Middlesex County Council

Middlesex County Council
Coat of arms of the Middlesex County Council
Type
Type	County council of Middlesex
History
Established	1 April 1889
Disbanded	1 April 1965
Preceded by	Middlesex Quarter Sessions
Succeeded by	Greater London Council
Seats	Councillors and aldermen
Elections
Last election	1961
Meeting place
Middlesex Guildhall, Westminster

Middlesex County Council was the principal local government body in the administrative county of Middlesex from 1889 to 1965.

The county council was created by the Local Government Act 1888, which also removed the most populous part of the county to constitute the County of London. By the 1930s most of the county had become urbanised, effectively forming part of the London conurbation, and in 1965 the county council was abolished on the creation of the Greater London Council. Most of the former Middlesex area became part of the enlarged Greater London, but two Urban Districts to the south west became part of Surrey. These parts were thereby abolished civil parishes of Staines (which included Laleham), Ashford, Stanwell and Sunbury-on-Thames (which included Shepperton and Littleton). Finally, Potters Bar Urban District (which included most of South Mimms) in the north of the county was transferred to Hertfordshire.

Elections and political control

The county council consisted of elected councillors and co-opted county aldermen. The entire body of county councillors was elected every three years. Aldermen were additional members, there being a ratio of one alderman to three councillors. Aldermen had a six-year term of office, and one half of their number were elected by the councillors immediately after the triennial elections.

The first elections were held in January 1889. The first meeting of the "provisional" county council was held on 14 February 1889 at Westminster Town Hall. Although the council did not use political labels, among the aldermen elected were members of the parliamentary Conservative Party.

From 1919 the non-political composition of the council was challenged by the election of members of the Labour Party.^[1] The 1922 and 1925 elections were, for the most part, not run on party lines.^[2] In 1928 the majority of the council were described as "Moderate", with Labour forming an opposition.^[3] Labour continued to make advances at the 1931 election, and this led to the formation of a Middlesex Municipal Association "representative of all anti-Socialist members". The association was supported by the various Conservative Party organisations of the county although it was not officially affiliated to the party, and controlled the council until 1946.^[4]

In 1946 Labour took control of the county council for the first time. Following this, the Conservative Party contested elections to the county council, winning control in 1949 and holding it at the 1952 and 1955 elections.^[5][6] In 1958 Labour regained control.^[7] At the elections held in 1961 the Conservatives were returned to power.^[8] These were to be the final elections to the county council: under the London Government Act 1963 the elections due in 1964 were cancelled, with the elections to the shadow Greater London Council being held instead.

Chairmen of the Middlesex County Council

The chairman of the county council chaired its meetings and also represented it in a ceremonial manner, in a similar fashion to the mayor of a borough. Twenty-nine people served as chairmen over the council's existence.^[9]

Years	Chairman	Notes
1889–1908	Ralph Daniel Makinson Littler	Companion of the Bath 1890, Knighted 1902[10]
1908–1909	Montagu Sharpe	Knighted in 1922
1909–1919	William Regester
1919–1924	Cecil Fane de Salis	Made a Knight Commander of the Bath in 1935.[11]
1924–1927	Benjamin Todd
1927–1930	Charles Pinkham OBE	Knighted 1928[12] Former MP for Willesden West 1918–1922
1930–1933	George Marlow Reed
1933–1936	Howard Button	Knighted 1936. Former MP for Wrekin 1922–1923[13]
1936–1937	Sir William Prescott	Created a baronet in 1938. Former MP for Tottenham North 1918–1922
1937–1940	Forrester Clayton
1940–1943	Sir Gilfrid Gordon Craig
1943–1946	William Reginald Clemens
1946–1947	Bernard Harry Rockman
1947–1948	Frederick Messer	First member of the Labour Party to hold the chair. MP for Tottenham South 1929–1931, 1935–1950. and Tottenham 1950–1959. Knighted 1953.[14]
1948–1949	William John Irving
1949–1951	Albert Henry Farley
1951–1953	William Josiah Grimshaw	Knighted 1953 "for political and public services in Middlesex"[15]
1953–1954	Sir Archer Hoare
1954–1955	Albert Noel Hansel Baines
1955–1956	Stanley Graham Rowlandson	Knighted 1956[16]
1956–1957	Christopher George Armstrong Cowan	Knighted 1958[17]
1957–1958	William Rendel Myson Chambers
1958–1959	Thomas Henry Joyce
1959–1960	George Albert Pargiter	MP for Spelthorne 1945–1950, Southall 1950–1966. Created "Baron Pargiter of Southall in the London Borough of Ealing" in 1966.[18]
1960–1961	Muriel Rose Forbes
1961– 1962	Sir Joseph Haygarth
1962– 1963	James Henry Knaggs
1963– 1964	Frances Timpson
1964–1965	John Wilfred Barter MP	MP for Ealing North

References

1. "Middlesex County Council. Elections Next Saturday., Cinema Trade And Sunday Opening". The Times. 3 March 1919. p. 6.
2. "Redistribution in Middlesex". The Times. 2 March 1925. p. 15.
3. "County Council Elections. Further Results". The Times. 9 March 1928. p. 11.
4. "Party Basis of Councils". The Times. 22 March 1949. p. 2.
5. "Middlesex held by Conservatives. Majority of Five.". The Times. 4 April 1952. p. 4.
6. "Labour Losses In London. County Council Elections.". The Times. 21 April 1955. p. iv.
7. "Middlesex changes hands. Conservative defeat.". The Times. 17 April 1958. p. 5.
8. "Conservatives Win Back Middlesex 16 Seats Gained.". The Times. 14 April 1961. p. 14.
9. "Clerks Department: Chairman of the County Council". AIM25. London Metropolitan Archives. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
10. C. E. A. Bedwell rev. Eric Metcalfe (2004). "Littler, Sir Ralph Daniel Makinson (1835–1908)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
11. The London Gazette: no. 34166. p. 3594. 31 May 1935.
12. "Obituary: Sir Charles Pinkham". The Times. 8 March 1938. p. 18.
13. "Obituary: Sir Howard Button. Public Life in London and Middlesex". The Times. 20 August 1943. p. 8.
14. The London Gazette: no. 39904. p. 3677. 3 July 1953.
15. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 39863. p. 2941. 1 June 1953.
16. The London Gazette: no. 40829. p. 4076. 13 July 1956.
17. The London Gazette: no. 41313. p. 1030. 14 February 1958.
18. The London Gazette: no. 44015. p. 6669. 9 June 1966.