Sir Irving James Albery (12 May 1879 – 14 November 1967) was a

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

who served as

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 ...

(MP) for

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

from 1924 to 1945.

Biography

The eldest of three sons of actress and theatrical manager Mary Moore (later Lady Wyndham) and actor

James Albery James Albery (4 May 1838 – 15 August 1889) was an English dramatist. Life and career Albery was born in London. On leaving school he entered an architect's office and started to write plays. His farce ''A Pretty Piece of Chiselling'' was ...

Albery first stood for

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 ...

at the 1923 general election, when he unsuccessfully contested the Labour Party

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combinat ...

of Bow and Bromley in the

East End of London The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

. His youngest brother Wyndham went into politics and middle brother, Bronson, became a theatre manager. At the 1929 general election, he was elected as MP for the Gravesend constituency in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, defeating the Labour MP

George Isaacs George Alfred Isaacs JP DL (28 May 1883 – 26 April 1979) was a British politician and trades unionist who served in the government of Clement Attlee. Isaacs was born in Finsbury to a Methodist family. He married Flora Beasley (1884–1 ...

, who had won the seat in 1923 with a majority only 119 votes. Albery held the Gravesend seat for 21 years, until his own defeat at the 1945 general election by the Labour candidate Garry Allighan. Allighan was expelled from the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

two years later, but Albery (by then 68 years old) did not contest the resulting by-election in November 1947, when Labour's

Richard Acland Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet (26 November 1906 – 24 November 1990) was one of the founding members of the British Common Wealth Party in 1942, having previously been a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP). He joined the Labour Pa ...

held the seat with a reduced majority. He was

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

ed in the King's

Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are presen ...

, 1936, for "political and public services". He married Gertrude Mary Jones (1884–1967) and they had three children. Their eldest child and only daughter Jessica Albery was an architect and town planner, one of the first professional women architects in the UK in the early 20th century.

References

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External links

* 1879 births 1967 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Knights Bachelor UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1931–1935 UK MPs 1935–1945 {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1870s-stub