Draft:David Patterson (councillor)

David Patterson was only the second Liberal or Liberal Democrat who has been elected to Wandsworth Council since its formation in 1965, and the last to have been a member.

He passed away on 24 April 2023 having stood as a candidate in nine local elections from 1982 to 2018. A cherry tree was planted on Wandsworth Common in his honour by Wandsworth Council's parks department in December 2023.

Political career
In the 1982 Wandsworth London Borough Council election Patterson stood for the Earlsfield ward, coming fifth. But in a subsequent by-election for the same ward, in October 1983, he won and became only the second Liberal councillor to ever be elected onto Wandsworth Borough Council.

He was subsequently beaten in the 1986 local elections in part of a three-party fight for Earlsfield that helped decide control of the council. David stood as a candidate in every local London election, save one, for 36 years, representing six different wards in Battersea and Tooting.

After the collapse of the SDP-Liberal Alliance, David did not stand in the May 1990 elections but stood again in the 1994 local elections in the newly formed Liberal Democrats party and was a candidate in every local election thereafter until 2018. But he did not regain a seat and so retains the distinction of being the only Liberal or Liberal Democrat elected to the Wandsworth Council in over 40 years.