Maybray-King Dies
Lord Maybray-King, the first Speaker of the British House of Commons from the Labor Party, died Wednesday as the result of a stroke, a hospital official said. He was 85.
As Dr. Horace King, a Labor member of Parliament from Southampton, he was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1965 until his retirement in 1971. He was raised to the peerage in 1971 and was deputy Speaker of the House of Lords at the time of his death.
He was appointed Speaker of the Commons in October, 1965, when the government of Labor Prime Minister Harold Wilson held a parliamentary majority of only three.
In 1970, a protester hurled two gas canisters from the public gallery, and the Speaker was overcome by the fumes. But he was back in the chair within two hours, telling lawmakers, “We have business to transact.”
He held a Ph.D in English literature, published several books on literature and politics, and was headmaster of Regent’s Park Secondary School in Southampton from 1947 until 1950, when he was elected to Parliament.
Maybray-King was married four times, most recently in March.
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