Sidney Dye

Sidney Dye, JP ( 1900–9 December 1958) was a British Labour Party politician.

Born at Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, Sidney Dye was educated at Wells Elementary School and Ruskin College, Oxford.

A farmer, he was elected to Norfolk County Council in 1934 and Swaffham Rural District Council in 1935.

He contested South West Norfolk unsuccessfully in 1935, but in the 1945 election he snatched the seat by only 53 votes. In 1950, his majority increased to 260, but he was defeated in the 1951 election.

In 1955, Dye regained the seat with a majority of 193, securing Labour's only gain of that election.

The circumstances of his death were as follows. On Sunday, 7 December 1958, Dye joined protesters blockading the airbase, at Swaffham, in his constituency - the intended site of intermediate range nuclear missiles. On Monday, 8 December, he travelled to the House of Commons to table a question regarding the protests.

On the morning of Tuesday, 9 December 1958 Sidney Dye was killed in a head-on collision with another vehicle near his home in Swaffham.

On 18 December, an inquest recorded a verdict of accidental death, after hearing that the brakes on the MP's car, which was less than three years old, were "completely ineffective."

References

• The Times House of Commons 1945. 1945.
• The Times House of Commons 1950. 1950.
• The Times House of Commons 1955. 1955.
• The Times (newspaper). 1958.