Waldron Smithers
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Sir Waldron Smithers (5 October 1880 – 9 December 1954) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.
Smithers was educated at Charterhouse and in France and became a member of the London Stock Exchange. He was the eldest son of Sir Alfred Waldron Smithers, who had been Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Chislehurst until 1922.
At the 1924 general election he stood for his father's constituency and won a three-cornered fight with a majority of more than 10,000. In his 30 years in the House of Commons he was always a backbencher, described by The Times as a 'diehard Tory' although well-liked on both sides of the house.
He remained as member for Chislehurst until the 1945 general election, when he switched to the newly-created Orpington constituency. Chislehurst fell to the Labour Party, but Smithers was comfortably elected in Orpington, and held the seat until he died
During the Cold War, while MP for Orpington, Smithers regularly pressed for a House of Commons Select Committee on un-British Activities to be created to conduct anti-communist investigations, to mirror the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee.
In 1904 he married Marjorie Page-Roberts, with whom he had one son and two daughters. He was knighted in 1934.
[edit] References
- Obituary, The Times, 10 December 1954.
- The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War, Peter Hennessy, 2002 (page 92).
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Robert Chancellor Nesbitt |
Member of Parliament for Chislehurst 1924–1945 |
Succeeded by George Wallace |
| Preceded by (new constituency) |
Member of Parliament for Orpington 1945–1955 |
Succeeded by Donald Sumner |
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This article about a Conservative Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Categories: Conservative MP (UK) stubs | 1880 births | 1954 deaths | Knights Bachelor | Conservative MPs (UK) | Members of the United Kingdom Parliament from English constituencies | UK MPs 1924-1929 | UK MPs 1929-1931 | UK MPs 1931-1935 | UK MPs 1935-1945 | UK MPs 1945-1950 | UK MPs 1950-1951 | UK MPs 1951-1955
