Cheltenham’s Liberal history

Cheltenham’s elegant spa reputation and Cotswold hinterland means that it is often assumed to be a natural Tory seat, the current run of five Liberal Democrat victories presumably something of an aberration. From a historical perspective, this is quite wrong. Always an essentially urban constituency,

Cheltenham has rarely he individuals who sat by-election contest ensued between been a safe Tory seat, on the green benches the ‘gallant sailor’ George Cran- for the town have been field Berkeley for the Whigs and the and the tally of MPs an extraordinary cast of Duke of Beaufort’s Tory candidate since 1832 is now characters, only occa- William Bromley Chester. £100,000 sionallyT involved in great affairs of is said to have been spent on sweet- nine Tories to nine in state but reflecting the changing ening the few thousand electors – a nature of politics and parliamen- staggering sum for the time. Ches- the Liberal tradition tary representation over the last two ter won 2,919 votes, narrowly beat- centuries. For the Journal, I have ing Berkeley who polled 2,873. But with one fascinating inevitably concentrated on the Lib- Berkeley succeeded before long. He independent. And eral MPs but a full profile of each was elected in 1783 and on a further member is available on my website seven occasions, one of the thirty many of the Tories at www.martinhorwood.net/past_ members of the family to represent MPs.html. Gloucestershire in parliament over were distinctly urban the centuries. in flavour with new The Berkeley family’s presence Berkeleys and Beauforts in Gloucestershire dates back to money and social Cheltenham Before 1832, Cheltenham had no MP Norman times with the original Promenade of its own but was represented by charter for Berkeley Castle and the reform cropping up showing the two county members for Gloucester- title of baron granted by Henry II as recurring themes. Boer War shire. Polls and party allegiances are in 1117 to the merchant Robert Fit- Memorial. first mentioned in the seventeenth zHarding, probably in return for Martin Horwood MP (Image © Ian Rob; century and the first recorded votes generous loans to the king. Robert’s licensed under the were in the 1776 by-election held son Maurice married Alice de Ber- examines Cheltenham’s Creative Commons in the turbulent reign of George III keley and their descendants still live Liberal history. Attribution-Share Alike after the Tory incumbent entered in the castle today. The family’s gift 2.0 Generic Licence) the House of Lords. A furious for politics helped them navigate

22 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 Cheltenham’s Liberal history

