Edward Hemmerde

Edward George Hemmerde, KC (13 November 1871 – 24 May 1948) was an English rower, barrister, politician, playwright and Georgist.

At Oxford he was a successful single sculler, and won the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta in 1900, beating the previous winner American B H Howell.

In November 1910, he announced that he had been asked by the party leadership to give up his seat in Wales and fight the Conservative, Lord Charles Beresford who, as a naval man had been involved in bitter political clashes with the government over the funding of the navy and who represented Portsmouth.

However it is clear that Hemmerde was encountering difficulties in East Denbighshire with the local party organisers over a number of issues.

[11] Not wishing to be out of Parliament, Hemmerde began looking for another seat and in 1912 he was selected as the candidate for North West Norfolk for the by-election pending there following the death of Sir George White the sitting Liberal MP.

[14] According to one historian of the Liberal Party, Hemmerde was regarded as a supporter of H. H. Asquith until the occasion of the Maurice Debate of 9 May 1918[15] when the Asquithian Liberals voted against the Lloyd George led coalition government on a motion arising from criticisms by the recently sacked Director of Military Operations that the Prime Minister had misled Parliament concerning British troop strength on the Western Front.

In his own name he wrote the plays Proud Maisie (1915) and A Cardinal's Romance and jointly with Cicely Fraser, The Dead Hand.