ritchie, Alick Penrose Forbes (1868-1938); Private Collection; (add.info.: John Wheatley (1869-1930) Scottish socialist politician, radical thinker and reformer;began his career as a coal miner and then a publican; Minister of Health in the first Labour Government of 1924 and personally responsible for a Housing Act which greatly expanded affordable municipal housing for low paid workers and secured 2.5 million new homes for the working class; earlier he campaigned against British involvement in the First World War and opposed conscription; deeply religious he was also first Chairman of the Catholic Socialist Society and opposed a birth control campaign; from the series of \'Straight Line\' caricatures produced as cigarette cards by John Player & Sons; the golden age of cigarette cards was from the late 19th century until the Second World War and were immensely popular both as collector items and as a source of instruction, entertainment and amusement before the widespread use of television and radio;); English, out of copyright.