Sir Walter Reuben Preston (20 September 1875 – 6 July 1946) 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 ...

, serving as MP for the

Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

from 1918 to 1923, and

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

from 1928 to his resignation in 1937.

Early life and education

Preston was son of Reuben Thomas Preston, of Hayes Court, Kent. The Preston family had co-founded the engineering company J. Stone & Co. He was educated at

Bedford School :''Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Girls' School, Bedford High School, Bedford Modern School, Old Bedford School in Bedford, Texas or Bedford Academy in Bedford, Nova Scotia.'' Bedford School is a public school (English indep ...

Politics

At the 1918 general election, 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 the

constituency 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 ...

. He lost the seat at the 1923 general election to the Labour Party candidate

John Scurr John Scurr (born John Rennie; 6 April 1876 – 10 July 1932) was an English Labour Party politician and trade union official who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mile End from 1923 to 1931. Scurr was born in Brisbane, Australia, the son ...

. He returned to

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 a by-election in September 1928 for the

constituency, and held the seat until he resigned from the House of Commons in 1937. He was made a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are the ...

Engineering work

Involved in the family business, Walter Reuben Preston was an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, with 35

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

s, some of which were obtained jointly with well-known locomotive engineers such as

Richard Deeley Richard Mountford Deeley (24 October 1855 – 19 June 1944) was an English engineer, chiefly noted for his five years as Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the Midland Railway. Richard Deeley is recorded as being born in Derby His father had ...

Personal life

On 18 April 1900, Preston married Ella Margaret (born 7 September 1877, died 28 January 1963), daughter of Huson Morris, of

Hayes, Kent Hayes is a suburban area of South East London, Greater London, England. Prior to 1965 it was within the London Borough of Bromley and the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, to the north of Keston and Coney ...

. They had three sons, Kenneth Huson Preston, Bryan Wentworth Preston, and Francis Richard Walter Preston, all three devoted yachtsmen, the eldest and youngest at the Olympics. They lived at 77, St James's Court, Buckingham Gate, London S.W.1., and at

Tetbury Tetbury is a town and civil parish inside the Cotswold district in England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. There are memorial inscriptions to both at Holy Trinity Church,

Long Newnton Long Newnton is a small village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England (historically in Wiltshire), lying on the B4014 road between Malmesbury (2 km NW) and Tetbury (5 km S). It is near the SW end of the Cotswolds. The population ...

, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire.

References

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External links

* 1875 births 1946 deaths Knights Bachelor People educated at Bedford School Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1931–1935 UK MPs 1935–1945 Politics of Cheltenham {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1870s-stub