Following a reference in the Journal of Lib Dem History I recently came across the most extraordinary labour of love, a biographical directory of people who have been Liberal, SDP and Lib Dem parliamentary candidates from 1945 – 2019.
This is a 20 year piece of work by Lionel King who I find from the directory is 87 , fought Kidderminster in 1964, Sutton Coldfield in 1970, and Walsall South 1987, is former chair of Birmingham University Liberal Society, worked as a teacher and then TV/Media lecturer in FE and held many roles in the Birmingham and West Midlands Party.
The directory is divided into 14 parts, by region and gives a fascinating insight into the range of people attracted to become our Parliamentary candidates over the years. In my own constituency of Wimbledon for example I could read about Alick Kay who stood for us in 1945 and was a former independent member of the New South Wales Parliament, George Scott who ran in 1964 who fought two parliament by election for us in Middlesborough East and West both in 1962 and who is decribed as “very tall and slim, he tended to be rather aloof in bearing, not a strong public speaker”, Alison Willott in 1992 and 1997 who was a professional concert singer and mother of Jenny Willott who became Lib Dem MP for Cardiff Central and finally Paul Kohler candidate in 2019 (and current PPC ) and his campaign to Save Wimbledon Police station.
The collator of all this Lionel King would love to hear from candidates with more up to date information (his email can be found in the directory). You can find the directory here:
https://liberalhistory.org.uk/resources-type/election-candidates-directory/
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