Lt. Col. Harold Francis Bidder, D.S.O. (1917), M.A., F.S.A.
Second son of George P. Bidder II, Q.C., of Ravensbury Park, Mitcham.
Born 1875; educated St. Paul’s and Trinity College Cambridge.
Married in 1918 to Vivian, eldest daughter of late H. M. Rush, of
Edinburgh; 2 sons, 1 daughter.
Barrister at Lincoln’s Inn 1899.
Joined 9th Battalion, Royal Sussex regiment in 1899, and served in South African War 1899-1902 and in Great War 1914-19 in France.
Lt. Col. Machine Gun corps 1917
Associate member of Chartered Surveyors’ Institute,
J.P. (1926) Surrey.
According to Eric Montague in his book Mitcham Histories : 10 Ravensbury, pages 42-3, among his interests was archaeology, and he started the excavation of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Ravensbury in 1891. He continued with this after WW1 and finished it in 1922.
He became the first president of the Merton and Morden Historical Society when it was formed in 1951, a position he held for 20 years until his death at the age of 92.
Mr. James Chuter Ede, M P. for South Shields, has lived at Tamworth Farm House, London Road, Mitcham, for 13 years, and during that period his house has been burgled six times. “We are leaving Mitcham,” he said last night, “but where we are going is not yet settled.” Mr. Ede chairman of Surrey County Council.
photo taken by Eric Montague in 1975. Reproduced by kind permission of the Merton Historical Society. Image reference mhs-em-nm-10 The photo appears in Eric Montague’s book Mitcham Histories : 2 North Mitcham, on page 41.
Timeline of Main Events
1882: 11 September: James Chuter Ede is born in Epsom, Surrey.
1905-1914: Ede works as an assistant master at council elementary schools in Surrey.
1908: Ede is elected as a member of Epsom Urban District Council (UDC).
1914: Ede is elected to Surrey County Council. World War I begins.
1914-1918: Ede serves in the East Surrey Regiment and Royal Engineers during World War I, reaching the rank of Acting Regimental Sergeant Major.
1918: Ede joins the Labour Party.
Ede stands as a Labour candidate for Epsom but is defeated.
1920: Ede chairs Epsom UDC.
1923: March: Ede is elected as MP for Mitcham in a by-election.
December: Ede loses the Mitcham seat in the general election.
1924: Ede is defeated again in the Mitcham general election.
1927: Ede leaves Epsom UDC.
1929: Ede is elected as MP for South Shields.
1929-31: Ede serves in the short-lived Labour government.
1930: Ede is appointed to chair a government committee on educational standards in private schools.
1931: Ede loses his parliamentary seat in the general election.
1932: The committee on educational standards in private schools, chaired by Ede, delivers its report.
1933: Ede rejoins Epsom UDC.
Ede becomes chairman of Surrey CC.
1934: Ede becomes chairman of the London and Home Counties Joint Electricity Authority.
1935: Ede is re-elected to Parliament for South Shields.
1937: Epsom and Ewell are granted borough status, with Ede serving as the first “Charter Mayor”.
Ede becomes chairman of the British Electrical Development Association.
1938: Ede votes in favour of a motion to abolish the death penalty for murder.
1940: May: Ede is appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education in the wartime coalition government.
1942: February: Ede declines a request to move to the Ministry of War Transport.
March: Ede authors the “White Memorandum” on education reform, proposing compulsory transfer of Anglican schools in “single school areas” to local authority control.
1943: July: Ede and R.A. Butler publish a formal white paper on planned education reform.
1944: March: The Education Act 1944, steered through Parliament by Ede and Butler, receives its Second Reading.
August: Ede becomes Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education.
1945: Labour wins the general election.
August: Ede is appointed Home Secretary in Clement Attlee’s government.
1946: The Police Act is passed.
1947: The Fire Services Act is passed.
Ede addresses the General Assembly of the Unitarian Church.
The school-leaving age is raised to 15.
1948: The Civil Defence Act, Children Act, British Nationality Act, Representation of the People Act, and Criminal Justice Act are passed.
Lilian Mary Ede, James Chuter Ede’s wife, passes away.
The Lynskey tribunal, established by Ede, investigates allegations of corruption among government ministers and civil servants.
Timothy Evans is convicted of murdering his daughter, and Ede approves his death sentence.
1949: The Justices of the Peace Act is passed.
1950: Ede begins commuting all death sentences to life imprisonment, but the House of Lords rejects this policy.
1951: Labour loses the general election.
March: Ede briefly serves as Leader of the House of Commons.
October: Ede leaves his government posts.
1953: John Christie is convicted and hanged for murder, revealing that Timothy Evans, hanged in 1950, was likely innocent. Ede becomes involved in the campaign to pardon Evans.
1955: Ede is elected President of the International Association for Liberal Christianity and Religious Freedom (IARF).
1957-58: Ede serves as President of the Unitarian General Assembly.
1964: Ede retires from the House of Commons.
1965: January: Ede is created a life peer as Baron Chuter-Ede of Epsom.
November: The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act is passed, abolishing capital punishment for murder in the UK.
November: James Chuter Ede passes away in Ewell, Surrey.
Mitcham History Notes 