1555 John Hills

Constituency  :  City  of  Durham  1906-12  ( Liberal  Unionist )  ; 1912-22 , Ripon  ( 1925-38 )  ( Conservative )

John  was  a  rare  new  Liberal  Unionist  MP  in  1906, holding  onto  the  seat  vacated  by  Arthur  Elliott.

John  was  the  son  of  a  Cumberland  landowner. He  was  educated  at  Eton  and  Oxford.He  became  a  solicitor. He  married  Virginia  Woolf's  half-sister but  she  died  a  few  months  into  the  marriage,

John  volunteered  for  service  in  1914  and  was  a  captain  in  the  Durham  Light  Infantry  at  the  start  of  World  War  One. He  was  promoted  to  major  and  then  acting  lieutenant  colonel. He  was  wounded  in  1916.

John  was  briefly  Financial  Secretary  to  the  Treasury  under  Bonar  Law  in  1922  but  had  to  retire  when  he  failed  to  win  a  by-election  at  Liverpool  Edge  Hill  in  1923..

John  was  defeated  in  1922  but  returned  for  Ripon  in  1925.

In  1923  John  joined  the  board  of  Imperial  Airways.

John  was  a  keen  angler  and  published  a  number  of  books  on  fishing.

He died  in  1933  aged  71. He  was  about  to  be  created  a  baronet  so  the  title  went  to  his  five  year  old  son  instead. His  widow  was  later  a  Liberal  candidate.