rebellions, civil wars and dynastic He certainly didn’t share Close’s unseat him on grounds of ‘bribing changes. The ninth Lord Berkeley disapproval of racing, theatre and and treating’. The evidence was not was given an earldom by Charles II drink and when Close called him difficult to gather and parliament’s and raised to the Privy Council by ‘an atheist, an infidel and a scoffer liberal majority voted to unseat him. James II but nevertheless emerged at religion’,1 Craven threatened to The subsequent by-election was won on the winning side in the Glorious sue him for slander. Close probably by Craven, but he was promptly Revolution. By the early nineteenth felt vindicated after Craven’s elec- unseated on petition for exactly the century, more than twenty Ber- tion when he proposed an amend- same reason as Jones. The two fought keleys had already been Glouces- ment to Sunday pub opening hours each other again in 1852 in what tershire MPs, including William which would have removed clos- must have been a particularly bit- ‘Fitz’ Berkeley who was elected in ing time. A passionate liberal, Cra- ter campaign. Craven won, but this 1810 but narrowly escaped being ven couched even his argument was to be his last election. He died in unseated on the grounds that he was for more drinking time in terms of Carlsbad in Germany in 1855, still an actually the high-living fifth Earl’s solidarity with working people and MP but aged just fifty. illegitimate son, his glamorous wife consistently supported extending When Craven was unseated on Mary having been an unmarried the franchise. Perhaps he always had petition in 1848, Berkeley Castle maidservant at the time of his birth. his own mother’s modest origins in suddenly needed a new candidate Cheltenham’s reputation as a the back of his mind. to keep the seat warm. Step forward fashionable spa resort was by this Craven was re-elected in 1835 cousin Grenville, who narrowly time well established, and the town against token opposition from a won the by-election and then gra- finally gained its own parliamen- Radical candidate. His election ciously stood aside for the return- tary representation in the Great campaigns were boisterous affairs ing Craven at the following general Reform Act of 1832. The very first involving entertainment, march- election in 1852, despite having election was unopposed, the seat ing bands decked out in his orange been appointed a whip in the mean- going to yet another member of and green colours, and several small time. He then secured his own elec- the ubiquitous Whig family: Fitz’s riots. He defeated serious Tory tion as MP for Evesham but, when younger (and unquestionably legiti- opponents in 1837 and 1841, but was Craven died, Grenville yet again mate) brother. defeated in 1847 by Sir Willoughby responded to the family’s call and Jones – the only Tory ever to beat resigned his Evesham seat to stand him at the polls – after tactlessly in Cheltenham. Whether in sympa- An atheist, an infidel and a drawing attention to the mortality thy for the family, through his own scoffer at religion rate in Cheltenham during a parlia- talents or simply by outspending his Craven Berkeley, Cheltenham’s first mentary debate on public health. It bank manager opponent, he secured MP, could politely be called a bit of was an important issue to raise but a whopping 81 per cent of the vote a character. The twelfth child of the potentially devastating for the spa at this second by-election. Hav- fifth Earl of Berkeley and his former town’s tourist trade. ing caused a third by-election, in maidservant Mary Cole, Craven Evesham, by resigning there, he sat reached the rank of captain in the for Cheltenham for less than a year Life Guards and was brother to four Passing rich and gloriously Craven before forcing yet another by-elec- previous Gloucestershire MPs. He drunk tion by accepting the crown office was also accused of guarding the Jones interrupted an otherwise con- Berkeley, of Commissioner of Customs. door of a London bookshop while tinuous thirty-year run of Berkeley Chelten- Grenville was succeeded by his brother horsewhipped the Tory domination following an election his cousin Francis, a captain in the proprietor for publishing a bad ‘in which money was spent like no ham’s first Royal Horse Guards and nick- review of his book. He fought a duel other’ and ‘every man who had a named ‘the Giant’. Cheltenham’s against the Tory MP for Chippen- vote and was willing to sell it was MP, could third Berkeley MP was the son of ham but both missed twice. Before passing rich for many days after, one of Craven’s older but illegiti- he was even elected, Craven had not to say gloriously drunk also.’2 politely be mate brothers, Admiral Sir Mau- also crossed swords (metaphorically) Perhaps the Berkeleys were sore los- rice Berkeley, who was already MP with ‘the Pope of Cheltenham’, the ers, but no sooner had the Norfolk called a bit of for nearby Gloucester. Francis, by formidable evangelical Anglican baronet been elected than he found now Colonel Berkeley, faced no and arch-Tory Dean Francis Close. himself fighting off a petition to a character. Tory opposition in the subsequent

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 23 cheltenham’s liberal history

