Colonel Sir Thomas Andrew Polson, KBE, CMG, TD

Territorial Decoration

The Territorial Decoration was a medal of the United Kingdom awarded for long service in the Territorial Force and its successor, the Territorial Army...

, (28 August 1865 – 22 August 1946) was Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...

author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 who was briefly the 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 Dover

Dover (UK Parliament constituency)

Dover is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...

.

He was born in Tuam

Tuam

Tuam is a town in County Galway, Ireland. The name is pronounced choo-um . It is situated west of the midlands of Ireland, and north of Galway city.-History:...

, County Galway

County Galway

County Galway is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the city of Galway. Galway County Council is the local authority for the county. There are several strongly Irish-speaking areas in the west of the county...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, the eldest surviving son of Thomas Andrew Polson, Tuam agent for Bradford

Bradford

Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

 city wool buyers. He was educated at Tuam Diocesan School and from there went into business. He married Elizabeth Lindsay of Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 in 1918, while Chief Inspector of the Army Clothing Department.

Polson was elected to the House of Commons at a by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 in January 1921, after the Conservative

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...

 MP Viscount Duncannon

Vere Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough

Captain Vere Brabazon Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough was a British businessman and politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 14th since Canadian Confederation....

 had succeeded to the peerage as Earl of Bessborough

Earl of Bessborough

Earl of Bessborough is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1739 for Brabazon Ponsonby, 2nd Viscount Duncannon, who had previously represented Newtownards and County Kildare in the Irish House of Commons...

. Polson's election was supported by Horatio Bottomley

Horatio Bottomley

Horatio William Bottomley was a British financier, swindler, journalist, newspaper proprietor, populist politician and Member of Parliament .-Early life:...

, but although claimed by Bottonmley as a member of the right-wing Independent Parliamentary Group

Independent Parliamentary Group

The Independent Parliamentary Group was a right-wing political organisation in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1920 by Horatio Bottomley, elected in the 1918 UK general election as an independent Member of Parliament....

, he joined the Anti-Waste League

Anti-Waste League

The Anti-Waste League was a political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1921 by Lord Rothermere.The formation of the League was announced in a January 1921 edition of the Sunday Pictorial with Rothermere attacking what he saw as government waste during a time of recession. As such the party...

 shortly after his election. Polson stood again at the general election in November 1922

United Kingdom general election, 1922

The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...

, but was defeated by the Conservative candidate John Jacob Astor

John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron Astor of Hever

Lieutenant-Colonel John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron Astor of Hever DL was a British military officer, statesman, a newspaper proprietor, and a member of the prominent Astor family...

, whom he had defeated at the by-election in 1921.

He held the rank of Colonel

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 and was knighted.

Sources

• Galway Authors, Helen Mahar, 1976