# Percy Wells

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For the businessman involved in marine civil engineering in South Australia, see [Percy Wells (businessman)](/source/Percy_Wells_(businessman)).

**Percy Lawrence Wells**, [JP](/source/Justice_of_the_Peace) (8 June 1891 – 3 April 1964) was a British [trade union](/source/Trade_union) official and [Labour Party](/source/Labour_Party_(UK)) politician.

Wells was born in [Kent](/source/Kent) and went to [Stone](/source/Stone,_Kent) [Church of England](/source/Church_of_England) school in [Greenhithe](/source/Greenhithe,_Kent). At the age of 16 he enlisted in the [Royal Navy](/source/Royal_Navy), in which he served for three years; on leaving, he travelled around the world, stopping in Canada, the United States of America, the Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia.

In 1919, Wells became an official of the [Transport and General Workers' Union](/source/Transport_and_General_Workers'_Union). By the end of the 1930s he was Kent General Secretary of the union, and in 1937 he did his best to stop an unofficial strike of busmen. He was made a [Justice of the Peace](/source/Justice_of_the_Peace) for Kent in 1938 and served on the Central Agricultural Wages Board; a large number of TGWU members in Kent were agricultural labourers.

At the [1945 general election](/source/1945_United_Kingdom_general_election), Wells was elected as the [Member of Parliament](/source/Member_of_Parliament_(United_Kingdom)) (MP) for [Faversham](/source/Faversham_(UK_Parliament_constituency)), and was immediately picked by [Ernest Bevin](/source/Ernest_Bevin) ([Foreign Secretary](/source/Secretary_of_State_for_Foreign_and_Commonwealth_Affairs)) as his [Parliamentary Private Secretary](/source/Parliamentary_Private_Secretary). He retained the role until Bevin's death in 1951.

Later in the 1950s Wells campaigned for more industries to come to [Sheerness](/source/Sheerness) and the [Isle of Sheppey](/source/Isle_of_Sheppey). He had to fight hard in a marginal constituency, and in the [1955 general election](/source/1955_United_Kingdom_general_election) had a majority of only 59 votes. Against the trend, he improved his majority in [1959](/source/1959_United_Kingdom_general_election), but only to 253. In poor health, he announced his retirement in 1961, but died before the end of the Parliament. His seat was retained for Labour in the [resulting by-election](/source/1964_Faversham_by-election) by [Terence Boston](/source/Terence_Boston,_Baron_Boston_of_Faversham).

## References

- M. Stenton and S. Lees, *Who's Who of British MPs* Vol. IV (Harvester Press, 1981)
- Obituary, *[The Times](/source/The_Times)*, 6 April 1964

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Percy Wells](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Wells) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Wells?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.