1857 general election since they, in 1867. In 1886, he completed the fifty-four years, but his tenure was like him, supported Palmerston’s break with the political past by to be far from uninterrupted. aggressive China policy. accepting the presidency of Tewkes- bury Conservative Association. The loving cups wink right The fall of the house of joyously Berkeley Battle of the undergraduates As Gladstone stormed back into The Berkeleys got a shock in 1859 It must have been a real blow to the office in 1880, Agg-Gardner lost when another general election saw a local Conservatives that a man of Cheltenham to the flamboyant vigorous new Tory candidate called Schreiber’s political talents stood Liberal candidate Charles Conrad Charles Schreiber come within down at the next election. He said it Adolphus, Baron du Bois de Fer- twelve votes of defeating the colo- was to ‘abandon the quest of politics rières. De Ferrières was the grand- nel. A good organiser and ‘a forcible for that of porcelain’.3 That he and son of a Napoleonic general whose speaker’, Schreiber stood again in his wife eventually amassed one of family had settled in the Nether- 1865 and pitched his arguments well the finest collections of fine china in lands, where he was born in 1823. to his still-small, urban, property- Europe must have been little conso- The family moved to England when owning electorate, railing against lation to the Tories. Charles was very young and settled both the aristocratic fox-hunting A new generation contested the in Cheltenham so, despite his exotic activities of the Berkeleys and the 1868 general election. The Tories roots, he was actually the Liberals’ threat of concessions to workers, selected a twenty-two-year-old most local candidate yet. In 1867 Catholics and Nonconformists. ‘Of Cambridge undergraduate called he was granted ‘letters of naturali- all the existing forms of govern- James Agg-Gardner, who launched sation’ without which he couldn’t ment, democracy is the lowest and his campaign with a rejection of the have stood for parliament. worst,’ he declared. ‘Shall England ‘hide-bound Toryism’ that opposed Although he had opposed the abandon her Protestant Faith, her all social reform. The Liberals chose establishment of Cheltenham’s Established Church, the blessing a twenty-three-year-old Oxford mayor and corporation in 1876, the she enjoys, for the evils offered to undergraduate, Henry Samuelson, handsome baron had joined the tri- her clothed in the specious garb the son of wealthy Banbury Liberal umphant Liberal majority in the first of Progressive Reform and Civil MP Sir Bernhard Samuelson. It was municipal elections that year and and Religious Liberty?’ Religious a good time to be the Liberal candi- succeeded fellow Liberal William opinion in the town swung strongly date, as Gladstone swept to a land- Nash Skillicorne as mayor in 1877. behind him. slide national victory on a platform ‘His mayoralty’ commented his rival Nationally the new ‘Liberal of reform. Samuelson campaigned Agg-Gardner ‘was marked by gen- Party’ had united Whigs and Radi- in particular for universal educa- erous hospitality. In the presence of cals, but in Cheltenham the colo- tion and turned the Tories’ narrow Tensions ran the Baron, maces and loving cups nel obviously failed to rally the majority into a Liberal one of 188. winked right joyously as knowing troops. Berkeley Castle’s influence Even the kindest friend would high at the who was their friend’. A great collec- was waning and, with religion such have to admit that his maiden speech tor of Dutch masters (which he even- an electoral issue, even Berkeley’s was hopeless. He chose a debate 1865 poll. tually donated to the town), he was attendance at the Grand Prix in Paris on the odd subject of the House of ‘a picturesque citizen and a sincere on a Sunday was used against him. Commons Ladies Gallery screen. Schreiber lover of Cheltenham’ and the obvi- Tensions ran high at the 1865 poll. According to the official record, he ous choice for the Liberal parliamen- Schreiber had to dodge rotten eggs dismissed the suggestion that remov- had to dodge tary candidacy in 1880. But the baron and dead cats at the hustings, but ing the screen would force ladies to only squeaked home in Cheltenham the violence got worse and a Liberal wear evening dress because ‘it was rotten eggs by twenty-one votes. He was an runner was shot dead by one of Sch- the custom in society for both sexes active MP, but it must have dismayed reiber’s supporters. Amidst riotous to appear in full dress or neither’. and dead the local party that he declined to scenes, the Tories squeaked victory Gales of laughter ensued but Henry defend his tiny majority five years by twenty-eight votes and promptly missed the joke. Within a couple of cats at the later. Agg-Gardner suggests he had had their windows broken by a years, he was putting in a much more ‘had enough of St.Stephen’s and of radical mob. Schreiber astutely left assured performance in favour of the hustings, but the rather insistent demands made the windows unrepaired for many revolutionary 1870 Education Act upon him’. With Gladstone’s popu- weeks. He then successfully fought for which he had campaigned and the violence larity waning, the return of the par- off accusations of bribery in the now which paved the way for universal liamentary seat to the Tories was customary election petition to take primary education for all. got worse pretty inevitable. his seat in the Commons. But the mood of the country – and a Liberal Agg-Gardner’s majority of The defeated colonel bitterly and the state of the economy – was 804 over radical Punch journalist complained that Cheltenham was changing. Disraeli’s Tories had runner was Rudolph Lehmann in the election of ‘very dear and more money is picked up the baton of social reform 1885 was a Cheltenham record. The spent on political matters than it is and, when the 1874 election offered shot dead Tories had obviously adapted suc- worth. I wish I had never seen the Agg-Gardner and Samuelson a cessfully to the now much-increased town of Cheltenham.’ Cheltenham rematch, it was the Conservative by one of electorate with improved organisa- returned the compliment. No Ber- who won. Agg-Gardner was to be tion, including the foundation of a keley ever stood for parliament here Cheltenham’s longest-serving MP Schreiber’s Conservative Club. again. Francis inherited his father’s by some distance, representing the Another election soon followed, title and seat in the House of Lords town over a staggering timespan of supporters. in 1886, over the critical issue of

24 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 cheltenham’s liberal history

