Tag Archives: 1965

James Chuter Ede, Mitcham MP in 1923

James Chuter EDE was Labour M.P. for Mitcham in 1923.

He lived at Tamworth House, London Road between 1924 and 1937. He moved after the house had been burgled six times, according to this article in the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail – Monday 25 January 1937

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.

10th March, 1923. Image © Illustrated London News Group. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

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.

See also wikipedia.

Vacwell Engineering Co. Ltd.

Engineering company that was in Willow Lane, Mitcham.

From ads in Wireless World, it may have been trading between 1958 and 1966. The first ad, see below, refers to a cathode ray pumping unit and that the firm were specialists in the design and manufacture of vacuum equipment.

From Wireless World, July 1958, via the Internet Archive

Vacwell Engineering factory building

From the 29th April 1966 issue of Mitcham News & Mercury:

RUSSIAN SCIENTIST KILLED IN BLAST

Four injured and taken to hospital

A RUSSIAN scientist was killed in an explosion at a Mitcham laboratory on Tuesday.

Four other men, one a Russian and three on the staff of the firm were hurt. They were taken to St. Helier Hospital.

The dead man was watching an experiment at the Vacwell put Engineering Company, Willow Lane, when the explosion
occurred.

Shortly afterwards a Soviet Trade Delegation went to the factory.

And strict security was imposed at the hospital and factory while the cause of the accident was being investigated.

On Wednesday no one at the factory would comment on the accident. A spokesman said: “We are not taking any Press inquiries.”

But the explosion blasted a hole in the laboratory’s roof – 100 on yards from the main factory building

Later the dead man’s name was given as Victor Stroujinsky. Three of the injured men include 28-vear-old Mr. Ronald Neale, a physicist at the firm, Gassiot Way, Sutton, who received injuries to his left leg, burns and bruises; Mr. P. Rose. of Caterham, a director of the firm, who received cuts, and fire brigade Sub-Officer William Chalk, Lymington Close Norbury, who was overcome by fumes.

Four other Russians who were also watching the experiment were unhurt.

The company, which makes electronic equipment, is believed to be under contract with the Soviet Union. And it is usual for the Russian authorities to attach inspectors to firms producing goods for them.

Dropped ampule

Later on Wednesday police said Mr Stroujinsky was handling ampules of a chemical when he dropped one and broke others which resulted in the explosion.


The following ads are via the Internet Archive Digital Library of Amateur Radio.

From Wireless World, January 1959, via the Internet Archive

From Wireless World, October 1959, via the Internet Archive

From Wireless World, January 1961, via the Internet Archive

From Wireless World, November 1965, via the Internet Archive