{{Short description|British politician (1896-1956)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Tom Horabin | honorific_suffix = | image = Thomas Horabin.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | office = Liberal Chief Whip | term_start = 2 August 1945 | term_end = 21 March 1946 | leader = Clement Davies | predecessor = Percy Harris | successor = Frank Byers | office1 = Member of Parliament<br />for North Cornwall | term_start1 = 13 July 1939 | term_end1 = 3 February 1950 | predecessor1 = Francis Dyke Acland | successor1 = Harold Roper | birth_name = Thomas Lewis Horabin | birth_date = {{Birth date|1896|12|28|df=yes}} | birth_place = Merthyr Tydfil, Mid Glamorgan, Wales, UK | death_date = {{Death date and age|1956|04|26|1896|12|28|df=yes}} | death_place = Folkestone, Kent, England, UK | party = Labour (from 1947) | other_party = Independent (1946-47)<br />Liberal (until 1946) | spouse = | children = 3 | father = | mother = | relatives = | education = Cardiff High School | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = }} '''Thomas Lewis Horabin''' (28 December 1896 – 26 April 1956)<ref name="rayment">{{Rayment-hc|c|6|date=March 2012}}</ref> was a British Liberal Party politician who defected to the Labour Party. He sat in the House of Commons from 1939 to 1950.
==Early life and career== Horabin was born in Merthyr Tydfil<ref name="times-obit">{{cite news |url=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/0/246/138584818w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS219633310 |title=Mr. T. Horabin Former M.P. For North Cornwall |date=30 April 1956 |work=The Times |page=13, col E |accessdate=8 February 2011 |location=London}} {{subscription required}}</ref> and educated at Cardiff High School, and during the First World War he served from 1914 to 1918 with the Cameron Highlanders.<ref name="whos-who-mps-iv">{{Cite book |last1=Stenton |first1=Michael |last2=Lees |first2=Stephens |title=Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Volume IV, 1945–1979 |year=1981 |publisher=The Harvester Press |location=Brighton |isbn=0-85527-335-6 |page=172}}</ref>
After the war he went into business, and became chairman of Lacrinoid Ltd, which made buttons and other synthetic products.<ref name="times-obit" /> Later he worked as a business consultant,<ref name="whos-who-mps-iv"/> and worked with a company formed in 1948 to develop trade with Yugoslavia.<ref name="times-obit" />
==Political career== Following the death of Liberal Member of Parliament (MP), Sir Francis Acland in 1939, Horabin was selected by North Cornwall Liberals to defend the marginal seat at the resulting by-election. Along with his party leader, Sir Archibald Sinclair, he was a vocal opponent of Chamberlain's Nazi appeasement policy. This issue was central to the debate in the by-election, which he won with an increased majority of 1,464 in a straight fight with the Conservatives.<ref name="craig1918-1949">{{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 |page=312}}</ref>
He was also a strong advocate, along with Sir Stafford Cripps, of a Popular Front of left-of-centre parties coming together to defeat the Conservative led National government. He continued to hold the seat until 1950.<ref name="rayment" />
In 1944 he authored ''Politics Made Plain. What the next general election will really be about'', a book published by Penguin which urged voters to reject Churchill and the Conservatives at the general election. He was re-elected in 1945 and appointed Liberal Chief Whip by the new Liberal leader, Clement Davies.<ref name="whos-who-mps-iv" /> However, he became frustrated with some of the pro-Conservative sympathies of some of his colleagues. He resigned his post and his party's whip in 1946 to sit as an Independent.<ref name="whos-who-mps-iv" />
In January 1947, he was seriously injured when a BOAC aircraft in which he was a passenger crashed in Kent.<ref name="times-1947-01-13">{{cite news |url=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/811/562/138583410w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS34685997 |title=Air Crash Near Folkestone Six Persons Killed, M.P. Among Injured Passengers |date=13 January 1947 |work=The Times |page=2, col C |accessdate=8 February 2011 |location=London}} {{subscription required}}</ref> He later sued BOAC for damages, and after hearings in the High Court, the case was settled in November 1952 when he accepted £3,017 in damages.<ref name="times-boac-settlement">{{cite news |url=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/685/882/138582650w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS185552743&dyn=14!xrn_8_0_CS185552743 |title=High Court Of Justice Queen's Bench Division, Dakota Crash In 1947: Settlement Of Action, Horabin v. British Overseas Airways Corporation |date=7 November 1952 |work=The Times |page=11, col G |accessdate=8 February 2011 |location=London}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
In November 1947 Horabin took the Labour whip.<ref name="times-1947-11-19">{{cite news |url=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/685/882/138582650w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS34686323 |title=Mr. T. L. Horabin, M.P. Reasons For Joining Labour Party |date=19 November 1947 |work=The Times |page=2, col B |accessdate=8 February 2011 |location=London}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
The North Cornwall Liberals wanted him to resign the seat and seek re-election, but he refused, saying that the principles for which he stood had been set out clearly in his address to voters at the general election.<ref name="times-1947-11-28">{{cite news |url=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/685/882/138582650w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS101795196 |title=Mr. Horabin's Change of Party Reply To N. Cornwall |date=28 November 1947 |work=The Times |pages=6, col E |accessdate=8 February 2011 |location=London}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
At the 1950 election, Labour invited him to defend North Cornwall as a Labour candidate, but he refused on the grounds that he would then be campaigning against people who had previously campaigned for him.<ref name="times-obit" /> A further factor was that his injuries in the crash had been severe, keeping him away from Parliament for a year,<ref name="times-1947-11-19" /> and a campaign in the scattered North Cornwall constituency might have been too great a strain.<ref name="times-obit" /> Instead he fought Exeter as the Labour candidate, but lost to the sitting Conservative MP John Cyril Maude.<ref name="times-exeter-defeat">{{cite news |url=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/664/91/138583779w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS67586649 |title=Labour Victories on Minority Vote Split Vote Decisions at Bristol |date=25 February 1950 |work=The Times |page=4, col B |accessdate=8 February 2011 |location=London}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
==Personal life== Horabin died in Folkestone on 26 April 1956, aged 60.<ref name="times-obit" /> Having married in 1920, he left a widow, two sons and a daughter.<ref name="times-obit" />
== References == {{reflist|colwidth=33em}}
==Further reading== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20061001043120/http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/uploads/28-Autumn%202000.pdf “Tom Horabin” - the maverick career of the radical Liberal MP] by Jaime Reynolds and Ian Hunter: Journal of Liberal History, Issue 28, Autumn 2000 * "Tom Horabin remembered" – interview with Mary Wright, the daughter of Tom Horabin MP by Robert Ingham, Journal of Liberal History, Issue 53, Winter 2006-07
== External links == {{Portal|Cornwall}} * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-thomas-horabin | Tom Horabin }} * {{NPG name}} *[https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1629 The Papers of Thomas Horabin] held at Churchill Archives Centre
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef|before=Francis Dyke Acland}} {{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for North Cornwall | years = 1939–1950}} {{s-aft|after=Harold Roper}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=Percy Harris}} {{s-ttl|title=Liberal Chief Whip | years = 1945–1946}} {{s-aft|after=Frank Byers}} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horabin, Tom}} Category:1896 births Category:1956 deaths Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for North Cornwall Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:UK MPs 1935–1945 Category:UK MPs 1945–1950 Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders soldiers Category:Survivors of aviation accidents or incidents Category:Military personnel from Merthyr Tydfil County Borough