Irish home rule. Although they ini- The new Lib- pensions, punishment for child a maiden speech and goes down in tially failed to get back into govern- neglect and banning many forms history as Cheltenham’s shortest- ment, the Conservatives won many eral govern- of child labour. Amongst these serving MP. seats – and Agg-Gardner held Chel- huge issues, Sears chose the spec- tenham with a majority that now ment waged tacularly boring subject of Inland topped 1,000. In 1892 the pendulum Revenue organisational reform for Four votes, eighty years, three swung back to Gladstone’s Liberals ‘implac- his maiden speech. He stood down parties yet again. Agg-Gardner’s majority from the London County Coun- Richard’s brother, Major L. J. was reduced, but this time he held able warfare cil in 1907 but never seems to have Mathias, contested the by-election on. At last his persistence had begun really established himself in Chel- caused by the expenses scandal in to make Cheltenham a safer seat for against tenham and stood down from the September 1911. The nervous local the Tories. poverty and parliamentary seat ‘for family and Tories had brought back the popu- personal reasons’ at the next general lar old warhorse Agg-Gardner yet squalidness’, election. He later made an unsuc- again, and the Liberals lost after Implacable warfare cessful bid to return to parliament, six recounts by just four votes. It Agg-Gardner chose the 1895 contest introducing contesting St Pancras in London for was surely the most extraordinary to stand down ‘for reasons uncon- Labour in 1935. comeback of Cheltenham political nected to politics’ but not explained free school history. And it was a fateful moment in his memoirs. Colonel Francis for the Liberals. The party would be Shirley Russell, an Aberdeenshire meals, old Expenses scandal bitterly divided by the coming war, landowner and soldier, was safely In the January 1910 election, domi- Agg-Gardner wouldn’t now relin- elected for the Conservatives in age pen- nated by the blocking of Lloyd- quish the seat until his death in 1928, Cheltenham, albeit with a reduced George’s radical People’s Budget and the Liberals would not regain it majority, seeing off both his offi- sions, pun- by the House of Lords, Cheltenham for more than eighty years. But it cial Liberal opponent and the first Tories could hardly have chosen a would not all be plain sailing for the independent labour candidate, Mr ishment for more aristocratic candidate. Vere Conservatives. Hillen, who polled just twenty- Brabazon Ponsonby was the son of In 1918 Agg-Gardner comfort- three votes. child neglect an Irish earl, Lord Bessborough, ably held the seat as the wartime The colonel was an active and and so himself Viscount Duncan- coalition candidate with a majority eloquent MP but already in his late and ban- non. The new Liberal candidate, of 3,285 over an Independent Lib- fifties, and when he announced his Richard Mathias, was the son of an eral. He went on to win the follow- retirement the local association lost ning many Aberystwyth steamship owner and ing elections of 1922, 1923 and 1924, no time in bringing Agg-Gardner forms of pursued careers as a barrister and although the Liberals shaved his back for the 1900 election. As it banker in London before returning majority back to 1,344 in the middle turned out, the Liberals were now child labour. to the family shipowning firm. He election. Made a privy counsellor deeply split over the Boer War and was a political radical, supporting for sheer longevity and affection- failed to find a candidate in Chel- Amongst votes for all women and men and a ately nicknamed ‘Minister for the tenham, handing Agg-Gardner the national minimum wage – just right Interior’ for his services to Com- first unopposed victory since Cra- these huge for the now firmly radical Chel- mons catering, the Right Honour- ven Berkeley’s original win in 1832. tenham Liberals. But the national able Sir James Tynte Agg-Gardner 1906 was another matter. The issues, Sears swing was against Mathias and, died in office in 1928. Unionist coalition, now under despite winning the largest Liberal Gardner’s successor, the Con- Arthur Balfour, split itself over chose the vote ever of 3,850, he lost to Dun- servative Sir Walter Preston, free trade, while Sir Henry Camp- cannon by 138 votes. resigned his Commons seat in 1937, bell-Bannerman now led a radical, spectacu- The chance of a rematch came leaving Cheltenham an apparently reforming and reunited Liberal in December 1910 when new Lib- safe Tory seat for the first time in Party. The Cheltenham Liberals larly boring eral Prime Minister Asquith went its history. Preston had soundly selected John Sears, a London archi- to the country again to win clearer defeated the Liberals in 1928 and tect and son of a Baptist minister, subject of public support for his attack on 1929 and when division had left as their candidate. Sears was still a entrenched aristocratic privilege them with no candidate in Chel- senior London county councillor Inland Rev- in the House of Lords. But in their tenham and only Labour contesting but promised to be a zealous radical desperation to unseat Duncannon, the seat in 1931 and 1935, Preston opponent for the old stager Agg- enue organi- Mathias’s campaign team over- trounced them too. The Tories had Gardner, who hadn’t actually won sational stepped some important marks. No now won nine successive victories. a contested election for fourteen sooner had they snatched victory Surely it was inconceivable that the years. Sears’ lack of a local con- reform for by just ninety-three votes, than his Conservative Party would lose the nection was overlooked as Camp- election expenses were challenged. subsequent by-election … bell-Bannerman’s party swept to a his maiden He took the oath of allegiance on 1 historic landslide victory at national February, but by the end of March level and the Liberals regained speech. his agent, Mr Kessel, had already The Jew has not so many Cheltenham for the first time in admitted that he had overspent, friends … twenty years. illegally paid for lifts to the polls In 1922, the sporting and military The new Liberal government and generally made a mess of the private school Cheltenham College waged ‘implacable warfare against official election return. In court, decided that the time for their sepa- poverty and squalidness’, intro- Mathias’s lawyers made some effort rate Jewish boarding house was past. ducing free school meals, old age to clear his name, but he never made The incumbent housemaster Daniel

