Walter Henry Ayles (24 March 1879 – 6 July 1953) was a British Labour Party politician who served as a

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 11 years between 1923 and 1953.

Early life

Ayles was born in

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...

into a poor religious family. At age 13 he became an engineering apprentice at the London and South Western Railway. Working in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

he met Bertha Batt from Worle,

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, and they married in 1904 in Axbridge.

Political career

In 1910 Ayles became a full-time organiser for the Independent Labour Party in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. He was elected a

Councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

on Bristol City Council for the Easton ward in 1910. In 1913 he joined the committee responsible for running the

Port of Bristol The Port of Bristol comprises the commercial docks situated in and near the city of Bristol in England. They are now operated by the Bristol Port Company, which owns both Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Docks. Until 1991 the Port of Bristol Authori ...

and Avonmouth Docks. Ayles was a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

lay-preacher and a temperance campaigner. One of the founding group of the

No-Conscription Fellowship The No-Conscription Fellowship was a British pacifist organization which was founded in London by Fenner Brockway and Clifford Allen on 27 November 1914, after the First World War had failed to reach an early conclusion. Other prominent support ...

in November 1914, early in 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 ...

, he was a member of its national committee and a signatory of the ''Repeal the Act'' ( Military Service Act 1916) leaflet, which resulted in the committee members being prosecuted under the

Defence of the Realm Act The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) was passed in the United Kingdom on 8 August 1914, four days after it entered the First World War and was added to as the war progressed. It gave the government wide-ranging powers during the war, such as the p ...

, a number of them, including Ayles, being imprisoned for two months. He was also imprisoned as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

, and served as secretary of the

No More War Movement The No More War Movement was the name of two pacifist organisations, one in the United Kingdom and one in New Zealand. British Group The British No More War Movement (NMWM) was founded in 1921 as a pacifist and socialist successor to the No-Consc ...

, 1931–1932. He had been selected by Bristol East ILP to be their candidate for the 1918 General Election. but was replaced prior to the campaign. He was

for Bristol North from 1923 to 1924 and from 1929 to 1931; for Southall from 1945 to 1950; and for Hayes and Harlington from 1950 until he resigned his seat, on account of failing health, on 31 January 1953, by accepting the post of Steward of the Manor of Northstead. Ayles died that July, aged 74. Ayles Road, a street in Yeading, which formed part of his constituency, is named after him. Several nearby roads are also named after important people in the history of the Labour Party.

References

External links

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Walter Ayles
Bristol Radical History Group 1879 births 1953 deaths Amalgamated Engineering Union-sponsored MPs British conscientious objectors Councillors in Bristol English Methodists Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from the London Borough of Lambeth UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub