Constituency : Northampton 1910-23
Charles was one of two new Liberals at Northampton, replacing Herbert Paul and John Shipman.
Charles was educated at Loughborough Grammar School and Cambridge. HE became a barrister. He stood for Winchester in 1906.
Charles does not seem to have received the coupon in 1918 but he defeated Lsbour in a straight fight. He was willing to support the government and was appointed parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Food Control in 1919. He became Minister in 1920. When the Ministry was shut down in 1921 he became Chief Whip for the Coalition Liberals and took a tougher line with the Conservatives. He supported a Centre Party and told Lloyd George that a hundred Unionists would defect to it. Lloyd George believed he was in touch with the mood of the electorate and listened to much bad advice from him. Charles produced an historical exegesis showing that coaltion had been the predominant form of government since 1886. In 1922 he was convinced that the Coalition Liberals were on the way up despite all evidence to the contrary and provided Lloyd George with a stream of overconfident misinformation.
After the 1922 election Charles favoured Liberal reunion and had a hand in drawing up the 1923 manifesto.
Charles was defeated in 1923 when the Conservatives put up a candidate letting in Margaret Bondfield for Labour.
Charles became a propagandist for Beaverbrook's Empire Free Trade Schemes.
He died in 1941 aged 71.
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