# Tom Horabin

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{{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](/source/Chief_Whip_of_the_Liberal_Democrats)
 | term_start       = 2 August 1945
 | term_end         = 21 March 1946
 | leader           = [Clement Davies](/source/Clement_Davies)
 | predecessor      = [Percy Harris](/source/Percy_Harris_(politician))
 | successor        = [Frank Byers](/source/Frank_Byers)
 | office1          = [Member of Parliament](/source/Member_of_Parliament_(United_Kingdom))<br />for [North Cornwall](/source/North_Cornwall_(UK_Parliament_constituency))
 | term_start1      = 13 July 1939
 | term_end1        = 3 February 1950
 | predecessor1     = [Francis Dyke Acland](/source/Francis_Dyke_Acland)
 | successor1       = [Harold Roper](/source/Harold_Roper)
 | birth_name       = Thomas Lewis Horabin
 | birth_date       = {{Birth date|1896|12|28|df=yes}}
 | birth_place      = [Merthyr Tydfil](/source/Merthyr_Tydfil), [Mid Glamorgan](/source/Mid_Glamorgan), [Wales](/source/Wales), UK
 | death_date       = {{Death date and age|1956|04|26|1896|12|28|df=yes}}
 | death_place      = [Folkestone](/source/Folkestone), [Kent](/source/Kent), [England](/source/England), UK
 | party            = [Labour](/source/Labour_Party_(UK)) (from 1947)
 | other_party      =  [Independent](/source/Independent_politician) (1946-47)<br />[Liberal](/source/Liberal_Party_(UK)) (until 1946) 
 | spouse           = 
 | children         = 3
 | father           = 
 | mother           = 
 | relatives        = 
 | education        = [Cardiff High School](/source/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](/source/Liberal_Party_(UK)) politician who defected to the [Labour Party](/source/Labour_Party_(UK)). He sat in the [House of Commons](/source/House_of_Commons_of_the_United_Kingdom) from 1939 to 1950.

==Early life and career==
Horabin was born in [Merthyr Tydfil](/source/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](/source/The_Times) |page=13, col E |accessdate=8 February 2011 |location=London}} {{subscription required}}</ref> and educated at [Cardiff High School](/source/Cardiff_High_School), and during the [First World War](/source/World_War_I) he served from 1914 to 1918 with the [Cameron Highlanders](/source/Queen's_Own_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](/source/Yugoslavia).<ref name="times-obit" />

==Political career==
Following the death of Liberal [Member of Parliament](/source/Member_of_Parliament_(United_Kingdom)) (MP), Sir [Francis Acland](/source/Francis_Acland) in 1939, Horabin was selected by [North Cornwall](/source/North_Cornwall_(UK_Parliament_constituency)) Liberals to defend the marginal seat at the [resulting by-election](/source/1939_North_Cornwall_by-election). Along with his party leader, Sir [Archibald Sinclair](/source/Archibald_Sinclair%2C_1st_Viscount_Thurso), he was a vocal opponent of [Chamberlain](/source/Neville_Chamberlain)'s [Nazi](/source/Nazism) [appeasement](/source/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](/source/Stafford_Cripps), of a [Popular Front](/source/Popular_Front_(UK)) of left-of-centre parties coming together to defeat the [Conservative](/source/Conservative_Party_(UK)) led [National government](/source/National_Government_1935-1940). 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](/source/Penguin_Books) which urged voters to reject [Churchill](/source/Winston_Churchill) and the Conservatives at the general election. He was re-elected in [1945](/source/1945_United_Kingdom_general_election) and appointed Liberal [Chief Whip](/source/Whip_(politics)) by the new Liberal leader, [Clement Davies](/source/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](/source/British_Overseas_Airways_Corporation) aircraft in which he was a passenger [crashed in Kent](/source/1947_BOAC_Douglas_C-47_crash).<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](/source/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](/source/High_Court_of_Justice), 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](/source/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](/source/1950_United_Kingdom_general_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](/source/Exeter_(UK_Parliament_constituency)) as the Labour candidate, but lost to the sitting Conservative MP [John Cyril Maude](/source/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](/source/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](/source/Churchill_Archives_Centre)

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{s-bef|before=[Francis Dyke Acland](/source/Francis_Dyke_Acland)}}
{{s-ttl|title=[Member of Parliament](/source/Member_of_Parliament_(United_Kingdom)) for [North Cornwall](/source/North_Cornwall_(UK_Parliament_constituency))
  | years  = [1939](/source/1939_North_Cornwall_by-election)–[1950](/source/1950_United_Kingdom_general_election)}}
{{s-aft|after=[Harold Roper](/source/Harold_Roper)}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=[Percy Harris](/source/Percy_Harris_(politician))}}
{{s-ttl|title=[Liberal Chief Whip](/source/Liberal_Chief_Whip) | years  = 1945–1946}}
{{s-aft|after=[Frank Byers](/source/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

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