John Sneddon

Convener Fife County Council

The first Labour Convener of Fife County Council John was yet another boy miner who went down the Pit at 11 years old and had to struggle to get an education. He was determined that Fife’s young people in the future would have educational opportunity that had been denied to him.

He was not just a leading Kelty councillor but the powerful chair of the West Fife Constituency Labour Party. John Sneddon appeared a mild mannered man but he always seemed to get his way. Under his chairmanship nearly all councillors in the landward area attended the CLP meeting, it was just something that John expected of his colleagues.

Like many of his generation a big influence in his life was temperance, something he shared with Keir Hardie and Willie Adamson. However it was Johns 25 years untouched honorarium from the Rechabites that paid the wages of an election agent for the three weeks of the 1950 election campaign.

This was typical of John Sneddon he never thought of himself, when first elected to the Council he would come up the pit and cycle to Cupar for the Council meeting.

A highlight for John and Kelty Labour Party was the attendance of Labour Leader Hugh Gaitskell at the Kelty Jubilee Social.

The photograph on the left shows a young Winnie Hunter dancing with Hugh Gaitskell.