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Sir William Henry Houghton Gastrell (24 September 1852 - 11 April 1935) was a British army officer and Conservative Party politician.

Born in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, Houghton Gastrell was educated at Cheltenham College. He moved to London where he obtained a commission in the Middlesex Yeomanry, rising to the rank of major and second in command of the unit in 1901. In 1909 he was awarded the Territorial Decoration.

In 1904 he entered politics when he was elected to the London County Council as a Moderate Party councillor representing St Pancras South.

Kt, 1917; CMG 1918; Knight of Grace of St John of Jerusalem; TD; FRGS

Born Tetbury, Glouces, 24 Sept. 1852; m 1878, Jessie (d 1922), d of late James Houghton; one s one d ; died 11 April 1935

late Colonel commanding RASC, Woolwich District; European War (despatches twice); formerly Major second in command Imperial Yeomanry (Duke of Cambridge’s Hussars); raised and commanded Lambeth Battalion National Reserve, 1912; JP London

EDUCATION Cheltenham. LCC, S. St Pancras, 1903–06

CAREER Member Grand Council, Primrose League; Governor, Board of Management British Home for Incurables; contested (U) North Lambeth, 1906; MP (U) N. Lambeth, 1910–18

RECREATIONS Foreign travel, shooting, fishing

CLUBS Carlton, United Service

Early life
The son of James Richardson of Dumbarton, Scotland, he initially entered employment as assistant commercial editor at the Glasgow Herald newspaper. He made a special study of the shipbuilding and engineering industries, and in 1888 was appointed assistant editor of the London-based Engineering magazine. In the same year he married Georgina Fleming, daughter of an officer in the Mercantile Marine.

Richard Stephens Jackson (7 May 1850 – 10 June 1938)

Jackson was the son of John Jackson of Sittingbourne, Kent, a surveyor, and his wife Harriet née Tress of Upchurch, Kent. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1872.

London County Council
He entered politics when he was elected to represent Greenwich on the first London County Council in January 1889. He was a member of the majority Progressive Party on the council, which was allied to the parliamentary Liberal Party. He was re-elected in 1892. On the council he took a particular interest in progresing the construction of the Blackwall Tunnel. He lost his county council seat in 1895 to a member of the Conservative-backed Moderate Party, largely due to the intervention of an Independent Labour Party candidate.

1900 general election
Contested ge 1900 as Lib against the sitting Conservative MP, Lord Hugh Cecil but failed to be elected with Cecil retaiining the seat by a majority of nearly 2,000 votes.

Greenwich Borough Council
In 1900 the County of London was divided into twenty-eight metropolitan boroughs, with the first elections to the new borough councils held 1 November 1900. Jackson was elected to Greenwich Borough Council as a Progressive Party councillor, representing the South Ward. He was mayor of Greenwich in 1902–1903.

Member of parliament
At the general election of 1906 Jackson again stood at Greenwich in opposition to Lord Hugh Cecil. The Conservative vote was split between Cecil, who advocated free trade and Ion Hamilton Benn who stood as an advocate of Tariff Reform. Jackson won the seat for the Liberals with a majority over Benn 1,341 votes. Cecil finished a poor third. Jackson only served one term in parliament, and was defeated by Benn at the next election in January 1910.

Later life
Jackson resumed his legal practice. He eventually retired to Blackheath, where he died in June 1938, aged 88. Following a funeral at St Alfege Church, Greenwich, he was buried in Shooters Hill Cemetery.

Ensor
Alick Charles David Ensor (27 November 1906 – 5 February 1987) was a British lawyer, actor, author and Labour Party politician.

Legal career
Following education at Westminster School, Ensor was admitted as solicitor in 1928, finding employment with Newcastle upon Tyne City Council in 1932. His talents as a prosecutor led to his becoming prosecuting solicitor for the Metropolitan Police in 1935 as well as a lecturer at Hendon Police College. in 1938 he was appointed Clerk of the Peace for the County of London.

With the outbreak of the Second World War Ensor was attached to the adjutant general's staff, as part of the British Expeditionary Force. As the force withdrew, Ensor was placed in charge of evacuting wounded soldiers and civilians through the part of Boulogne. On his return to London he was granted sick leave from the army. In August 1940 was court martialled on twenty-nine charges: he was acquitted of scandalous conduct unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman, of absenting himself without leave, and of leaving his pistol and ammunition unguarded; but was found guilty of thirteen charges involving the use of dishonoured cheques leading to "the prejudice of good order and military discipline". During the trial it emerged that while officially on sick leave Ensor had been entertaining a number of women and leading an extravagant lifestyle which he did not have the funds to support. He resigned as clerk of the peace, and the incident effectively ended his legal career in England.

Broadcaster and actor
After the war Ensor took up farming. This led to his writing a well received book, Thirty Acres and a Cow, in 1955. He followed this with I was a Public Prosecutor in 1958. The success of the second book resulted in him being selected to chair Granada Television's ''The Verdict is Yours" programme. Appearing as "Mr Justice Ensor" he presided over dramatised cases which argued in front of a jury of viewers.

He became a well-known figure on television, taking acting roles in a number of films including The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), Information Received (1961) and The Pot Carriers (1962).

Member of parliament
By the early 1960s Ensor's acting career had stalled, and he entered politics. He joined the Labour Party and was elected at the 1964 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for the marginal Bury and Radcliffe constituency and re-elected in 1966 election. At the 1970 general election he lost his seat to the Conservative candidate Michael Fidler. In 1972 he joined the Liberal Party, but did not sstand for election again.

He died at hhis home in France in 1987, aged 80.