George Nicholls (British politician)

George Nicholls

George Nicholls (25 June 1864 – 30 November 1943)[1] was a British evangelical pastor, and Liberal-Labour[2] politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Northamptonshire from 1906 to 1910.[1]

Nicholls started life as a farm labourer and smallholder.[3] He went on to be Pastor at the Evangelist Congregational Church in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, from 1894 to 1902, and afterwards of Congregational Churches at Silverdale and Chesterton, in Staffordshire.[4]

He was elected as MP for North Northamptonshire at the 1906 general election,[5] but was defeated at the January 1910 general election.[2]

After his defeat he stood for Parliament again in Faversham at the December 1910 general election,[6] and in Newmarket at a by-election in May 1913,[7] but was unsuccessful on both occasions.

He was elected to Peterborough town council in 1912, and became the town's mayor from 1916 to 1918.[4]

He was the chief organiser for the Allotment and Small Holdings section of the Agricultural Organisation Society, and a member of the Agricultural Wages Board, of a Royal Commission on Agriculture, of the Central Agricultural Council, of the Soke of Peterborough Small Holdings Committee, and of Peterborough United Charities.[4] He was awarded the OBE and served as a Justice of the Peace.[4]

After World War I, he stood unsuccessfully for Parliament on six further occasions. As a Labour Party candidate in Camborne at the 1918 general election, he narrowly lost to the sitting Liberal MP Sir Francis Dyke Acland.[8] He then stood as a Liberal Party candidate in Peterborough at the 1922 general election,[9] in Warwick and Leamington at the 1923 and 1924 general elections,[10] in Bury St Edmunds at a by-election in January 1925,[11] and in Harborough at the 1929 general election,[12]

  1. ^ a b Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 3)
  2. ^ a b Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 359. ISBN 0-900178-27-2.
  3. ^ The Times House of Commons, 1929; Politico’s Publishing, 2003 p91
  4. ^ a b c d A & C Black (1920–2008). "NICHOLLS, George". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 9 August 2010. Online edition, December 2007.
  5. ^ "No. 27885". The London Gazette. 13 February 1906. p. 1044.
  6. ^ Craig, British parliamentary election results 1885–1918, page 304
  7. ^ Craig, British parliamentary election results 1885–1918, page 228
  8. ^ Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 311. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
  9. ^ Craig, British parliamentary election results 1918–1949, page 438
  10. ^ Craig, British parliamentary election results 1918–1949, page 493
  11. ^ Craig, British parliamentary election results 1918–1949, page 470
  12. ^ Craig, British parliamentary election results 1918–1949, page 411