21 Facts About Alfred Salter

Alfred Salter was a British medical practitioner and Labour Party politician.

Alfred Salter was made house physician and resident obstetric physician at Guy's and was appointed as bacteriologist to what later became the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine.

Alfred Salter chose to offer services free to those who could not pay.

Alfred Salter decided that by entering politics he could effect changes to the squalid environment in Bermondsey far more quickly and profoundly than he could outside the political arena.

Alfred Salter was elected to Bermondsey Borough Council in 1903, and was a member of the local board of guardians.

Cooper had been elected as a Liberal Party Member of Parliament, and although Alfred Salter had succeeded him on the county council, he had since become aligned with the Independent Labour Party.

Alfred Salter was chosen to defend the Bermondsey seat as a Labour candidate against both the Progressives and the Conservative-backed Municipal Reform Party.

Alfred Salter was heavily defeated, coming at the bottom of the poll of five candidates.

Alfred Salter contested the same seat in 1913, but was again unsuccessful.

Alfred Salter was selected as Labour Party candidate for the new Bermondsey West seat, and was described in the following terms by The Times:.

Alfred Salter held the seat in 1922, and in the same year was elected as the first female mayor of the borough.

Alfred Salter was helped to victory by there being three opposing candidates, with the Anti-Labour vote split between Liberal, National Liberal and Independent Unionist opponents.

Alfred Salter was able to overturn the result of the previous year, increasing his vote to 11,578 and unseating Kedward with a majority of 2,902.

Alfred Salter was re-elected in the general elections of 1929,1931, and 1935, but stood down at the 1945 election, when he was in very poor health, and died soon afterwards, aged 72.

Alfred Salter was one of the founders of the Socialist Medical Association and a friend of its President Somerville Hastings, with whom he made a trip to the Soviet Union in 1931.

Alfred Salter believed appeasement could avert war with Germany, stating in November 1938 that "the average German will withdraw his backing from Hitler if we show willingness to be just".

Alfred Salter caused controversy when he spoke out against widespread drunkenness in the House of Commons.

In 1990 a plaque to mark Dr Alfred Salter's birthplace was unveiled in Greenwich.

The Alfred Salter Bridge is a footbridge leading off Watermans Lane, between Stave Hill and Redriff Road, near Greenland Dock as part of the Russia Dock Woodland.

In 2002 a plaque to Alfred Salter, mentioning Ada, was unveiled at Bermondsey tube station.

The statue of Alfred Salter was stolen, presumably for the value of its bronze, in November 2011.