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 25 cheltenham’s liberal history

Lipson was also president, secretary simply because he was Jewish, the Nazism and, despite his support for and treasurer of the Cheltenham Tories picked Lieutenant-Colonel a Jewish homeland in Palestine, was Synagogue and in 1923 he set up an R. Tristram Harper instead. Show- prepared to support pro-Arab land independent Jewish school. It didn’t ing his independent streak again, regulations on the basis that ‘at this work out and closed in 1935. But Lipson stood anyway, and an asso- time, Great Britain’s interests are the the charismatic Lipson had already ciation was formed to support him interests of the Jew and the Jew has been elected as a county councillor as the ‘Independent Conservative’ not so many friends in the world to- in 1925 and a borough councillor in candidate. Lipson polled 10,533 day that he can afford to quarrel with 1929 and in 1935 he became mayor of votes, beating the official Conserva- his best friend’. Cheltenham. When Preston retired, tive by 339 votes. 1945 brought the defeat of Lipson’s name was discussed as an In parliament, Lipson proved a Churchill by Attlee’s Labour Party. obvious successor. Whether because gifted and frequent orator. He was at Labour’s vote in Cheltenham he wasn’t a kosher Conservative or his most passionate in condemning surged, too, but Lipson’s surged more. Standing as a National Inde- pendent, he romped home with a Sources and further reading majority of nearly 5,000 votes and knocked the official Conservative Adams, William Edwin, Memoirs of a Social Atom (Hutchinson, 1903, at www.gerald-massey.org.uk/ candidate, Major Hicks Beach, into adams/b_autobiog.htm; the website also contains an interesting article on Adams himself) a humiliating third place. Agg-Gardner, James, Some Parliamentary Recollections (Burrow, 1927)

