William Audley Bowdler (7 September 1884 – 20 February 1969) was a Liberal Party politician in England who served briefly as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the early 1920s.

Background

He was born in Kirkham, Lancashire, the son of W. H. Bowdler and E. A. Richards, of

Clifton, Lancashire Clifton is a village in the English county of Lancashire and in the district of Fylde. The village is part of the civil parish of Newton-with-Clifton. It is situated on the A583 road, approximately west of its post town, Preston, and e ...

. He was educated at Rossall School. In 1918 he married Marguerite Parkes, of Woldingham. They had one son and three daughters.

Political career

He started his parliamentary career in March 1922 when he was selected as the Liberal prospective parliamentary candidate for the Holderness division of East Yorkshire. As a Lancastrian, he was an outsider to the constituency not expected to defeat the sitting Unionist MP Arthur Wilson who had held the seat for 22 years. During the 1922 general election campaign held in November, ''The Times'' were happy to write off his prospects of victory; "The Conservatives hold on Holderness is not believed to be seriously endangered. The farmers may be cross, but many of them have voted Conservative all their lives, and will not easily break with their political traditions.""Col. F. S. Jackson Opposed." Times ondon, England2 Nov. 1922: 12. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 10 Aug. 2014. His victory, on a swing of 16% was therefore a surprise; Another General Election came around a year later and despite the Liberal Party experiencing something of a revival, Bowdler lost his seat in the House of Commons at the 1923 general election, to a new Conservative candidate

Samuel Savery Sir Samuel Servington Savery (March 1861 – 27 December 1938) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Holderness from 1923 to 1938. He was also founder and the first Headmaster of Bramcote S ...

, He did not stand again.

References

1884 births 1969 deaths Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1922–1923 {{England-Liberal-UK-MP-stub