James Kiley

Who was James Kiley?

James Daniel Kiley was a British businessman and Liberal Party politician who served in the House of Commons from 1916 to 1922 as a Member of Parliament for constituencies in the Whitechapel area of the East End of London.

A director of a warehouse company in Houndsditch, he entered politics in 1910, when he was elected to Stepney Borough Council, becoming an alderman in 1913 and serving as the borough's mayor in 1915. He was also a member of the Metropolitan Water Board from 1914 to 1922, and a justice of the peace from 1913.

During the First World War there was a political truce between the parties, who agreed not to contest any by-elections caused by death or resignations of sitting members of parliament. When a vacancy occurred with the resignation of the Liberal MP Sir Stuart Samuel, Bt in December 1916, Kiley was elected unopposed as the MP for the Whitechapel division of Stepney. The Whitechapel constituency was abolished in boundary changes for the 1918 general election, and Kiley was elected for the new Whitechapel and St Georges division of Stepney.