Thomas Henry Swain (29 October 1911 – 2 March 1979) was a British Labour politician 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 ...

for the constituency of

North East Derbyshire North East Derbyshire is a local government district in Derbyshire, England. It borders the districts of Chesterfield, Bolsover, Amber Valley and Derbyshire Dales in Derbyshire, and Sheffield and Rotherham in South Yorkshire. The population ...

from 1959 until he died in office 20 years later. Born in

Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011, it had a ...

, Swain was educated at the town's Broadway School. He was a miner for 34 years, from the age of 14 up to his election to Parliament, and held various offices in the National Union of Mineworkers including vice-president of the

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

area. He was a councillor on

Derbyshire County Council Derbyshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Derbyshire, England. It has 64 councillors representing 61 divisions, with three divisions having two members each. They are Glossop and Charlesworth, ...

. Swain was elected to Parliament in the 1959 general election. He died in a road accident in

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

in March 1979 at the age of 67, and his seat was vacant when the general election was called for that May. Four weeks after his death, the Government lost a vital vote of confidence by a single vote, leading to the election which brought Margaret Thatcher to power. Had he not been killed, the vote of confidence would have ended in a tie and, by precedent, the Speaker's casting vote would have gone to the Government.

Personal life

He had 10 children.

References

External links

* 1911 births 1979 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Councillors in Derbyshire National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 People from Burton upon Trent Road incident deaths in England Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Derbyshire {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub