Horace Evelyn Crawfurd (13 January 1881 – 14 March 1958) was a
Liberal Party politician in the
United Kingdom.
Professional career
Crawfurd was a lecturer at
Liverpool University. In 1930, Elinor Glyn Ltd employed Crawfurd to undertake the publicity campaign for two movies: Knowing Men (1930), which experimented with a new colour process, and The Price of Things (1931). Crawfurd also worked with the author
Elinor Glyn on her own personal publicity.[1]
Political career
In 1913, Crawfurd was selected as the Liberal candidate for
Southport for a general election expected to take place in 1914 or 1915. However, the election was postponed due to the
Great War. He became a Flight Sub-Lieutenant in the
Royal Naval Air Service and was stationed in the Far East. He continued to nurse the Southport constituency while on leave in anticipation of being selected as the candidate when the election was finally held. However, the
Conservative MP for Southport, received endorsement from the Coalition Prime Minister
David Lloyd George, so the Southport Liberals decided not to run a candidate against him.[2] He unsuccessfully contested the
Walthamstow West constituency at the
1922 and
1923 general elections, before winning the seat at the
1924 general election, narrowly defeating the sitting
Labour MP
Valentine McEntee. During the 1924-29 parliament which was dominated by a Conservative majority, Crawfurd worked closely with a group of radical Liberal MPs that included:
William Wedgwood Benn,
Percy Harris,
Joseph Kenworthy and
Frank Briant to provide opposition to the government.[3] However, McEntee regained the seat at the
1929 general election. He stood again at the
Islington East by-election in February 1931, where he finished in fourth place. He stood for election for the last time at the
1935 general election, when he finished last out of the three candidates in
Leicester West. He did not stand for Parliament again.[4]
Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services.
ISBN0-900178-06-X.