In 1929, Frances Louise Josephy contested Winchester for the Liberals and finished third. She was the last Liberal candidate in the seat until the 1964 by-election, caused by the resignation of the Tory and former spy Peter Smithers. Her five other contests were in Basingstoke (1931), Devizes (1935/1945) and Cambridge (1950/1951).
Josephy was an advocate of both European and world federalism. At the first World Federalism Congress in 1947, she said, “Being British, I am not particularly interested in theory and not at all in philosophy,” and noted that if world government did not happen soon, it never would. She later worked at the Assembly of the Western European Union, which existed to develop a common defence policy for Europe.
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This article appears in the 14 Oct 2015 issue of the New Statesman, The Corbyn supremacy