Berkeley, Craven F., Slander, A Correspondence between The Rev. F. Close, Mr. C. Berkeley, Mr. P. Thompson, War, peace and Zion and Major Payn: With the Resolutions of Mr. Craven Berkeley’s Committee Thereon (Cunningham and Co., By 1950, it had all changed, and in 1831) that year’s election, the positions Brack, Duncan, Dictionary of Liberal Biography (Politico’s 1998) were almost perfectly reversed. Costley-White, Hope, Mary Cole, Countess of Berkeley (Harrap, 1973) Hicks Beach took the seat with a majority of nearly 5,000, while Lip- Craig FWS, British Parliamentary Election Results, four volumes, all published by Parliamentary Research son came third with just 25 per cent Services: 1832–1885 (2nd ed 1989), 1885–1918 (2nd ed 1989), 1918–1949 (3rd ed 1983) and 1950–1973 of the vote. Although there was a (2nd ed 1983) national swing to the Tories and Dodds-Parker, Douglas, Political Eunuch (Springwood, 1986) every other independent MP lost their seat as well, it seems likely that Hart, Gwen, A History of Cheltenham (Allan Sutton, 1981) other factors helped to end Lipson’s Jones, Anthea, Cheltenham: A New History (Carnegie, 2010) career. Britain’s role as mandated colonial administrator of Palestine Rallings, Collin, and Thrasher, Michael, British Parliamentary Election Results 1983–1997 (Ashgate had brought it into increasing con- Publishing Ltd, 1999) flict with the swelling Jewish popula- Roth, Andrew & Criddle, Byron 2001–05 Parliamentary Profiles E–K (Parliamentary Profiles Services, 2005, tion. In 1946, Zionist terrorists blew profile of Nigel Jones) up the King David Hotel, killing Rowbotham, Sue, and Walker, Jill, Cheltenham, A History (Fillimore, 2004) 100 people in the British army’s local headquarters. In 1947 there were Salsa, George Augustus, London Up to Date (Adam and Charles Black 1895, reproduced on http://www. reciprocal executions of Zionist ter- victorianlondon.org/publications/uptodate-19.htm) rorists and British military hostages. Scotland, Nigel (ed.), A Gloucestershire Gallery (Nigel Scotland, 1993) Anti-semitism in Britain increased, and anti-Jewish riots broke out in six Stenton, Michael, Who’s Who of British Members of Parliament Vol I 1832–1885, Harvester Press 1976 British cities as the situation in Pal- Stenton, Michael and Lees, Stephen, Who’s Who of British Members of Parliament, three volumes, all estine deteriorated. The next year, published by Harvester Press: 1886–1918 (1978), 1919–1945 (1979) and 1945–1979 (1981) Israel was born straight into a war Torode, Brian, The Hebrew Community of Cheltenham (Brian Torode, 1999) with its Arab neighbours which Brit- ain nearly entered on the Arab side Williams, W. R., The Parliamentary History of the County of Gloucester (Jakeman and Carver, 1898) after Israel shot down three British Spitfires over the Egyptian border. Even the gifted, peace-loving Cheltenham Local History Society Journal issues 11 (1994/95), 23 (2007) and 24 (2008) Lipson, who treasured the Jew- Dod’s Parliamentary Companion for 1908 (Whittaker & Co, 1908) (entry on JE Sears) ish relationship with Britain, was going to struggle for re-election as Gloucestershire Echo, 10, 11 & 14 January 1950, 23 & 24 February 1950 a pro-Zionist MP after all this. He Hansard, various issues 1848-1992 continued to play an active role in The House Magazine, 10 July 1987 (profile of Charles Irving), 2 November 1992 (Nigel Jones) Cheltenham local politics after his defeat and was awarded the free- The Times, 29 June 1848 (Representation of Cheltenham), 2 April 1880 (profile of new members of dom of the borough in 1953, an parliament including Baron de Ferrières), 31 March 1911 (Cheltenham election petition), 7 November honour given to only Agg-Gardner 1942 (obituary of Richard Mathias) and 16 April 1963 (obituary of Daniel Lipson) and Baron de Ferrières amongst his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, www.oxforddnb.com (article on Craven Fitzhardinge Berkeley) predecessors. Lipson’s victorious successor in Who’s Who 1910 (A&C Black 1910) (entry on JE Sears) 1950, Major Bill Hicks Beach, was in

