Harry Pursey (24 August 1891 – 13 December 1980) was a British politician and naval officer, who began his career as a boy seaman and served as a Member of Parliament for twenty-five years. He was born in

Sidmouth Sidmouth () is a town on the English Channel in Devon, South West England, southeast of Exeter. With a population of 13,258 in 2021, it is a tourist resort and a gateway to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. A large part of the town has ...

, and educated at the

Royal Hospital School The Royal Hospital School (also known as "RHS" and historically nicknamed "The Cradle of the Navy") is a British co-educational fee-charging international boarding and day school with naval traditions. The school admits pupils aged 11 to 18 ...

(a school for naval

orphan An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to a child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew language, Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In some languages ...

s) and the

Royal Naval College Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, ...

in Greenwich. He joined the Royal Navy in 1907, as a

boy seaman A boy seaman (plural boy seamen) is a boy who serves as seaman or is trained for such service. Royal Navy In the British Royal Navy, where there was a need to recruit enough hands to man the vast fleet of the British Empire, extensive regulati ...

with HMS ''Impregnable''. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he served with the

Dover Patrol The Dover Patrol and later known as the Dover Patrol Force was a Royal Navy command of the First World War, notable for its involvement in the Zeebrugge Raid on 22 April 1918. The Dover Patrol formed a discrete unit of the Royal Navy based at Dov ...

and with the

Grand Fleet The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. History Formed in August 1914 from th ...

; he took part in the

Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland () was a naval battle between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, durin ...

aboard ''Revenge''. In 1917 he was promoted to the rank of gunner and saw service in the Aegean aboard ''Forward''; that October, he was second-in-command of a landing party from the ''Forward'' which successfully evacuated a

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty (United Kingdom), Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British ...

station on

Lesbos Island Lesbos or Lesvos ( ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of , with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece and the eighth largest in the Mediterranean. It is separated from ...

, for which he was commissioned and received a mention in dispatches. After the war he was posted to the Black Sea and around Turkey, and saw action in

Somaliland Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is an List of states with limited recognition, unrecognised country in the Horn of Africa. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, E ...

and Mesopotamia. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1920. In 1926 he was posted to ''Benbow''. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Commander in February 1928, and transferred to ''Vernon'' in April. In May 1929 he was appointed to ''Eagle'' and in March 1931 to ''Hood''. He retired in 1936. During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, he worked as a journalist in Spain. He married first in 1921, then secondly in 1944 and was granted a

decree nisi A decree nisi or rule nisi () is a court order that will come into force at a future date unless a particular condition is met. Unless the condition is met, the ruling becomes a decree absolute (rule absolute), and is binding. Typically, the con ...

of divorce in 1956. He married again in September 1954, in New Jersey, to Baroness Huszar, a Hungarian. In 1954 his second wife was arrested in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, for possessing

counterfeit A counterfeit is a fake or unauthorized replica of a genuine product, such as money, documents, designer items, or other valuable goods. Counterfeiting generally involves creating an imitation of a genuine item that closely resembles the original ...

United States money, and acquitted after trial. He later won a lawsuit against her solicitor, who had argued that although he had conducted her defence without entering Canada, he was a licensed Canadian solicitor as well as an English one and thus not required to comply with English regulations. His wife was again, however, arrested in 1955, this time for the possession of narcotics; she was convicted, and they were divorced in 1959. He was elected as the Labour member of parliament for Kingston upon Hull East in the 1945 general election. In the 1951 general election, he held the seat with a majority of 11,500 votes, rising to 12,700 votes in 1955, 17,300 votes in 1964, and 23,000 in 1966. He announced in 1967 that he would resign at the next election, and was succeeded by

John Prescott John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (31 May 1938 – 20 November 2024) was a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the ...

in the 1970 election. He had a great interest in "below-decks" naval history, and spent his later years working on a history of the Invergordon Mutiny, though it does not appear to have been published. His obituary in ''The Times'' described him as "the first naval officer promoted from the lower deck" to enter Parliament.This is perhaps incorrect, depending on the definition of "lower deck"; A. P. Herbert was elected in 1935 after entering the Royal Naval Reserve as an ordinary seaman in 1914; he served in the Royal Naval Division, and was appointed sub-lieutenant in 1915. He returned to the Navy in the Second World War; by 1945, he had been an MP both as a former seaman and as an active petty officer.

References

:*Obituary in ''The Times'', 17 December 1980.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pursey, Harry 1891 births 1980 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Royal Navy officers UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 Royal Navy personnel of World War I British military personnel of the Fifth Somaliland Expedition British people of the Spanish Civil War People from Sidmouth People educated at the Royal Hospital School Royal Navy sailors Royal Naval Reserve personnel Military personnel from Devon