The August Bank Holiday was on the first Monday of the month between 1871 and 1964 (it still is in Scotland).It was moved temporarily to the last Monday in 1965 and this was made permanent in 1971.
In November 1959 the House of Lords investigated reasons for a possible change.
Vic Feather,then Assistant Secretary of the TUC, had explained the problems with an early August holiday:
Mr. Victor Feather, the Assistant Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, stated that his view and the view of his colleagues on the T.U.C. was that the present period with regard to holidays was ridiculous: that for six to eight weeks boarding-houses were full to overflowing—often including the bathroom. He knew of cases where two married couples, complete strangers to each other were asked to share, and did share, a double room. The prices at that time are at their highest and comfort is at the lowest. My Lords, we can hardly blame the landlady, who has to make in a matter of six or eight weeks a livelihood to last her the whole year: it is very tempting to her to squeeze the orange as hard as she can, when she can. At any rate, Mr. Feather took the view that within industry itself there would be support for what the T.U.C. thought ought to be done about the holiday season: that is, to extend it over June, July, August and September, rather than having to grapple with it in the last two weeks of July and the first three weeks of August.
Hansard 19th November 1959
The worker’s Vic (personal note, I knew his son, Sandy) had as his full name Victor Grayson Kier Hardie Feather. He was born and raised in the legendry settlement of Idle, near Bradford, so I’m assuming the warehouseman shop steward he was then, was a member of the legendry Idle Working Mans Club..
By 1966, Vic Feather commuted to Congress House from Epsom, Surrey – home of the Derby. That year the mini-census sampled just two people in Lower Hill Road, where he lived. The other person was my Dad, a senior civil servant and ex-ILP member. Given the town was solidly Tory (until the Lib Dems took it on 4 July), we couldn’t help feeling this was slightly unrepresentative!