Common Wealth Party; Acland, Sir Richard Thomas Dyke, 1906-1990; Lawson, Hugh Mcdowall, 1912-1997; Calder, Angus Lindsay, b 1942

Formed in July 1942 by the merger of the 1941 Committee with the Forward March movement, the Common Wealth Party adopted a manifesto which was socialist, calling for public ownership and morality in politics. In defiance of the Labour-Conservative truce during the Second World War, it fielded candidates against the Government and succeeded in returning three Members of Parliament in by-elections. Chaired by the author J. B. Priestley for the first two months of its life, it was his successor, Sir Richard Acland MP (1906-1990) who led the party to its by-election victories. However, after widespread defeat in the post-war General Election of 1945, when only one Common Wealth Party member was returned, Acland resigned. As a party fighting parliamentary elections, it was dissolved, with many of its members joining Labour. But Common Wealth continued as a pressure group into the 1990s.

From the guide to the The Common Wealth Papers, 1938-1993, (University of Sussex Library)