Alec Cunningham-Reid

Captain Alec Stratford Cunningham-Reid (20 April 1895 – 26 March 1977), known in his early life as Alec Stratford Reid, was a British First World War flying ace credited with seven aerial victories. After the war, he entered politics as a Conservative, serving as a Member of Parliament (MP) for periods between 1922 and 1945. Early life Cunningham-Reid was born in Wayland, Norfolk, the son of the Reverend Arthur Morse Reid and his wife Agnes Celina Flower (1861–1941), a sister of Archibald Dennis Flower. He joined the Royal Engineers during the First World War and was commissioned as a second lieutenant, transferring to the Royal Flying Corps. In August 1918, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the citation reading: Political career At the 1922 general election, Cunningham-Reid stood as the conservative candidate in Warrington, a Conservative-held borough constituency in Lancashire where the sitting member Sir Harold Smith was retiring. He won the seat with a comfortable majority in a two-way contest with the Labour Party candidate. However, at the next general election, in 1923, the addition of a Liberal Party candidate saw him lose to Labour's Charles Dukes.