{{Short description|British Labour Party politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Sir Joseph Cleary | birth_date = {{birth date|1902|10|26|df=yes}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1993|2|9|1902|10|26|df=yes}} | honorific_suffix = J.P. | image = | caption = | order = | party = [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] | office = Lord Mayor of Liverpool | term_start = 1949 | term_end = 1950 | predecessor = Walter Thomas Lancashire | successor = [[Harry Dixon Longbottom]] | constituency_MP1 = Liverpool Wavertree | term_start1 = 6 February 1935 | term_end1 = 25 October 1935 | predecessor1 = [[Ronald Nall-Cain, 2nd Baron Brocket|Ronald Nall-Cain]] | successor1 = [[Peter Stapleton Shaw]] }} '''Sir Joseph Jackson Cleary''', [[Justice of the peace|JP]] (26 October 1902 – 9 February 1993) was a British [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politician.
==Early life== Joseph Cleary was born in the [[West Derby]] district of [[Liverpool]] 26 October 1902 .<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sir-joseph-cleary-1473610.html Obituary], ''The Independent''</ref> He was educated at Holy Trinity School, [[Anfield]] and at [[Skerry's College]], Liverpool.
== Career == Cleary was appointed a Liverpool [[justice of the peace]] in 1927. A member of the Labour Party, he contested the [[1929 East Toxteth by-election]] and fought the seat again at the [[1929 United Kingdom general election|general election later that year]], performing creditably in a safe [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] seat. In the [[1931 United Kingdom general election|1931 general election]] Cleary fought the [[West Derby (UK Parliament constituency)|West Derby division of Liverpool]]. This was a terrible year for Labour and his Conservative opponent trounced him by over 23,000 votes.<ref name="Craig">{{cite book |last=Craig |first=F. W. S. |authorlink= F. W. S. Craig |title=British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 |orig-date=1969 |edition= 3rd |year=1983 |publisher= Parliamentary Research Services |location=Chichester |isbn= 0-900178-06-X}}</ref> He was the councillor for Garston ward from 1927 to 1941.
In 1934, [[Liverpool Wavertree (UK Parliament constituency)|Liverpool Wavertree]]'s Conservative [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) [[Ronald Nall-Cain, 2nd Baron Brocket|Ronald Nall-Cain]] succeeded to the peerage, and Cleary was selected as the Labour candidate for the [[1935 Liverpool Wavertree by-election|resulting by-election on 6 February 1935]]. With the Conservative vote split by the presence of [[Winston Churchill]]'s son [[Randolph Churchill|Randolph]] as an independent Conservative candidate, Cleary won the seat with the largest [[swing (politics)|swing]] ever recorded between the Conservative and Labour parties.<ref name="Craig" /> At 30% (from Conservative to Labour) it remains unsurpassed to this day.
Cleary's victory was to last just 281 days, making him one of the shortest-serving MPs of the 20th century. At the [[1935 United Kingdom general election|general election in November 1935]], he lost by almost 8,000 votes in a straight fight with the Conservatives.
==Later life== Cleary was made an [[Alderman]] of Liverpool in 1941 and leader of the Labour group from 1935 to 1948. He undertook lecture-tours to British Forces in the [[Middle East]] in 1945. Later that year he married Ethel McColl. He was [[Lord Mayor of Liverpool]] 1949–50.
Twenty years after losing his seat in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]], he re-entered the fray to contest [[Liverpool Walton (UK Parliament constituency)|Liverpool Walton]] in the [[1955 United Kingdom general election|1955 general election]]. This is the longest gap recorded of any former MP in trying to return to Parliament.{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}} He was unsuccessful, but did obtain a small swing against the national trend.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge55/i13.htm |title=UK General Election results May 1955 |publisher=Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources |accessdate=2007-10-04 |archive-date=25 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060925064259/http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge55/i13.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
He was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in the [[1965 Birthday Honours|1965 Queen's Birthday Honours List]] and made a [[Freedom of the City|Freeman]] of the City of Liverpool in 1970. Cleary served as a director of the [[Mersey Docks and Harbour Board]] until 1970.
He died in [[Garston, Liverpool|Garston]] on 9 February 1993, aged 90.
Sir Joseph Cleary enjoyed one of the longest post-service lifespans of any former MP, at 57 years and 87 days. This record was broken in October 2002 by [[Horace Trevor-Cox]].<ref>[[Joseph Sweeney (Irish politician)|Joseph Sweeney]] was elected [[Sinn Féin]] member for [[West Donegal (UK Parliament constituency)|West Donegal]] in 1918, aged 21. He did not take his seat in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]], but sat in the [[Dáil Éireann]]. He died in 1980, some 58 years after the last occasion in 1922 that he could have taken his seat.</ref>
==See also== [[List of United Kingdom MPs with the shortest service]] *[[UK by-election records]]
== Notes and references == {{Reflist}}
{{S-start}} {{S-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Liverpool Wavertree (UK Parliament constituency)|Liverpool Wavertree]] | years = [[1935 Liverpool Wavertree by-election|February 1935]]–[[1935 United Kingdom general election|November 1935]] | before = [[Ronald Nall-Cain, 2nd Baron Brocket|Ronald Nall-Cain]] | after = [[Peter Stapleton Shaw|Peter Shaw]] }} {{S-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleary, Joseph Jackson}} [[Category:1902 births]] [[Category:1993 deaths]] [[Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]] [[Category:UK MPs 1931–1935]] [[Category:Mayors of Liverpool]] [[Category:Knights Bachelor]] [[Category:Labour Party (UK) councillors in Liverpool]]