1955 Torquay By-election
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1955 Torquay By-election
The Torquay by-election of 15 December 1955 was held after the death of Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Charles Williams: Electoral history The seat was safe, having been won by Williams at the 1955 general election with a majority of over 17,000 votes The seat had been Conservative since Williams gained the seat from the Liberals in 1924. At the 1955 general election, the Labour Party had come second, as it had done at every election since 1945. Candidates *Frederic Bennett was the Conservative candidate selected to hold the seat. He was the former MP for Reading North, who had lost his seat at the 1955 general election. His father had been an MP for both the Liberal and Labour parties. * William Hamling was the new Labour candidate. He defeated Thomas Ponsonby (grandson of the Lord Ponsonby who lead the Labour Party in the House of Lords in the early 1930s) and C. B. Attlee (nephew of the former Labour leader and Prime Minister, Clement Attlee). *Peter Bes ...
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Torquay (UK Parliament Constituency)
Torquay was a county constituency in Devon, South West England, which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 1885 general election and abolished for the February 1974 general election. The area it represented became part of the Torbay Torbay is a borough and unitary authority in Devon, south west England. It is governed by Torbay Council and consists of of land, including the resort towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, located on east-facing Tor Bay, part of Lyme ... constituency. Boundaries 1885–1918: The Borough of Dartmouth and the Sessional Division of Paignton. 1918–1950: The Boroughs of Dartmouth and Torquay, the Urban Districts of Brixham and Paignton, the parishes of Churston Ferrers, Kingswear, Marldon, and Stoke Gabriel in the Rural District of Totnes, and the parishes of Cockington and Stokeinteignhead in the Rural District of Newton Abbot. 1950–1974: The Bor ...
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Thomas Ponsonby, 3rd Baron Ponsonby Of Shulbrede
Thomas Arthur Ponsonby, 3rd Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede (23 October 1930 – 13 June 1990) was a British hereditary peer and Labour Party politician. He was the eldest son of Matthew Henry Herbert Ponsonby, 2nd Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede, and his wife Hon. Elizabeth Mary Bigham, daughter of the 2nd Viscount Mersey. He was educated at Bryanston School and Hertford College, Oxford. Political career He served in London local government for 20 years, firstly as a council member of the Metropolitan Borough of Kensington from 1956 to 1965 and then as an Alderman of the newly created Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council from 1964 to 1974. He was also an Alderman of the Greater London Council from 1970 to 1977 and served as the Chairman of the Council from 1976 to 1977. Ponsonby succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father in 1976 and made his maiden speech in the House of Lords on the subject of local government devolution. He was elected as Labour Chief Whip in the H ...
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December 1955 Events In The United Kingdom
December is the twelfth and final month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is also the last of seven months to have a length of 31 days. December got its name from the Latin word ''decem'' (meaning ten) because it was originally the tenth month of the year in the calendar of Romulus which began in March. The winter days following December were not included as part of any month. Later, the months of January and February were created out of the monthless period and added to the beginning of the calendar, but December retained its name.Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'', tr. Percival Vaughan Davies (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969), book I, chapters 12–13, pp. 89–95. In Ancient Rome, as one of the four Agonalia, this day in honour of Sol Indiges was held on December 11, as was Septimontium. Dies natalis (birthday) was held at the temple of Tellus on December 13, Consualia was held on December 15, Saturnalia was held December 17–23, Opiconsivia was ...
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1950s In Devon
Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 195 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus has the Roman Senate deify the previous emperor Commodus, in an attempt to gain favor with the family of Marcus Aurelius. * King Vologases V and other eastern princes support the claims of Pescennius Niger. The Roman province of Mesopotamia rises in revolt with Parthian support. Severus marches to Mesopotamia to battle the Parthians. * The Roman province of Syria is divided and the role of Antioch is diminished. The Romans annexed the Syrian cities of Edessa and Nisibis. Severus re-establis ...
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1955 In England
Events January * January 3 Events Pre-1600 *AD 69, 69 – The Roman legions on the Rhine refuse to declare their allegiance to Galba, instead proclaiming their legate, Aulus Vitellius, as emperor. * 250 – Emperor Decius orders everyone in the Roman Empire (ex ... – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first Nuclear marine propulsion, nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18–January 20, 20 – Battle of Yijiangshan Islands: The Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army seizes the islands from the Republic of China (Taiwan). * January 22 – In the United States, The Pentagon announces a plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), armed with nuclear weapons. * January 23 – The Sutton Coldfield rail crash kills 17, near Birmingham, England. * January 25 – The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union announces the end of the war be ...
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1955 Elections In The United Kingdom
Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijiangshan Islands: The Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army seizes the islands from the Republic of China (Taiwan). * January 22 – In the United States, The Pentagon announces a plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), armed with nuclear weapons. * January 23 – The Sutton Coldfield rail crash kills 17, near Birmingham, England. * January 25 – The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union announces the end of the war between the USSR and Germany, which began during World War II in 1941. * January 28 – The United States Congress authorizes President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use force to protect Formosa from the People's Republic of China. February * February 10 – The United States Seventh Fleet ...
