Emil Pickering

Who was Emil Pickering?

Emil William Pickering DSO TD was a British industrialist, army officer and politician.

Born in Dewsbury in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Pickering was educated at Dewsbury Grammar School and Tettenhall College. He subsequently entered business as a woollen manufacturer in partnership with John Greaves. The Pickering Greaves business, based at Ravensthorpe Mills, continued until 1926.

In 1911 Pickering joined the part-time Territorial Force when he received a commission as a second lieutenant in the 2nd West Riding Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. He was promoted to full lieutenant in 1913. With the outbreak of war in August 1914 the unit was mobilised. Pickering was promoted to captain and then to temporary major before the brigade moved to the Western Front in April 1915. Pickering was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for "great gallantry and an utter disregard of his own person" in 1917, and twice mentioned in dispatches, Pickering ended the war with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

When a general election was called at the end of 1918, Pickering was chosen to contest the Dewsbury constituency as a Coalition Conservative candidate. The election was a three-way contest between Pickering, Benjamin Riley of the Independent Labour Party and the sitting member of parliament, Walter Runciman of the anti-coalition Liberal Party faction. Pickering was elected to the Commons, receiving 7,853 votes, more than 2,000 ahead of Riley while Runciman finished third. In 1919 he married Evelyn Shaw of Brooklands, near Halifax, and the couple had two sons. Pickering only served one term in parliament, choosing to stand down at the next election in 1922.