- Alfred Critchley
Brigadier-General Alfred Cecil Critchley, CMG, CBE, DSO (1890 – 9 February 1963) was an entrepreneur and
politician in theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). He served as a ConservativeMember of Parliament (MP) from 1934 to 1935.Critchley was born in Calgary, Canada in 1890 and brought to England at the age of nine.cite book|last = Ticher|first=Mike|title="The Story of Harringay Stadium and Arena"|publisher=Hornsey Historical Society|date=2002|isbn =: 0 905794 29 X.] His first career was a military one, intitially in a Canadian military regiment and towards the end of the
First World War , in the Royal Flying Corps whose training he organised. By the end of the war he had become the youngest Brigadier-General in the British Imperial armies at the age of only 27 and had married Maryon Galt, the cousin of the wife of the press baron Sir Max Aitken, laterLord Beaverbrook .After the war Critchley involved himself in a number of business ventures in
Central America before returning to the UK where he became a director of Associated Portland Cement. In 1926 he formed the private company, theGreyhound Racing Association . Under the auspices of this company he became a significant sporting enterpreneur in the UK. He introduced greyhound racing to the UK in Belle Vue,Manchester in 1926. The success of this intital trial led Critchley to purchase theWhite City stadium inLondon . He subsequently built both theHarringay Stadium andHarringay Arena .He was married for a second time in London to Miss Joan Foster of Mount Street London on December 22nd 1927. ["
The Guardian ", December 23rd, 1927]Critchley contested the 1929 general election as a Conservative in the Manchester Gorton constituency, a
safe seat for the Labour Party where he was heavily defeated.In February 1931, he contested the Islington East by-election as a candidate for the
Empire Free Trade Crusade and theUnited Empire Party , which both sought to make the British Empire a free trade bloc. The Empire Crusade had won the Paddington South by-election in October 1930, and hoped to repeat its success. Critchley came second, with 27.2% of the votes, and the Empire Crusade never won another seat.He rejoined the Conservative Party, and won the Twickenham by-election on 22 June 1934. Nevertheless, he did not contest the 1935 general election.
He was a director general of
BOAC from 1943 - 1946. [Obiituary in "The Guardian ", February 10th, 1963]In 1953 he suffered a severe infection which caused him to go blind. In 1954 he was involved in the publishing deals of
Robert Maxwell .Further reading
"Critch! The Memoirs of Brigadier General", A.C. Critchley, London, Hutchinson, 1961
References
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*Rayment
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