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Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Minister during the wartime coalition government under Winston Churchill, and served twice as Leader of the Opposition from 1935 to 1940 and from 1951 to 1955. Attlee remains the longest serving Labour leader. Attlee was born into an upper-middle-class family, the son of a wealthy London solicitor. After attending the public school Haileybury College and the University of Oxford, he practised as a barrister. The volunteer work he carried out in London's East End exposed him to poverty, and his political views shifted leftwards thereafter. He joined the Independent Labour Party, gave up his legal career, and began lecturing at the London School of Economics. His work was interrupted by service as an officer in the First World War. In 1919, he ...
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Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby Of Shulbrede
Arthur Augustus William Harry Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede (16 February 1871 – 23 March 1946), was a British politician, writer, and social activist. He was the son of Henry Ponsonby, Sir Henry Ponsonby, Private Secretary to Queen Victoria and Mary Elizabeth Bulteel, daughter of John Crocker Bulteel. He was also the great-grandson of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough, The 3rd Earl of Bessborough, Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, The 3rd Earl of Bathurst and Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, The 2nd Earl Grey. Frederick Edward Grey Ponsonby, 1st Baron Sysonby, The 1st Baron Sysonby was his elder brother. Ponsonby is often quoted as the author of the dictum "When war is declared, truth is the first casualty", published in his book ''Falsehood in War-Time, Falsehood in War-time, Containing an Assortment of Lies Circulated Throughout the Nations During the Great War'' (1928). However, he uses this phrase in quotation marks as an epigram at the start of the boo ...
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William Hamling
William Hamling (10 August 1912 – 20 March 1975) was a British Labour Party politician. Hamling was educated at Liverpool University and was a signals officer in the Royal Marines during World War II. Hamling contested Southport in 1945, Liverpool Wavertree in 1950 and 1951, Woolwich West in 1955 and 1959, and Torquay at the 1955 by-election, before he was finally elected as member of parliament (MP) for the Woolwich West constituency at the 1964 general election, and held the seat until his death in 1975, aged 62. The resulting Woolwich West by-election was won by the Conservative candidate Peter Bottomley. Probably the author of ''A Short History of the Liverpool Trades Council'', Liverpool Trades Council and Labour Party, 1948. A stained-glass window depicting William Blake, dedicated to the memory of Hamling, may be found in St. Mary's Church, Battersea St Mary's Church, Battersea, is the oldest of the churches in Battersea in the London Borough of Wandswort ...
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By-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumbent dying or resigning, or when the incumbent becomes ineligible to continue in office (because of a recall, election or appointment to a prohibited dual mandate, criminal conviction, or failure to maintain a minimum attendance), or when an election is invalidated by voting irregularities. In some cases a vacancy may be filled without a by-election or the office may be left vacant. Origins The procedure for filling a vacant seat in the House of Commons of England was developed during the Reformation Parliament of the 16th century by Thomas Cromwell; previously a seat had remained empty upon the death of a member. Cromwell de ...
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Frederic Bennett
Sir Frederic Mackarness Bennett (2 December 1918 – 14 September 2002) was a British journalist, author, barrister and Conservative politician who served as a Member of Parliament for 35 years. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1985, and a Deputy Lieutenant for Greater London in 1990. He was also Lord of the manor of Mawddwy in Wales. Early years The second son of Sir Ernest Nathaniel Bennett, (died 1947) of Cwmllecoediog, Aberangell, Machynlleth, Wales, by his wife Marguerite (née Kleinwort), Bennett was educated at Westminster School, and Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the English Bar in November 1946. He subsequently served as an Advocate in the High Court of Southern Rhodesia from March 1947, and in 1947 he made the first overland car journey from South Africa to England. From 1947 to 1949 he was an Official Observer in the Greek Civil War, becoming diplomatic correspondent for the ''Birmingham Post'' from 1950 to 1952. Later a director in various financial a ...
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Peter Bessell
Peter Joseph Bessell (24 August 1921 – 27 November 1985) was a British Liberal Party politician, and Member of Parliament for Bodmin in Cornwall from 1964 to 1970. Early life Bessell was educated at Lynwyd School, Bath, Somerset, and was a Congregational lay preacher from 1939 to 1970. Career He first stood for parliament as a Liberal in Torquay in both the 1955 general election, and the by-election there later that year.Obituary, ''The Times'', Thursday, 28 November 1985, p.14; Issue 62307; col G In the 1960s Peter Bessell was a member of Mebyon Kernow as well as the Liberal Party. At the 1959 general election, he was the Liberal candidate in the Bodmin constituency, but lost to the sitting Conservative MP Sir Douglas Marshall. He stood again at the 1964 general election, defeating Marshall with a majority of more than 3,000. He held the seat at the 1966 general election, despite a strong challenge from the Conservative John Gorst. Bessell did not contest the 1970 ge ...
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