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#OTD 75 years ago today, the results of the 1945 election were announced, leading to the creation of the Attlee government, the first ever with a Labour majority. Here we look at what happened here in Brixton Hill in that election. https://twitter.com/UKLabour/status/1287281498228289536?s=20
Today's Brixton Hill ward fell mostly into the Brixton seat, but part of the ward was then in the Borough of Wandsworth, so the parliamentary seats of Clapham and Streatham also cover the ward we know today. The Norwood constituency started on the other side of Brixton Hill
The Brixton seat (inc.the area between Lyham Road & Brixton Hill) elected a Labour MP for the very first time. Marcus Lipton, a Lt-Col in the war, defeated the incumbent Tory, Nigel Colman, who had taken the seat over from his uncle.
Marcus Lipton would serve as Brixton then Lambeth Central’s MP until his death in 1978. The subsequent by-election would be a challenge for the minority Labour Government but eventually saw John Tilley keep the seat for Labour.
Back in 1945, the Norwood seat (which covered the area south of Brixton Water Lane) was also gained by Labour for the first time. Labour’s Ron Chamberlain would prove to be a maverick MP, opposing NATO, but favourable to Franco.
In the election Chamberlain beat Churchill’s son in law, Duncan Sandys, who had been the MP since 1935. Sandys would return in 1950 as the Conservative MP for Streatham. Sandys was rumoured to be the ‘headless man’, cited in the divorce of the Duchess of Argyll, a major scandal.
The Clapham constituency took in the area across Lyham Rd. It too elected its first ever Labour MP in 1945! John Battley grew up in poverty and became a printer then a Wandsworth politician. He left parliament in 1945 without ever having made a speech, and died shortly after.
The Streatham seat, including today’s Roupell Park estate was the only local seat to remain reliably Conservative. David Robertson retained his seat, making way for the return of Duncan Sandys five years later by returning to his native Scotland as MP for Caithness and Sutherland
So of four seats, three were won by Labour for the first time. All the new MPs were men – it would not be until 1964 with the election of Margaret McKay for Clapham that part of the ward would be represented in Parliament by a woman.
For more on Labour’s history, try the new book from @pdimoldenberg, with proceeds going to his local foodbanks, or the Labour Party’s online learning module at https://achieve.labour.org.uk/tessello/#/category/4079/*/resources/123509/labours-legacy https://twitter.com/PDimoldenberg/status/1287308469209575424?s=20
And we think too today of our friend, Mark Bennett, who would have documented the borough’s political history so well and relished today's anniversary.
