Major Sir Cyril Fullard Entwistle, MC, QC (23 September 1887 – 9 July 1974)[1] was a Liberal Party politician in the United Kingdom. He later defected to the Conservative Party. He was a member of parliament (MP) from 1918 to 1924 and from 1931 to 1945.
In World War I, Entwistle commanded the 235th Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery. He was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Military Cross.[2]
Entwistle was called to the bar in 1919. He introduced in the House of Commons, as a private member's bill, the Matrimonial Causes Act 1923.[2] The Act, to give women legal equality in divorce cases, in particular with respect to adultery, was pressed for by NUSEC and the Six Point Group.[10][11]Lord Buckmaster, who had failed with a divorce reform bill in 1920, introduced Entwistle's bill in the House of Lords; the Act passed was aimed solely at removing the issue of a double standard.[11][12]
Entwistle then devoted himself to the law and business. He left the rump Liberals under Lloyd George in early 1926, over land policy, with Alfred Mond, Henry Mond and J. Suenson-Taylor.[13] After joining the Conservatives that year, he unsuccessfully contested Bolton at the 1929 general election.[14] He won the seat as a Tory in 1931, and held it until his defeat in the Labour Party landslide at the 1945 election.[1][14] He was chairman from 1929 of Ballington Hosiery Ltd., formed to merge Ballington Ltd. of Basinghall Street, London with The St. Albans Hosiery Mills.[3][15]
^ abCraig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 158. ISBN0-900178-06-X.