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15 January 2015updated 09 Sep 2021 2:12pm

Limehouse III

The eccentric opponents faced by Clement Attlee in 1929.

By Stephen Brasher

In 1929, Clement Attlee had interesting opponents. The Communist Walter Tapsell went on to fight in the Spanish civil war in the first company of the British battalion, named the “Major Attlee Company” after the Labour leader. Tapsell was killed in the retreat from Aragon in 1938. His body
was never found.

The Liberal candidate was Jasper Jocelyn John Addis. In 1933, he was declared bankrupt; in 1947, he was struck off as a solicitor. Addis was jailed for fraud in 1954, having claimed that his life was in danger from the financier and alleged war profiteer George Dawson.

Meanwhile, the Conservative Evan Morgan (the second Viscount Tredegar) was a papal chamberlain, occultist, spy and owner of a boxing kangaroo. After the election, it was reported that one of his supporters had failed to turn up to his own wedding, after he was beaten up while canvassing.

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