William Bird (solicitor) explained

Sir William Bird
Office:Member of Parliament
for Chichester
Term Start3:23 April 1921
Term End3:16 November 1923
Predecessor3:Lord Edmund Talbot
Successor3:Charles Rudkin
Birth Date:11 July 1855
Nationality:British
Party:Conservative
Profession:Politician

Sir William Barrott Montfort Bird (11 July 1855 – 13 November 1950)[1] was a British solicitor and briefly a Conservative politician.

The son of William Frederic Wratislaw Bird, of Wilmington in Kent, he was educated at Bruce Castle School and admitted as a solicitor 1880. He was a director of Williams Deacon's Bank, and of other companies, and was Justice of the Peace for West Sussex. In 1895 he married Margaret Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Spencer, and widow of James H. Murray.[2]

He was elected unopposed as Member of Parliament for Chichester at a by-election in April 1921 following the resignation of the sitting Conservative MP Lord Edmund Bernard Talbot, who had been appointed as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.[3]

At the 1922 general election, Bird was re-elected with a massive majority over his only opponent, a Labour Party candidate. However, he faced a Liberal Party opponent for the first time at the 1923 general election, and lost his seat. He did not stand for Parliament again.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: House of Commons constituencies beginning with "C" (part 4). https://web.archive.org/web/20081024173617/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Ccommons4.htm. 24 October 2008. Leigh Rayment's House of Commons pages. usurped. 2009-04-23.
  2. Web site: Debrett's House of Commons. 1922. via Archive.org. 2009-04-23.
  3. Book: Craig , F. W. S. . F. W. S. Craig

    . F. W. S. Craig . British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 . 1969 . 3rd . 1983 . Parliamentary Research Services . Chichester . 0-900178-06-X . 484.