John Profumo

Another MP

The 1929 General election has been characterised nationally, by the historian Charles Mowat, as both uncertain and dull: but this was not the case in Kettering where Samuel Perry, father of the tennis star Fred Perry was standing as a candidate for the Labour party and the Cooperative movement.

The town’s loyalty to the latter and the importance in its factories of young women, among whom Fred was popular, probably gave Perry some confidence.  The intense hostility of the conservatives campaign made for an interesting and at times heated campaign, attempting to link Perry with the 1927 General Strick and Communism, and was initiated in part to disrupt Perry’s schedule of meetings. 

The size of the constituency and the large number of small towns and villages it contained required Perry to travel across it keeping to a tight time table. Perry’s supporters defended themselves vigorously, even organising body-guards and sought to undermine the reputation of their Liberal opponent colonel John Brown with allegations of wartime misconduct.

 Sources

Fred Perry’s autobiography contains a good account of the election and it of course features in the local press. Mowat’s general history of the inter-war period is Britain Between the Wars. published by the university Press in 1955