A.G. Macdonell was twice Liberal candidate for Lincoln

High Bridge and the Glory Hole, Lincoln

A.G. Macdonell is remembered today, it at all, for his book England Their England and its description of a village cricket match.

An old post on Lion & Unicorn (retweeted today because Macdonell was born on 3 November 1895) shows that there was far more to him than that.

In particular, he was a Liberal and twice fought Lincoln for the party at general elections:

He was also involved in political campaigning at home, standing as the Liberal Party candidate in Lincoln in the general elections of 1923 and 1924. The seat had been Liberal until 1918, but winning it back it was a pretty hopeless prospect by this stage, and he was unsuccessful, coming third on both occasions. 

Championing the League of Nations was obviously a key plank in his platform. He described the League’s charter as "a treaty of mutual guarantee", and believed that the organization was the only way to transcend the rivalry that lay at the heart of international politics: "The whole world is in the shadow of the Franco-German quarrel."

His domestic concerns were evident in a 1924 speech, in which he said that "there was much talk of co-operation between Conservatives and Liberals, but he was absolutely against anything of the kind. There was a tendency to say too much about the Socialist menace and forget the Conservative menace."

Macdonell polled 23.8 per cent in 1923 and 17.6 per cent in 1924. At last year's general election the Liberal Democrat candidate polled 2.6 per cent.