Walter Richard Owen (1880 – 9 July 1959) was a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
Labour Party politician, who served as Chair of
London County Council
London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...
.
Owen first came to prominence in 1918, when he became Clerk to the Lewisham
Board of Guardians
Boards of guardians were ''ad hoc'' authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930.
England and Wales
Boards of guardians were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish overseers of the poor ...
. He served in this role until 1930, when the board was abolished. He was elected to Lewisham Council, representing the Labour Party, and in 1945 became the first Labour Mayor of Lewisham.
In 1934, Owen was elected to London County Council (LCC), in Lewisham East. Following boundary changes, he instead began representing
Lewisham South on the LCC, and in 1948, he became chair of the council. That year, a
Lewisham South Constituency Labour Party
__NOTOC__
A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency.
In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliamentary constituenc ...
was formed, and Owen was its first president, serving until his death in 1959.
Owen also chaired the management committee of
Lewisham Hospital
University Hospital Lewisham (formerly known as Lewisham Hospital) is a teaching hospital run by Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust and serving the London Borough of Lewisham. It is now affiliated with King's College London and forms part of the ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, Walter Richard
1880 births
1959 deaths
Labour Party (UK) councillors
Mayors of places in Greater London
Members of London County Council
People from Lewisham