William Royce (politician)

William Stapleton Royce (13 December 1858 – 23 June 1924)[1] was an English Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for the Holland with Boston constituency from 1918 until 1924.

On leaving school he was apprenticed to a joiner, but served only two years of his apprenticeship before running away to London, where he worked on the construction of the General Post Office building in St Martin's-le-Grand.

Three months later, he learned that the Government of Cape Town was offering free passage to South Africa for men to build the railways in that country.

In 1910, he sold his business interests in South Africa and returned to England, where he fought the January and December 1910 elections as the Conservative Party candidate for the Spalding division of Lincolnshire, but lost to his Liberal opponent.

[2] In 1917, the seat became vacant on the death of the sitting member, but he felt that this was no time for political conflict, and the Liberal candidate was returned unopposed.