Arthur Ernest Wicks (1915–2006) was a Labour politician and the last chairman of the

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 ...

. A conscientious objector during the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

, he was first elected to the Shoreditch Metropolitan Borough Council in the 1950s, and became chairman of housing, at a time when Shoreditch had one of England's highest concentrations of

municipal housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, d ...

. Elected to the LCC for Shoreditch and Finsbury in 1952, he gave his time to housing and parks.

County Hall, London County Hall (sometimes called London County Hall) is a building in the district of Lambeth, London that was the headquarters of London County Council (LCC) and later the Greater London Council (GLC). The building is on the South Bank of the ...

, a Labour stronghold since 1934, was a pioneering model for Labour ideas and plans, including

comprehensive education Comprehensive may refer to: * Comprehensive layout, the page layout of a proposed design as initially presented by the designer to a client. *Comprehensive school, a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement ...

, school music, housing development and the establishment of the South Bank complex. As LCC chairman from 1963 to 1965, Arthur oversaw the transition in 1964 to the new Greater London Council and served on the GLC until 1981. He also owned two shops and a cafe in Islington. His main shop, selling everything from paraffin and groceries to hardware, served as an informal advice surgery. His wife, Daisy, died in 1992 and he was survived by his sons. One of his sons –

Malcolm Wicks Malcolm Hunt Wicks (1 July 1947 – 29 September 2012) was a British Labour Party politician and academic specialising in social policy. He was a member of parliament (MP) from 1992, first for Croydon North West and then for Croydon North, unt ...

– who was a Labour Minister, died in September 2012 after a long illness, aged 65.

External links

Obituary for Arthur Wicks, by son Malcolm Wicks
5 December 2006 1915 births 2006 deaths British conscientious objectors Labour Party (UK) councillors Members of London County Council Members of the Greater London Council Members of Shoreditch Metropolitan Borough Council Deputy Lieutenants of Greater London {{England-politician-stub