26 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 cheltenham’s liberal history many ways the archetypal Tory MP: the opinion polls, but the Falklands For much of years of campaigning by Jones and an Eton and Cambridge-educated, war transformed Mrs Thatcher’s his predecessors finally came about. Gloucestershire landowner. His suc- image and paved the way for a land- its history, Nigel snatched the seat with a nar- cessor, Douglas Dodds-Parker, was slide victory in 1983. row majority of 1,668, the first Lib- more famous for his earlier exploits With Jones abroad, the Chel- Cheltenham eral to represent Cheltenham for in the Special Operations Executive’s tenham Liberals invited national more than eighty years. Taylor later daring wartime intelligence and party president Richard Holme to was the set- followed Richard Holme into the sabotage operations and for his dis- become probably the party’s most Lords as the Tories’ first black peer astrous spell as a minister defending heavyweight candidate since the ting for furi- but chose Warwick not Cheltenham Eden’s doomed Suez policy, than for Cheltenham seat’s creation. With as his territorial designation. His any subsequent achievement as MP the added credibility of the new ous contests political career ended in disgrace in for Cheltenham. Alliance, their vote surged to more between the the aftermath of the expenses scan- than 20,000, Labour’s nearly halved dal earlier this year. Media comment and so did Charles’ majority. Liberal and that Nigel had won the seat because The strange rebirth of Liberal of Taylor’s colour did a particular Cheltenham Conservative injustice both to years of Liberal Lipson’s defeat ushered in forty Victory, controversy and campaigning and to Nigel’s pro- years of consecutive Conserva- tragedy traditions, foundly anti-racist politics. He went tive victories, but the same era saw By the next election, in 1987, Mrs on to win two further victories with rapid growth in light industry and, Thatcher’s popularity was waning with his- comfortable majorities in 1997 and from the 1950s, of GCHQ’s highly again and Labour was reviving, but 2001 and took on a bewildering vari- qualified intelligence community, in Cheltenham the borough council toric upsets ety of spokesmanships for the party making it a less and less typical Tory had already fallen to the Alliance in parliament. His second term was county seat. and the anti-Tory vote united behind a-plenty. overshadowed by a sword attack by Labour nearly won the seat in Holme. Irving’s majority fell below a mentally ill constituent who hos- 1966 but, when Harold Wilson 5,000. That the parliamentary seat pitalised Nigel and killed his friend called an election in October 1974, was still even relatively safe was tes- and assistant Andy Pennington. it was the reviving Liberals who tament to his huge personal popular- posed a fresh threat to whoever ity, but his health was failing and he took up the Tory baton. Freddie stood down at the 1992 election. At Postscript Rodger was standing again with the national level, Mrs Thatcher had by Late in 2004, after repeated heart chance to squeeze Labour votes and then been ousted, and her replace- scares, Nigel accepted the inevita- close the gap on the Tories. The lat- ment John Major was struggling to ble advice of family and doctors to ter played safe, and chose a veteran hold the government’s different fac- stand down as an MP. He became county and borough councillor and tions in check. The Liberals and now a working Liberal Democrat peer former mayor, Charles Irving, as Liberal Democrats had been edging after the 2005 general election, the their candidate. He was also, use- closer and closer to victory in Chel- first former Cheltenham MP to fully, a millionaire hotelier. In the tenham for twenty years and were enter the House of Lords since Lord event, votes nationally and locally now the dominant party in local Duncannon in 1937. The general swung back towards Labour and council elections. Richard Holme election wins that year and again drifted away from Thorpe’s Liberals had taken a shortcut to parliament this year mark the longest run of again. Harold Wilson was back in as Lord Holme of Cheltenham, so Liberal victories since the days of Number Ten, and Irving was safely both parties were looking for new the Berkeleys in the 1840s. elected with a majority of 8,454 candidates. Cheltenham was indeed a safe- over an almost equally divided After a close-fought selection looking seat for the Tories in the opposition. contest, the Lib Dems chose the early 1930s and again in the 1950s As the Labour government returning candidate from 1987, and 1970s, generally thanks to descended into chaos, the 1979 elec- Nigel Jones, now a councillor and divided opposition. But for much tion looked like a foregone con- proven local campaigner. Despite of its history, it was the setting for clusion, and Charles duly romped the obvious vulnerability of the furious contests between the Liberal home in Cheltenham with the big- seat, the Tories bravely picked and Conservative traditions, with gest Tory majority since 1935, beat- John Taylor, a Birmingham lawyer historic upsets a-plenty. ing Liberal Nigel Jones by 10,538. with no campaigning experience. But Jones’ determined community In one TV interview he tactlessly Martin Horwood MP was elected to politics campaign did resolve the described his choice of Cheltenham represent Cheltenham in 2005 and re- issue of who the challenger would as ‘just a box I ticked on a list’. More elected in 2010. He is currently co-chair be in future. He beat the Labour controversially, Taylor was also of the party’s parliamentary committee on candidate by nearly 6,000 votes. the party’s first black candidate for international affairs. The political geography was a winnable seat and racist remarks changing dramatically. While Mrs were attributed to members of his 1 Slander, A Correspondence between The Thatcher plumbed depths of unpop- own party during the campaign, a Rev. F. Close, Mr. C. Berkeley, Mr. P. ularity, Labour lurched further to doubtless unconscious echo of the Thompson, and Major Payn (Cunning- the left, with right-wing defectors prejudice against Lipson that may ham, 1831) forming the new SDP and immedi- have doomed their 1937 campaign. 2 James Agg-Gardner, Some Parliamen- ately allying with the Liberals. The The result that had looked tary Recollections (Burrow, 1927). new Alliance briefly commanded increasingly inevitable following 3 Ibid.

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