Stan Awbery

Stan Awbery
Member of Parliament
for Bristol Central
In office
26 July 1945 – 15 October 1964
Preceded byViolet Bathurst
Succeeded byArthur Palmer
Personal details
Born19 July 1888
Swansea, Wales
Died7 May 1969(1969-05-07) (aged 80)
Political partyLabour

Stanley Stephen Awbery (19 July 1888 – 7 May 1969) was a British trade unionist and Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol Central from 1945 to 1964.[1][2]

Awbery was born in Swansea, and began work at a copperworks aged 13.[2] In 1904 he began his trade union activities when he joined the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers' Union. He became the secretary of the Fuel Workers' Branch in 1913, and national auditor of the union in 1919. He became a permanent official with the union in 1920 and in 1926 district secretary at Barry Docks.[2]

He was a member of the Welsh Committee of the Independent Labour Party, becoming chairman in 1929. He was elected to Barry Town Council and was mayor of Barry in 1941.[2] He stood unsuccessfully as Labour Party candidate for the Clitheroe constituency at the 1931 and 1935 general elections. He was selected to contest Bristol Central in 1937, although the anticipated general election was postponed due to the Second World War.[2] He finally entered parliament at the 1945 general election and remained Member of Parliament for Bristol Central until his retirement in 1964.[2]

On the 7 May 1952 Awbery played a minor role in the British Malayan headhunting scandal. In the House of Commons, Awbery asked Oliver Lyttelton for information on photographs published by the Daily Worker (now Morning Star) depicting British soldiers during the Malayan Emergency posing with decapitated human heads. Lyttelton responded to Awbery by confirming that the photographs were indeed genuine, and that previous government denials of their authenticity were wrong.[3]

Awbrey was a keen local historian, and published a number of books on the subject.[2]

References

  • Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
  • Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
  1. ^ Michael Stenton (1976). Who's who of British Members of Parliament: A Biographical Dictionary of the House of Commons Based on Annual Volumes of Dod's Parliamentary Companion and Other Sources. Harvester Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-85527-335-4.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Stanley Stephen Awbery Collection". Glamorgan Archives. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  3. ^ Poole, Dan (2023). Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency: The Atrocity and Cover-Up. Pen and Sword Military. p. 15. ISBN 978-1399057417.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Bristol Central
1945 – 1964 		Succeeded by