Middlesex County Council


Middlesex County Council was the principal local government body in the administrative county of Middlesex from 1889 to 1965.
The county council was created by the Local Government Act 1888, which also removed the most populous part of the county to constitute the County of London.

Elections and political control

The county council consisted of elected councillors and co-opted county aldermen. The entire body of county councillors was elected every three years. Aldermen were additional members, there being a ratio of one alderman to three councillors. Aldermen had a six-year term of office, and one half of their number were elected by the councillors immediately after the triennial elections.
The first elections were held in January 1889. The first meeting of the "provisional" county council was held on 14 February 1889 at Westminster Town Hall. Although the council did not use political labels, among the aldermen elected were members of the parliamentary Conservative Party.
From 1919 the non-political composition of the council was challenged by the election of members of the Labour Party. The 1922 and 1925 elections were, for the most part, not run on party lines. In 1928 the majority of the council were described as "Moderate", with Labour forming an opposition. Labour continued to make advances at the 1931 election, and this led to the formation of a Middlesex Municipal Association "representative of all anti-Socialist members". The association was supported by the various Conservative Party organisations of the county although it was not officially affiliated to the party, and controlled the council until 1946.
In 1946 Labour took control of the county council for the first time. Following this, the Conservative Party contested elections to the county council, winning control in 1949 and holding it at the 1952 and 1955 elections. In 1958 Labour regained control.
At the elections held in 1961 the Conservatives were returned to power. These were to be the final elections to the county council: under the London Government Act 1963 the elections due in 1964 were cancelled, with the elections to the shadow Greater London Council being held instead.

Chairmen of the Middlesex County Council

The chairman of the county council chaired its meetings and also represented it in a ceremonial manner, in a similar fashion to the mayor of a borough. Twenty-nine people served as chairmen over the council's existence.
YearsChairmanNotes
1889–1908Ralph Daniel Makinson LittlerCompanion of the Bath 1890, Knighted 1902
1908–1909Montagu SharpeKnighted in 1922
1909–1919William Regester
1919–1924Cecil Fane De SalisMade a Knight Commander of the Bath in 1935.
1924–1927Benjamin Todd
1927–1930Charles Pinkham OBEKnighted 1928 Former MP for Willesden West 1918–1922
1930–1933George Marlow Reed
1933–1936Howard ButtonKnighted 1936. Former MP for Wrekin 1922–1923
1936–1937Sir William PrescottCreated a baronet in 1938. Former MP for Tottenham North 1918–1922
1937–1940Forrester Clayton
1940–1943Sir Gilfrid Gordon Craig
1943–1946William Reginald Clemens
1946–1947Bernard Harry Rockman
1947–1948Frederick MesserFirst member of the Labour Party to hold the chair. MP for Tottenham South 1929–1931, 1935–1950. and Tottenham 1950–1959. Knighted 1953.
1948–1949William John Irving
1949–1951Albert Henry Farley
1951–1953William Josiah GrimshawKnighted 1953 "for political and public services in Middlesex"
1953–1954Sir Archer Hoare
1954–1955Albert Noel Hansel Baines
1955–1956Stanley Graham RowlandsonKnighted 1956
1956–1957Christopher George Armstrong CowanKnighted 1958
1957–1958William Rendel Myson Chambers
1958–1959Thomas Henry Joyce
1959–1960George Albert PargiterMP for Spelthorne 1945–1950, Southall 1950–1966. Created "Baron Pargiter of Southall in the London Borough of Ealing" in 1966.
1960–1961Muriel Rose Forbes
1961– 1962Sir Joseph Haygarth
1962– 1963James Henry Knaggs
1963– 1964Frances Timpson
1964–1965John Wilfred Barter MPMP for Ealing North

Replacement

By the 1930s most of the county had become urbanised, effectively forming part of the London conurbation, and in 1965 the county council was abolished on the creation of the Greater London Council. Most of the former Middlesex area became part of the enlarged Greater London, but with some parts transferred to Hertfordshire, Potters Bar Urban District in the north of the county joined Hertfordshire.