Lancelot Spicer

Lancelot Dykes Spicer (22 March 1893 – 6 December 1979), was a British Liberal Party politician.

Background

He was the youngest son of Rt Hon. Sir Albert Spicer, the Liberal Party politician. He was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He married in 1920, Iris Cox. They had one son who was killed in action on 31 May 1944. Iris obtained a divorce in 1935. Lancelot's second marriage, in 1951, was to Dorothy Beverley Gwyther.[1]

War service

He was granted temporary Common in the Army in September 1914. He was made T/Captain in July 1916 and Brigade-Major in April 1918. He served with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry[2] in the European War and was awarded the Military Cross in October 1917, bar to Military Cross in May 1918 and was made a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order in September 1918.

Professional career

He was a Director of the family paper manufacturing business Spicers Ltd serving as Chairman from 1950 to 1959. He served as President of the Stationers' Association of Britain and Ireland.

Political career

In November 1941 he was a founder of the Liberal Action Group, a pressure group inside of the Liberal Party that lobbied for the party to withdraw from the wartime electoral truce.[3] In 1943 he was selected as Liberal prospective parliamentary candidate for the Walthamstow West Division of Essex and at the 1945 General Election finished second.

Walthamstow West in Essex for 1945
General Election 1945: Walthamstow West[4] Electorate 38,269
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Valentine la Touche McEntee 17,460 65.22
Liberal Lancelot Dykes Spencer 4,760 17.78
Conservative Leslie Charles Curran 4,550 17.00
Majority 12,700 47.44
Turnout 70.14
Labour hold Swing

He was Liberal candidate for the Kensington South Division of London at the 1945 Kensington South by-election where he finished second.

Kensington South in London in 1944
By-election, 20 November 1945[5] Electorate 52,750
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Rt Hon. Richard Kidston Law 15,846 81.7 +11.9
Liberal Lancelot Dykes Spicer 3,559 18.3 +7.0
Majority 12,287 68.4
Turnout 52,750 36.8
Conservative hold Swing

He did not stand for parliament again.

References
  1. ‘SPICER, Lancelot Dykes’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, December 2007 accessed 15 January 2014
  2. The Times House of Commons 1945
  3. Liberal Crusader: The Life of Sir Archibald Sinclair By Gerard J. De Groot
  4. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
  5. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
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