Sir Sydney Frank Markham (19 October 1897 – 13 October 1975) was a British politician who represented three constituencies, each on behalf of a different party, in

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. Born in Stony Stratford, he left school at the age of fourteen. Following service in France, Greece and Mesopotamia during the

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, he was awarded a commission, and left the Army in 1921. He studied at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

and then became an assistant to Sir Sidney Lee with his work on

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

. He later became Secretary, then President, of the

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. Having fought

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for

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in 1924, he was elected for that party at the 1929 general election as MP for

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, and defected with Ramsay MacDonald to become a National Labour MP just before standing down at the 1931 general election. It was under these colours that he was elected for Nottingham South in 1935. He lost this seat standing as a 'National Independent' in the 1945 general election, following the official dissolution of National Labour. At the 1950 general election, he stood as the Conservative candidate in the Buckingham constituency, but failed to unseat the sitting

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Aidan Crawley Aidan Merivale Crawley (10 April 1908 – 3 November 1993) was a British journalist, television executive and editor, and politician. He was a member of both of Britain's major political parties: the Labour Party and Conservative Party, and wa ...

. However, at the 1951 general election, he beat Crawley by a majority of only 54 votes. He held the seat with narrow majorities at the 1955 election and at the 1959 election and stood down before the 1964 general election. He was conferred the honour of

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by Queen

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on 30 June 1953 in the 1953 Coronation Honours. He was a Fellow of the

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, the

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and the

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. In retirement, he was best noted for his ''A History of Milton Keynes and District'' (two volumes) (see

History of Milton Keynes This history of Milton Keynes details its development from the earliest human settlements, through the plans for a 'new city' for 250,000 people in northern Southeast England, its subsequent urban design and development, to the present day. Milt ...

). A secondary school in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire - now replaced - was named after him. He is buried in Calverton Road cemetery, Stony Stratford in Milton Keynes, along with his wife Frances.

References

UK General Elections since 1832
at Keele University *

External links

Frank Markham's headstone
*
The Monuments Men: Maj. S. F. Markham

national archives

National Portrait Gallery

Credited books in worldcat.org/identities

serving alongside John Worthington and Ralph Glyn {{DEFAULTSORT:Markham, Frank 1897 births 1975 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Knights Bachelor Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies History of Milton Keynes National Labour (UK) politicians UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 Politicians awarded knighthoods Parliamentary Private Secretaries to the Prime Minister