Peter Grafton

Peter Witheridge Grafton CBE (19 May 1916 - 20 May 2012), was a British Liberal Party politician and surveyor.

Background

He was born one of twin brothers,[1] sons of James Hawkins Grafton and Ethel Marion Brannan. He was educated at Westminster City School, Sutton Valence School and the College of Estate Management. In 1939 he married Joan Bleackley who died in 1969. They had two daughters (and one son and one daughter, deceased). In 1971 he married Margaret Ruth Ward. They had two sons.[2]

Early career

He served as a captain in the war of 1939–45 in the Queen's Westminster Rifles, the Dorsetshire Regiment and the Royal Engineers in the UK and the Far East.[3] He served in India, Ceylon, and Java and went with the expeditionary force to the Cocos Islands.[4]

Political career

He was Liberal candidate for the Bromley division of Kent at the 1950 General Election. He broke his leg three days before the election was called and conducted his campaign on crutches.[5]

General Election 1950: Bromley Electorate 47,369
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Rt Hon. Maurice Harold Macmillan 23,042 57.26
Labour Mrs. J. R. Elliott 12,354 30.70
Liberal Peter Witheridge Grafton 4,847 12.04
Majority 10,688 26.56
Turnout 84.96
Conservative hold Swing

He did not stand for parliament again.[6] In 1953, together with Desmond Banks who had been Liberal parliamentary candidate in Harrow East in 1950, Grafton co-founded the Radical Reform Group,[7] a social liberal pressure group within the Liberal Party to prevent what many saw as a rightward drift by the party, and its potential capture by the economic liberals. The Group campaigned under the slogan 'social reform without socialism'. Grafton was the group's Honorary Secretary.[8]

Professional career

He was a Senior Partner, at G. D. Walford & Partners, Chartered Quantity Surveyors, 1978–82 having been a Partner 1949–78.[9]

In 1972 he was appointed a CBE.[10]

References
  1. The Times House of Commons, 1950
  2. ‘GRAFTON, Peter Witheridge’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 24 Sept 2014
  3. ‘GRAFTON, Peter Witheridge’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 24 Sept 2014
  4. The Times House of Commons, 1950
  5. The Times House of Commons, 1950
  6. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
  7. A Radical Life by Mervyn Jones
  8. The Campaign Guide, 1955
  9. ‘GRAFTON, Peter Witheridge’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 24 Sept 2014
  10. ‘GRAFTON, Peter Witheridge’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 24 Sept 2014
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