Ben Spoor

{{Short description|British politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Use British English|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = Ben Spoor | honorific_suffix = OBE | image = Ben Spoor.jpg | alt = | caption = Spoor | constituency_MP = Bishop Auckland | parliament =  | majority =  | term_start = 1918 | term_end = 1928 | predecessor = Henry Havelock-Allan, Bt | successor = Ruth Dalton | prior_term = | pronunciation = | birth_name = Benjamin Charles Spoor | birth_date = {{Birth date|1878|6|2|df=y}} | birth_place = Witton Park | death_date = {{Death date and age|1928|12|22|1878|6|2|df=y}} | death_place = Regent Palace Hotel | death_cause =  | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | citizenship =  | party = Labour | other_party =  | height =  | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Annie Louisa Leybourne|1900|1920|end=died}} * {{marriage|Ann Mary Fraser|1923|}} }} | partner =  | relations = | children = Alec Spoor | parents =  | mother = Merrion Spoor | father = John Joseph Spoor | relatives = | education = Bishop Barrington School<br/>Elmfield College, York | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = | known_for = | salary = | cabinet = | committees = | portfolio = | awards =  | blank1 = | data1 = | blank2 = | data2 = | blank3 = | data3 = | blank4 = | data4 = | blank5 = | data5 = | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | website = | nickname = }} '''Benjamin Charles Spoor''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|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-contribs | mr-benjamin-spoor | Ben Spoor }}

{{S-start}} {{S-par|uk}} {{Succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland | years = 1918–1928 | before = Henry Havelock-Allan, Bt | after = Ruth Dalton }} {{S-off}} {{Succession box | title=Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury | before=Bolton Eyres-Monsell | after=Bolton Eyres-Monsell | years=1924}} {{S-end}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spoor, Ben}} Spoor, Benjamin Spoor, Benjamin Spoor, Benjamin Spoor, Benjamin Category:UK MPs 1918–1922 Category:UK MPs 1922–1923 Category:UK MPs 1923–1924 Category:UK MPs 1924–1929 Category:People from County Durham (district) Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire