Constituency : Devizes 1923-4
Eric took Devizes from the Tories in a straight fight.
Eric was a Congregationalist minister's son from Manchester. He was educated at Lynam's Preparatory School and Oxford.He served in the Boer War where he received an eye wound and was invalided out. He then joined the Malayan Civil Service but after three years he went into the rubber plantation business there with great success. He served in the First World War achieving the rank of lieutenant. He also served on the first Federal Council for the Federated Malay States.
Eric was soundly defeated in a straight fight in 1924. He could have regained the seat in 1929 but for Labour's intervention.
Eric became involved in researching tropical agriculture and became chairman of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in 1937. He was knighted for his work in 1943. He was also interested in garden cities and held office in the Town and Country planning Association. He was chair of the Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases at Putney Heath.
Eric served in the Home Guard as a captain during World War Two.
Eric was a keen huntsman.
He died in 1966 aged 87.
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