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Ben Spoor

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Ben Spoor
Spoor
Member of Parliament
for Bishop Auckland
In office
1918–1928
Preceded byHenry Havelock-Allan, Bt
Succeeded byRuth Dalton
Personal details
Born
Benjamin Charles Spoor

(1878-06-02)2 June 1878
Witton Park
Died22 December 1928(1928-12-22) (aged 50)
Regent Palace Hotel
Political partyLabour
Spouses
Annie Louisa Leybourne
(m. 1900; died 1920)
Ann Mary Fraser
(m. 1923)
ChildrenAlec Spoor
Parents
  • John Joseph Spoor (father)
  • Merrion Spoor (mother)
EducationBishop Barrington School
Elmfield College, York

Benjamin Charles Spoor PC (2 June 1878 – 22 December 1928), OBE, was a British Labour Party politician. He took a particular interest in India.

Born in Witton Park, County Durham, he went to Elmfield College, York, and came from a family of Primitive Methodists. An engineer by training, he later went into business as a builder's merchant. Before entering politics, he was a lay preacher in the Methodist Church.

At the 1918 general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland, and held the seat until his death at the age of fifty. In Parliament, he found himself at odds with many Labour MPs and contemplated joining the Liberal Party. He was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and Chief Whip in 1924, when he was made a Privy Councillor.

He had suffered from poor health since contracting malaria at Salonika during World War I. On a visit to London in December 1928, he was found dead in bed at the Regent Palace Hotel. At the inquest, his son said that his father had taken to drinking heavily. His death, it was decided, was due to syncope from disease of the heart and liver, due to chronic alcoholism.

References

[edit]
  • The Times, 24 December 1928 (obituary), 27 December 1928 (inquest report)
  • The Fall of Lloyd George: The Political Crisis of 1922
[edit]
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland
19181928
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
1924
Succeeded by