The Wrekin

In 1940, the Wrekin's Tory MP James Baldwin-Webb drowned when the SS City of Benares was torpedoed while taking evacuee children to Canada. He had succeeded Labour's Edith Picton-Turbevill who, according to her autobiography, Life Is Good, was the first woman to have a bath in the House of Commons.

In 1920, there were two by-elections here, won by Charles Palmer and General Townshend. Both were backed by the fraudster and MP Horatio Bottomley. Palmer had edited John Bull for Bottomley, and Townshend had seemed to be a First World War hero. His book, My Campaign in Mesopotamia, now sells for over £50 (probably due to the Iraq war), but he died in disgrace. William Yates took his defeat here in 1966 in an unusual way. Having served from 1955, he emigrated to Australia, where he was elected to parliament for five more years.

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