Smethwick, now called Warley in elections, packed a lot into its 56 years. In 1918, Labour's John Davison beat Christabel Pankhurst (Women's Party) by 775 votes. Oswald Mosley did five years as a Labour MP here before moving from red to black. Peter Griffiths (with an agent called Charles Dickens) became notorious in 1964 by defeating Labour's never-to-be foreign secretary Patrick Gordon Walker in a race-fuelled campaign. He lost in 1966 to Andrew Faulds, who served as the MP while still working as an actor, including appearing in The Music Lovers with Glenda Jackson - surely the only time two Labour MPs have starred in a Ken Russell film?
After the 1945 landslide, the victorious Alfred Dobbs died in a car crash on the way to parliament. The by-election was won by Walker, newly returned from reporting for the BBC from Belsen.
