Frances Josephy

Josephy in 1935

Frances Louise Josephy (February 1900 – 1985) was a British Liberal politician, journalist and lecturer.

Background

She was born in Broughty Ferry, Forfarshire. She was educated at Seymour Lodge School, Dundee, before going on to St. Andrew's University and Newnham College, Cambridge. She graduated at Cambridge in Classics and English.

Political career

In 1924, she joined the National League of Young Liberals. She was Research Secretary to the Radical Parliamentary Group in the House of Commons. In March 1928 she stood at the London County Council elections as a Liberal backed Progressive Party candidate. She contested Winchester in 1929. This was a safe Tory seat that they had won at every election since 1885 and at the previous election, the Liberals came third. She managed to increase the Liberal vote but still finished third. She contested Basingstoke in 1931, a seat the Liberals had won in 1923. In an unfavourable year for the Liberals, she retained second place;

General Election 1931

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Viscount Lymington	23,523	69.7
	Liberal	Frances Louise Josephy	6,106	18.1
	Labour	C A Goatcher	4,124	12.2
Majority			17,417	51.6
Turnout				67.44
	Conservative hold		Swing

She became Honorary Secretary of the National League of Young Liberals, and a vice-chairman. She contested Devizes in 1935, a seat the Liberals last won in 1923 and nearly re-gained in 1929. She managed to reduce the Tory majority;

General Election 1935

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Percy Angier Hurd	14,438	59.3
	Liberal	Frances Louise Josephy	9,903	40.7
Majority			4,535	18.6
Turnout				72.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

She was re-adopted by Devizes Liberals as their prospective parliamentary candidate for a General Election expected to occur in 1939/40. In 1939 she served as President of the National League of Young Liberals. In the early 1940s, she was an advocate of global federalism.[1] She served as Chairman of the Federal Union from 1941–45. She edited the group's paper, Federal News, from 1944–6. She contested Devizes again in 1945. With the country swinging to Labour, she dropped to third place;

General Election 1945

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Maurice Christopher Hollis	12,796	47.0
	Labour	Wilfrid Edward Cave	8,120	29.9
	Liberal	Frances Louise Josephy	6,278	23.1
Majority			4,676	17.2
Turnout				67.6
	Conservative hold		Swing

She was also a member of the European Union of Federalists' central committee from 1946 until her death. In 1949 she attended the European Assembly at Strasbourg as an observer. She was a member of the Liberal party national executive. She contested Cambridge in 1950. This was not a good prospect for the Liberals as they had not contested the seat since 1934 and had not won since 1906;

General Election 1950: Cambridge

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Hamilton William Kerr	25,151	49.5
	Labour	Arthur Leslie Symonds	20,297	39.9
	Liberal	Frances Louise Josephy	5,355	10.5
Majority			4,854	9.55
Turnout			50,83	86.48
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

She contested Cambridge again in 1951.

General Election 1951: Cambridge

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Hamilton William Kerr	26,570	52.4
	Labour	Arthur Leslie Symonds	20,893	41.2
	Liberal	Frances Louise Josephy	3,257	6.4
Majority			5,677	11.19
Turnout			50,720	84.44
	Conservative hold		Swing

From the mid-1950s, she worked as a reviser for the Assembly of Western European Union in Paris for nine years.

External links

• 1929 Josephy Election Leaflet: http://www.gophoto.it/view.php?i=http://lib-1.lse.ac.uk/archivesblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Josephy_leaflet1.jpg#.UmPBjxDOS2Y
• Catalogue of the Frances Josephy papers held at LSE Archives