Philip Oliver

Philip Milner Oliver CBE (20 August 1884 – 12 April 1954) was a British politician who served for two short terms as Member of Parliament for Manchester Blackley.

Background Oliver was born on 20 August 1884, in Manchester, the son of J. R. Oliver. He was educated at Bowdon College, Manchester Grammar School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford where he received a Bachelor of Arts. He qualified as a Barrister-at-law.

Career In 1909, Oliver was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn and practised on the Northern Circuit. In 1914, he was selected as Liberal party prospective parliamentary candidate for the Knutsford division of Cheshire. This was a Unionist seat that the Liberal had only ever won once, in 1906. The outbreak of war postponed the general election. During the war he served as Honorary County Secretary of the East Lancashire Branch of the British Red Cross Society. He was Liberal candidate for the newly created constituency of Manchester Blackley at the 1918 General Election. He expressed support for David Lloyd George and his Coalition Government, as did his Unionist opponent. As a result, the Coalition Government partners agreed not to jointly endorse either candidate. He came third, behind the Labour candidate;

In a special Honours list of 1920 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his wartime work with the British Red Cross Society, in 1918 he had been made an Officer of the Order (OBE). Oliver served as Honorary Secretary of the Manchester Liberal Federation. Oliver, along with the overwhelming majority of Manchester Liberals decided to oppose the Coalition Government that had become more dominated by Unionists. He was retained as Liberal candidate for the 1922 General Election, at which he overtook the Labour candidate to finish second; Election box begin | title=General election 1922: Manchester Blackley In 1939, Oliver had been re-selected as Liberal prospective parliamentary candidate for Blackley. A general election was expected to take place sometime in 1939 and there was some support in the Labour party, not to oppose Liberal candidates who were better placed to defeat Conservative candidates. This feeling was in line with Sir Stafford Cripps advocating a Popular Front to defeat the National Government. In 1939, the Blackley Labour party had no candidate in place. Thus Oliver would have been particularly confident of making a return to parliament. However, the outbreak of war postponed the elections until 1945. In 1944, he had published Back to Balfour on the subject of a Jewish state as promised in the Balfour Declaration. In 1945. Oliver was again the Liberal candidate for Blackley, but the political climate had changed and Labour swept to victory both locally and nationally;

Oliver did not stand for parliament again. He died on 12 April 1954, aged 69.