Sunday, March 31, 2013

Searching for Paddy Logan: Discovering Harborough's Liberal history

I had an article under this title published in the Autumn 2010 issue of the Journal of Liberal History. It seems you can now freely download a PDF of it from the journal's website:
Logan returned as MP for Harborough at the second election of 1910, only to stand down again in 1916, thus landing the Liberals with a difficult by-election. Although there was a wartime truce with the Conservatives, the young Liberal candidate Percy Harris faced a strong challenge from an Independent with considerable press backing. He won, but lost the seat to the Conservatives in 1918 when, although a radical, he sided with Asquith and was thus refused the ‘coupon’ from the Lloyd George coalition. 
Harris went on to be an MP in the East End of London and a stalwart of the declining Parliamentary Liberal Party until 1945. He was recently revealed to be the greatgrandfather of the recently retired Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor – a fact that surprised everyone except, I suspect, Lord Bonkers.

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