Norman Dodds took which position in Aug 1964?
Norman Dodds Norman Noel Dodds ( 25 December 1903 – 22 August 1965 ) was a British co-operator and Labour Co-operative politician . The Labour Party campaign centre and headquarters building in Northumberland Heath is named Norman Dodds House in honour of the former MP . He was Member of Parliament from 1945 until his death in 1965 , and is best remembered for having been Margaret Thatchers successful opponent when she first stood for Parliament , in the 1950 and 1951 general elections . Early life . Dodds was born in Dunston-on-Tyne , near to Gateshead , the son of Ambrose Dodds . He attended Dunston-on-Tyne Council School , an elementary school , as his only education . From 1918 he was employed by the Co-operative Wholesale Society in Newcastle upon Tyne , and in 1925 Dodds joined the Labour Party . He moved to London in 1929 , where he was employed by the Co-operative Wholesale Society as manager of the London branch of the CWS publicity department . Dodds joined the Union of Shop , Distributive and Allied Workers and the National Co-operative Managers Association . His main occupation was organising trade exhibitions for the CWS around England . In 1931 Dodds married Eva Pratt , from Catford , who also became involved in the Co-operative movement . Eva Dodds later became the second woman to join the CWS board . Norman and Eva Dodds had two sons together . During the Second World War , Dodds joined the Home Guard where he had commissioned rank and served in the East End of London during The Blitz . In 1942 he joined the Royal Air Force in which he served until 1945 . In 1945 he became a Director of the Peoples Entertainment Society . Election to Parliament . As the war came to an end , the Government invited the Boundary Commission to divide the abnormally large constituencies ; one of them was the Dartford division of Kent , which had a 1939 electorate of 134,935 . The Commission recommended that two new boroughs , Bexley and Dartford be created out of the division . The sitting MP for Dartford was Jennie Adamson , who had won a by-election for Labour in 1938 ; she decided to fight in the new Bexley constituency . Dodds , who was living in Dartford , was selected as Labour candidate for the new Dartford borough constituency . When the election came he had a straight fight with the Conservative Party candidate , Captain Ralph Grubb , who had served on the staff of Field-Marshal Montgomery . Dodds had a well-funded campaign , outspending his opponent by £1,071 to £954 , and won the seat with a majority of 19,714 . Parliament . Dodds made his maiden speech on 26 October 1945 , reporting on a recent visit he had made to occupied Berlin . He said that the children in Berlin were living in refugee camps and were starving , and urged the Government to provide more food for them . A year later , he was one of the three MPs to visit Greece as a delegation organised by the League for Democracy in Greece , a pressure group based in London . Apart from Dodds , the MPs Leslie Solley and Stanley Tiffany were also members of the delegation . The delegation received the invitation to Greece from General Othoneos , who was then the president of the Greek Union of Democratic Associations , to come as guests of his organisation . The Foreign Office did not sponsor the delegates visas on the grounds that their visit was private and not official , but the Greek Embassy in London authorised the visas nonetheless . The delegates split up into pairs , with Dodds and the delegations secretary Diana Pym going to Northern Greece , speaking at the 1946 May Day demonstration in Thessaloniki , and visiting the Womens Prison and surrounding villages . On their return , the delegates wrote a pamphlet called Tragedy in Greece relaying their experiences in the country and their worries about Greeces political future . Tragedy in Greece was circulated with over 40,000 copies sold in the years after it was published . Shortly after his return from Greece , Dodds views on Greece were vigorously criticised in Parliament by Foreign Office Minister Hector McNeil ; Dodds , complaining that he had not been able to speak in the debate and had not been told he was to be mentioned , later spoke in detail about his views on Greece in an adjournment debate on 29 October 1946 . McNeil gave a partial apology but maintained his view of the delegation . While usually loyal to the Labour Party whip , Dodds broke it on two occasions during the Parliament . The first was in May 1946 when he joined 31 other Labour MPs in voting to delete a clause in the National Insurance Bill which limited unemployment benefit to 180 days ; the second was in May 1947 when he supported an amendment to end National Service on 1 January 1951 , along with 29 other Labour MPs . 1950 election . In February 1949 , Dartford Conservative Association selected Margaret Roberts , then a 23-year-old research chemist at BX Plastics of Manningtree , as their candidate for the forthcoming general election . Dodds engaged in a prolonged exchange of letters through the columns of the Dartford Chronicle through the autumn of 1949 over the Governments Control of Engagement Order , which allowed the Government to specify jobs for the unemployed in which they were required to work . Dodds pointed to the relatively small number of people who were directed , and invited Roberts to a public meeting at which he would tell her what had happened on Tyneside and Wearside between the wars ( she declined due to prior engagements ) . They also clashed on family allowances . At the end of November 1949 , Dodds and Roberts met in a public debate in which he concluded by pointing to rising employment figures and suggesting that Roberts would soon join the Labour Party : May I ask her a favour ? When she wants to join , will she let me have the pleasure of enrolling her ? When the election was called for 23 February 1950 , Dodds campaigned strongly , even using a helicopter to advertise , and played on his local standing , as he was President of Dartford Football Club . He again outspent his opponents , both Roberts and Liberal candidate Harry Giles , winning re-election with a reduced majority of 13,638 . Afterwards , he paid tribute to the clean fight in the constituency . A few weeks later Dodds invited Roberts to lunch at the House of Commons . First question . Dodds had the distinction of submitting the first question in the new Parliament ; he asked the Prime Minister to call a conference to find ways of outlawing the hydrogen bomb and atomic weapons . Dodds was appointed a member of the Central Advisory Committee to the Minister of Pensions , and in May 1951 was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Alfred Robens , the Minister of Labour . As the Government had a small majority , MPs were pressed to attend at all times ; on 19 March 1951 Dodds attracted some attention when he came to Parliament with pyjamas , a pillow and a car rug , allowing him to catch some sleep during all-night sittings . 1951 election . Speaking at a summer fete in his constituency on 18 August 1951 , Dodds disclosed that the Cabinet was split on the issue of whether to hold a general election that October or whether to wait until June 1952 . He stated his prediction that the election would in fact be held on 25 October 1951 . The fact that Ministers were divided about when to call an election was an open secret but Dodds speech allowed it to be reported and his prediction was taken seriously . His prediction proved accurate . Dodds had a straight fight in Dartford against Margaret Roberts who was readopted as the Conservative Party candidate . She succeeded in reducing his majority by 1,304 to 12,334 ; in his victory speech Dodds congratulated Roberts on her engagement to Denis Thatcher and wished them good fortune . For her part Roberts said that she and Dodds had been good friends as political opponents . Writing in 1995 , Margaret Thatcher described Dodds as a genuine and extremely chivalrous socialist of the old school whom she was lucky to have as an opponent . Some eight years later , Roberts , now Margaret Thatcher , joined him in the House of Commons as the member for Finchley in 1959 . He was Member of Parliament for Dartford from 1945 to 1955 , and then for Erith and Crayford from 1955 until his death in 1965 , aged 61 .