Innes Harold Stranger

Who was Innes Harold Stranger?

Innes Harold Stranger was a British Barrister and Liberal politician who was briefly Member of Parliament for the Newbury constituency.

Stranger was educated privately and read for the Bar, being called by the Middle Temple in 1909. In the 1922 general election he unsuccessfully fought the Newbury seat for the Liberal Party; he was elected to the seat in the general election of 1923 with a majority of just 41 votes.

In Parliament Stranger allied with the left-wing of the Liberal Party. With 12 other Liberal MPs, he refused to join the majority of the party in voting for a motion which the Labour government had declared a motion of no confidence in October 1924, and backed the government instead. However this rebellion was not sufficient to save it, and in the ensuing general election, he lost the seat back to the Conservative opponent whom he had beaten in 1923, Howard Clifton Brown.

Stranger made no attempt to return to Parliament but concentrated on his career in law. While on an overseas trip in 1930 he was flying from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls when the aircraft developed difficulties and had to land in a jungle clearing. Stranger became a King's Counsel in February 1933 and in January 1936 he was appointed Recorder of Sunderland, a part-time Judgeship. He died of a sudden heart attack while at work that July. His daughter Yvonne was also a Barrister.