Walter Frank Higgs (7 April 1886 – 8 August 1961) 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

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. 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 of ...

(MP) for Birmingham West at a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

in 1937 following the death of the Conservative MP

Sir Austen Chamberlain Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain (16 October 1863 – 16 March 1937) was a British statesman, son of Joseph Chamberlain and older half-brother of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer (twice) and was briefly ...

. At the

1945 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1945. Africa * 1945 South-West African legislative election Asia * 1945 Indian general election Australia * 1945 Fremantle by-election Europe * 1945 Albanian parliamentary election * 1945 Bulgaria ...

, he was defeated by the Labour Party candidate,

Charles Simmons Charles Simmons may refer to: *Charles Simmons (gymnast) (1885–1945), British gymnast who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics *Charles Simmons (author) (1924–2017), American editor and novelist *Charles Simmons (author, born 1798), American cl ...

. In addition he took a keen interest in both local and national politics, serving on Birmingham City Council from 1934 and 1937. Walter Frank Higgs was born at

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it had ...

, Worcestershire, on April 7, 1886. He was educated at Birmingham Technical School, and then went into the electrical industry, gaining experience with the

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...

, the British Thomson-Houston Company, the Electric Construction Company, and others. In 1912, Walter Higgs and his brother founded a small company in

Witton, Birmingham Witton is an inner city area in Birmingham, England, in the metropolitan county of the West Midlands. It was within the ancient parish of Aston in the Hemlingford hundred of the historic county of Warwickshire. It is known as the home of Aston V ...

to manufacture electric motors. This concern he built up from employing seven workers in 1912 to over 1,500 in 1962 when the firm moved to

Yate Yate is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England. It lies just to the southwest of the Cotswolds, Cotswold Hills and is northeast of Bristol city centre and from the centre of Bath, Somerset, Bath, with regular rail services ...

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 ...

as part of Newman Industries.The Times, 15 June 1962 He was a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and a life governor of

Birmingham University , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

References

External links

* 1886 births 1961 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1935–1945 {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1880s-stub