6 December 1923: Future Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson (7) is recovering well from appendicitis in a private clinic in Huddersfield
Leslie Smith. 1964. Harold Wilson. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Who can tell me more about Leslie Smith? I’m guessing he/she was born in the 1920s. Get it:
.Unedited excerpt
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At the age of seven, however, he was taken badly ill with appendicitis – quite a serious occurrence in those days. Herbert and Ethel thought it best that the operation should be performed in a private nursing home. There, as distinct from the ordinary hospital, it would be possible to visit him regularly every day – a very desirable facility, they felt, for a young child, especially with Christmas only a fortnight ahead. With Herbert’s salary now having reached £500 a year, and with some savings in the bank, it was a practical proposition.
While Herbert and Ethel were visiting him on the evening of the day after the operation, most other people were going to the polling booths: it was voting day in the General Election of 1923. Harold greeted his parents with two major concerns. Had they brought his copy of Bubbles? They had. And had they cast their votes for Philip Snowden, the Colne Valley Labour candidate? They had not. In that case, they must hasten to do so. He urged them to leave him in time to vote before the booths closed.
When Ethel arrived at the nursing home next day, the matron greeted her with some bewilderment. Harold had been pestering a nurse all morning to telephone the Returning Officer to find out the result of the voting. Only when she had done so, and had reported back to him that Snowden had, in fact, been returned, was he willing to co-operate in the various nursing routines.
It would be easy to exaggerate the significance of this episode. He was almost as interested in reading about Buffalo Bill in Scouts of the Great Wild West, which his teacher had sent him, as he was in following Snowden’s success at the time. In reality he understood very little about the issues involved in the election, and regarded the contest in the same kind of light as he regarded a match played by Huddersfield Town.
He knew, however, that the election was regarded seriously by his parents, and his own interest faithfully reflected theirs. In fact, he took it so seriously that for years afterwards his parents did not dare to tell him that after leaving him that evening, thick fog had delayed their tram, and they had arrived at the booth too late to vote.
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Comment
The salary of of £500 quoted for Herbert Wilson would have been worth about £26,500 in December 2025. The butcher’s bill was apparently £60.
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- 1923 United Kingdom general election (1) W/G ·
- Appendicitis (1) W/G ·
- Colne Valley (UK Parliament constituency) (1) W/G ·
- Comics (1) W/G ·
- Healthcare in the United Kingdom (1) W/G ·
- Huddersfield Town A.F.C. (1) W/G ·
- 📌Huddersfield (32) W/G ·
- Labour Party (UK) (18) W/G ·
- Milnsbridge (3) W/G ·
- Private healthcare in the United Kingdom (1) W/G ·
- Ramsay MacDonald (1) W/G ·
- Snowden, Philip (1864-1937) (1), Cowling-born politician, first Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer (1924, 1929-31), expelled in 1931 for supporting MacDonald's coalition with the Tories W/G ·
- Stanley Baldwin (1) W/G ·
- Tram (4) W/G ·
- Wilson, Harold (1916-1995) (6), Huddersfield-born prime minister (1964-70, 1974-76), leader of the Labour Party (1963-76), MP (1945-83) W/G ·
Comment
Comment
The salary of of £500 quoted for Herbert Wilson would have been worth about £26,500 in December 2025. The butcher’s bill was apparently £60.
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Catherine Bailey covers the affair extensively (Bailey 2007). The parkland was generally open to the public and formed a major community resource, but, despite claims that the coal was of poor quality and attempts to enlist the ex-Yorkshire miner and minister, Tom Williams, Rotherham and the Fitzwilliams lost out to alleged class prejudice and genuine fuel shortages. However, Shinwell, who forced the issue, lost his job after his failure to deal with the energy crisis caused by the hard winter of 1946-47.
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