29 Facts About Wallace Lawler

Wallace Leslie Lawler was a British Liberal politician.

Wallace Lawler was elected a Member of Parliament by gaining Birmingham, Ladywood from Labour at a by-election on 26 June 1969.

However, Lawler only served for one year, as Labour's Doris Fisher regained the seat from him at the 1970 general election.

Wallace Lawler was the last Liberal to serve as a Member of Parliament in Birmingham, until John Hemming of the successor Liberal Democrats gained Birmingham, Yardley in 2005.

Wallace Lawler was born in Worcester, the son of Stephen and Elizabeth Lawler.

Wallace Lawler was educated at St Paul's School, Worcester and privately at Malvern, Worcestershire.

Wallace Lawler had an early interest in community projects and youth work in particular.

Wallace Lawler worked for the community through the Wallace Lawler Friendship Trust and Citizens' Service Ltd.

At the time of the 1945 general election, Wallace Lawler was said to be a man opposed to all political parties, but during the 1950s he became active in the Liberal Party, even though its electoral record in the West Midlands was dismal.

Britain's then best-selling newspaper the Daily Mirror reported Wallace Lawler's campaigning activities, starting with a big splash on his Homeless Bureau in 1956.

In 1962, Wallace Lawler became the first Liberal to be elected to Birmingham City Council for nearly 30 years when he won the Newtown Ward.

Wallace Lawler was re-elected in 1965, not only holding his seat but increasing his majority fourfold.

Wallace Lawler held a number of important Liberal posts in the Birmingham area, including Chairman of Birmingham Liberal Organisation, and became the first chairman of the Birmingham Liberal Federation when it was founded in 1965.

In what was by that time one of the smallest constituencies in the country, with an electorate of only just over 25,000 Wallace Lawler found he was able to make a greater impact at Parliamentary level, campaigning directly with the people who lived in the area.

Wallace Lawler managed to come second to Labour in 1966, beating the Conservatives into third place.

The Birmingham Post wrote that Wallace Lawler waged a 'canny campaign': 'in his election posters, the fact that he is a Liberal is not mentioned.

In 1967, in the controversy which followed the first screening of the television drama Cathy Come Home the previous December, Wallace Lawler was reported as saying that he dealt with a "Cathy family" every day in his political work in Birmingham.

Wallace Lawler did not hold the seat he had gained at the by-election the year before as the seat was regained for Labour, with a majority of 980 votes, by Doris Fisher.

In 1958, Wallace Lawler said that immigrants had "preference" in the housing market, while local families with young children lost out.

Six months after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Wallace Lawler chaired a meeting in Birmingham addressed by the Information Attache at South Africa House, London, which was reported under the headline "Apartheid aims at civilising peoples".

In 1961 Wallace Lawler spoke alongside other local political figures at a solidarity meeting in Birmingham, timed to coincide with three days of non co-operation protest by black people in South Africa.

Wallace Lawler advocated immigration controls in his 1961 election address for the city council's Sandwell Ward.

Wallace Lawler took 1,025 votes and Harry Jones of the Birmingham Immigration Control Association took 1,002.

Wallace Lawler was certainly keenly aware of public concerns about immigration at this time.

Wallace Lawler called for government financial compensation to householders for the depreciation in house prices in "hardship cases such as elderly people who suddenly found that immigrants were living next door".

Wallace Lawler called for "a tightening-up of the employment voucher system so that immigrants were prevented from drawing national assistance soon after arriving".

Wallace Lawler was active for the Liberal party at national level.

Wallace Lawler was Vice-Chairman of the Liberal Party Council and Vice-President of the Liberal Party Executive in 1968.

Wallace Lawler advocated a policy of dispersal of immigrants and suggested that most categories of immigrants should be prevented from settling in Birmingham.