Edward Loyden, known as Eddie Loyden, (3 May 1923–27 April 2003), was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 politician.

Loyden was Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Liverpool Garston

Liverpool Garston (UK Parliament constituency)

Liverpool Garston was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...

 from February 1974

United Kingdom general election, February 1974

The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...

 until he lost the seat to the Conservatives

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 in May 1979

United Kingdom general election, 1979

The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...

. However, favourable boundary changes allowed him to be re-elected in 1983

United Kingdom general election, 1983

The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...

, and he remained MP for Liverpool Garston until he retired in 1997.

Early years

He was born in 1923 into a large, working-class family living in Portland Street off Vauxhall Road, Liverpool. His father Patrick was a van driver for Tate and Lyle. On leaving school, Eddie worked for a cobblers in the Scotland Road area, but from a young age he wanted to be a seafarer and he would often cycle to the docks to try and get work. At the age of fifteen he got employment as a deck boy on a coaster, leaving his bike at the docks. His mother knew nothing of this until she received a telegram from his new employer.

Politics

He spent the second world war in the Merchant Navy and saw many friends perish at sea. After the war he worked for the Mersey Dock and Harbour Board and became chairman of his branch of the Powers Workers Union (later to become part of the Transport and General Workers Union.

He joined the Labour Party and was elected to Liverpool City Council in 1960. His maiden speech focused on the plight of the unemployed and the poor housing conditions that still existed in the City of Liverpool. He was involved in the seamen’s strike of 1966, despite Harold Wilson

Harold Wilson

James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...

’s denigration of the strikers as a "tightly knit group of politically motivated men".

In 1974 Loyden was elected MP for the Garston area of Liverpool a former traditional Tory seat. His majority was small, and he lost the seat to Malcolm Thornton

Malcolm Thornton

Sir George Malcolm Thornton , known as Malcolm Thornton, is a British Conservative politician.Thornton was first elected to Parliament in the 1979 general election, winning the marginal seat of Liverpool Garston from Labour's Eddie Loyden. In the early 1980s, however, all seats were re-organised...

 in 1979 and went on to be elected as City Councilor for the St Mary's ward in Garston, going on to become deputy Leader of the City Council. In 1983 he was re-elected to Parliament with a vastly increased majority. In the 1980s and 1990s he campaigned for the families of the seamen of the MV Derbyshire

MV Derbyshire

The MV Derbyshire was an ore-bulk-oil combination carrier built in 1976 by Swan Hunter, as the last in the series of the Bridge-class sextet. She was registered at Liverpool and owned by Bibby Line....

, which sank in Typhoon Orchid in 1980. He retired in 1997.

He died in 2003 from Alzheimer's.