Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Assheton Pownall (3 October 1877 – 29 October 1953) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as member of parliament for Lewisham East from

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II, the fall of Nazi Germany, and the Empire of Japan. It is also the year concentration camps were liberated and the only year in which atomic weapons have been used in combat. Events World War II will be ...

. Pownall was born in

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

, Warwickshire, the son of civil engineer Charles Assheton Whately Pownall and Dora Bourne Royds. He was the grandson of the Ven. Assheton Pownall, Archdeacon of Leicester. Pownall was educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a Public school (United Kingdom), private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independ ...

. He began his political career sitting on the London City Council for Lewisham from 1907 to 1910. In the General elections of January and December 1910, he ran unsuccessfully for

Rotherhithe Rotherhithe ( ) is a district of South London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, with the Isle of Dogs to the ea ...

. After the First World War, when he served with the 20th Battalion, The London Regiment, he was elected for Lewisham East in 1918. In the 1919 Birthday Honours, he was appointed an officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in recognition of services in connection with the war. Pownall was noted for his arduous work on committees. Pownall was knighted in the 1926 Birthday Honours, for political and public services. During the late 1930s, Pownall was a member of the Anglo-German Fellowship. He belonged to the moderate tendency within the Fellowship, stating that it existed "only to promote good relations between us and Germany" and was in no way in favour of

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

.Richard Griffiths, ''Fellow Travellers on the Right'', Oxford University Press, 1983, p. 184

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pownall, Assheton 1877 births 1953 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1931–1935 UK MPs 1935–1945 Knights Bachelor Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Rugby School Military personnel from Warwickshire British Army personnel of World War I British anti-communists London Regiment officers Territorial Force officers People from Warwick