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 Thatcher's successful opponent when she first stood for Parliament, in the 1950 and 1951 general elections.

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 People's Entertainment Society.

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.

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