Brigadier John Percival Whiteley
OBE (7 January 1898 – 4 July 1943) was a
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
officer and a
Conservative Party politician.
Whiteley was commissioned into the
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, ending the war as a
lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
. In 1926 he transferred to the
Life Guards, retiring in 1928 and joining the 99th (Buckinghamshire and Berkshire Yeomanry) Field Brigade, Royal Artillery (
Territorial Army) as a
captain. He was promoted
major in 1932.
He stood unsuccessfully at the
1929 general election in
Birmingham Aston,
and entered 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. T ...
8 years later when he was elected 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 o ...
(MP) for
Buckingham at a
by-election in 1937, after the sitting MP
George Bowyer was elevated to the peerage as
Baron Denham.
[Craig, page 296]
When
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
broke out, Whiteley resumed military service.
He was active at
Dunkirk,
and died in 1943, aged 45, when he was killed in
a plane crash in Gibraltar, along with the Conservative MP
Victor Cazalet
Colonel Victor Alexander Cazalet, MC (27 December 1896 – 4 July 1943) was a British Conservative Party Member of Parliament for nineteen years. He came from a prominent, wealthy English family.
In his political career, he was a noted autho ...
and General
Władysław Sikorski
Władysław Eugeniusz Sikorski (; 20 May 18814 July 1943) was a Polish military and political leader.
Prior to the First World War, Sikorski established and participated in several underground organizations that promoted the cause for Polish i ...
, the leader of the
Polish government-in-exile
The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
.
References
External links
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British Army Officers 1939−1945
1898 births
1943 deaths
People educated at Shrewsbury School
Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
UK MPs 1935–1945
British Army personnel of World War I
British Army brigadiers of World War II
British Army personnel killed in World War II
Royal Artillery officers
British Life Guards officers
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Gibraltar
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1943
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