Ben Spoor

The Right Honourable Ben Spoor OBE
Spoor
Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland
In office 1918–1928
Preceded by	Henry Havelock-Allan, Bt
Succeeded by	Ruth Dalton
Personal details
Born	Benjamin Charles Spoor (1878-06-02)2 June 1878 Witton Park
Died	22 December 1928(1928-12-22) (aged 50) Regent Palace Hotel
Political party	Labour
Spouses	Annie Louisa Leybourne ​ ​ (m. 1900; died 1920)​ Ann Mary Fraser ​ (m. 1923)​
Children	Alec Spoor
Parents	John Joseph Spoor (father) Merrion Spoor (mother)
Education	Bishop Barrington School Elmfield College, York

Benjamin Charles Spoor PC (2 June 1878 – 22 December 1928), OBE, was a British Labour Party politician. He took a particular interest in India.

Born in Witton Park, County Durham, he went to Elmfield College, York, and came from a family of Primitive Methodists. An engineer by training, he later went into business as a builder's merchant. Before entering politics, he was a lay preacher in the Methodist Church.

At the 1918 general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland, and held the seat until his death at the age of fifty. In Parliament, he found himself at odds with many Labour MPs and contemplated joining the Liberal Party. He was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and Chief Whip in 1924, when he was made a Privy Councillor.

He had suffered from poor health since contracting malaria at Salonika during World War I. On a visit to London in December 1928, he was found dead in bed at the Regent Palace Hotel. At the inquest, his son said that his father had taken to drinking heavily. His death, it was decided, was due to syncope from disease of the heart and liver, due to chronic alcoholism.

References

• The Times, 24 December 1928 (obituary), 27 December 1928 (inquest report)
• The Fall of Lloyd George: The Political Crisis of 1922

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Ben Spoor