William Hamling (10 August 1912 – 20 March 1975) was a British Labour Party politician. Hamling was educated at

Liverpool University , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

and was a signals officer in the Royal Marines during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Hamling contested

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Iris ...

in 1945,

Liverpool Wavertree Liverpool Wavertree is a borough constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1997 and every election since has been won by a Labour Party candidate. An earlier constituency of the same name existed between 1918 and ...

in 1950 and 1951, Woolwich West in 1955 and 1959, and

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...

at the 1955 by-election, before he was finally 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 o ...

(MP) for the Woolwich West constituency at the 1964 general election, and held the seat until his death in 1975, aged 62. The resulting Woolwich West by-election was won by the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

candidate

Peter Bottomley Sir Peter James Bottomley (born 30 July 1944) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1975 when elected for Woolwich West, serving until it was abolished before the 1983 general election. ...

. Probably the author of ''A Short History of the Liverpool Trades Council'', Liverpool Trades Council and Labour Party, 1948. A stained-glass window depicting

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

, dedicated to the memory of Hamling, may be found in

St. Mary's Church, Battersea St Mary's Church, Battersea, is the oldest of the churches in Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth, in the inner south-west of the UK's capital city. Its parish shared by three Anglican churches is in the diocese of Southwark. Christi ...

References

*''Times Guide to the House of Commons'', 1951 & 1966

External links

*
Catalogue of Hamling's papers
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
St Mary's Battersea
(memorial window)
Mr William Hamling: Former MP for Greenwich Woolwich West
1912 births 1975 deaths Royal Marines officers Royal Marines personnel of World War II Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 Parliamentary Private Secretaries to the Prime Minister {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub