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13 November 2014

The Returning Officer Croydon South

By Stephen Brasher

Lieutenant Commander Albert Sigismund Elwell-Sutton was the Liberal candidate for Croydon South in 1929. In the First World War, he was the captain of the HMS Caddisfly, which took part in operations in Iraq and also shelled Turkish positions in Gaza, including the Great Mosque (the Allies alleged it was being used as an ammunition dump). He was a
founder of the Association for Education in Citizenship, which argued for civics lessons to combat the rise of dictatorships.

In 1916, he wrote Humanity v Unhumanity: a Criticism of the German Idea in Its Political and Philosophical Development. One review noted: “To prove his case, [he] is inclined to slur over the human element in some of the best German writers of the past.”

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