Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The Manor of Northstead and the Chiltern Hundreds

I have written before about my political hero John William "Paddy" Logan, who was Liberal MP for Harborough in the good old days. It seems he has another claim to fame.

His health was poor in later life because of a hunting accident and he resigned as an MP on two occasions.

As a result, I suspect he is the only person to have been appointed as both Steward of the Manor of Northcote and Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds. He was appointed to the former post in 1904 and to the latter in 1916.

I have not been through the two lists to make sure, but I would be surprised if anyone else has achieved this distinction.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello there,

My name is Samuel Francis Logan Haynes, and I'm trying to find out as much as I can about John William "Paddy" Logan. He was my great great great grandfather, you see, and i've grown up with his portrait hanging on my great grandmother's wall! I'd quite like to put a personality to the face, and you seem to know much more than i do about him.It would be great if you would get in touch.

My email address is haynes_scion@msn.com

Thanks very much for your help.

Sam.

Mark Thompson said...

Another bit of MP resignation trivia that I found fascinating was that when Tony Blair resigned, Gordon Brown appointed him to the Chiltern Hundreds, as is the custom for the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Except that by that point Brown was actually Prime Minister. So that proves that technically he was both Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer simultaneously. At least until he appointed Alistair Darling the next day.

Not sure how often that has happened during history either.