George Orwell's boss, the Wimbledon player and the man who published Lolita: five of Dorset's most interesting MPs

Guy Barnett – Dorset’s first Labour MP

The idea of a Labour MP in Dorset was unheard of before 1962, when an early case of a Conservative split over Europe helped Guy Barnett to Westminster.

He stood for the seat of South Dorset after the previous MP, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, inherited his father’s title and became the next Earl of Sandwich.

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was attempting to take Britain into the Common Market – an effort that would ultimately be vetoed by French president Charles de Gaulle. Tory candidate Angus Maude backed the party line, but another local Conservative, Sir Piers Debenham, stood as an anti-Common Market candidate with the support of Viscount Hinchingbrooke.

The split saw Barnett elected with a majority of 704. He lost the seat at the 1964 general election, but he managed to come within 935 votes of holding it against a united Conservative vote.

Barnet went on to represent Greenwich, where his death in 1986 prompted another famous by-election, won by the SDP’s Rosie Barnes.

Nigel Nicolson – publisher of Lolita and critic of his government

Anti-hanging, pro-Arab and the publisher of a scandalous novel – Nigel Nicolson was not the prototypical 1950s Conservative MP.

He was elected in Bournemouth East at a by-election in 1952 – on the day of the King’s death – after sitting MP Brendan Bracken (see below) was elevated to the House of Lords.

Nicolson’s parents were on the periphery of the Bloomsbury set and his father had founded Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

But he made himself unpopular with Bournemouth Conservatives by criticising Prime Minister Anthony Eden (the uncle of Bournemouth West MP John Eden) and by abstaining in a vote of confidence over the Suez crisis.

His eagerness to publish Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita, to highlight what he saw as the absurdities of the Obscene Publications Act, further tarnished his name with party members.

At Nicolson own suggestion, the local Conservative association held a ballot of all members to decide who should be its candidate in 1959. He lost to John Cordle.

John Cordle – resigned in tears

Three times married John Cordle served in six parliaments before resigning amid a scandal.

In 1977, it was revealed that he had sought to advance the business interests of John Poulson, the Yorkshire architect who was to serve a prison sentence for corruption along with the Newcastle Labour councillor T Dan Smith.

Two other MPs in the episode attempted to hold onto their seats, but Cordle quit early, giving a tearful resignation speech.

The Commons’ then-speaker George Thomas was to say in his memoirs: “The House can be cruel and I think it was unjust to John Cordle.”

The last of his three marriages was to his children’s nanny, 35 years his junior. He had experienced several family tragedies and was pre-deceased by a son and daughter.

He died in 2004.

John Eden – boosted Winston Churchill

When John Eden became MP for Bournemouth West, his uncle, Sir Anthony Eden, was waiting in the wings to replace the ailing Winston Churchill when he finally stood down.

He had already stood for the Tories in North Paddington, where his efforts had apparently bolstered Churchill’s position at an international summit.

The 89-year-old former MP, now Lord Eden of Winton, told the Echo last year: “I had quite substantially reduced the then Labour majority and that had given a boost to Sir Winston Churchill, who was then engaged in a meeting with President Eisenhower in Bermuda.

“It was useful to him that he got a telegram indicating a positive swing back towards the Conservative government.”

He was a late addition to the candidates seeking to represent Bournemouth West but ended up representing the town for 30 years.

Brendan Bracken – Friend of Churchill and boss to George Orwell

Brendan Bracken 1947 by Unknown - [1] Dutch National Archives, The Hague, Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANEFO), 1945-1989

Brendan Bracken, who became Bournemouth’s MP in a by-election in 1945, was a long-time supporter of Winston Churchill who had helped the premier move into Downing Street. He is said to have enabled Churchill to become PM by advising him against nominating Lord Halifax for the post.

He was Minister of Information from 1941-45, where his staff included Eric Blair, better known by the pen name George Orwell. (His nickname in the office was BB.)

Bracken, a complicated character who covered up his Irish roots, has been cited as the inspiration for Rex Mottram in Brideshead Revisited and Big Brother in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

In business as a publisher, he merged the Financial News into the modern Financial times.

He was selected for Bournemouth after losing his seat in North Paddington. In 1952, when MP for Bournemouth East and Christchurch, he was made Viscount Bracken of Christchurch, prompting another by-election, although he never sat in the Lords.

He died in 1958, aged 57.

Leonard Lyle – sugar boss and tennis champ

Harrow-educated Leonard Lyle joined the family firm, Abram Lyle & Sons, as a young man. The firm later merged with Henry Tate & Sons to become the famous Tate & Lyle, and Lyle was to become chairman and president.

He represented Britain at tennis, competing in the men’s singles at Wimbledon from 1922-24, and was chairman of the Lawn Tennis Association from 1932.

Lyle had been an MP from 1918-22 and was elected for Epping in 1923 – but stood down at the 1924 general election to allow Winston Churchill to have a seat.

He became Bournemouth’s MP in an uncontested by-election in 1940, after incumbent Henry Page Croft went to the House of Lords.

He prompted another by-election himself after he was made Baron Lyle of Westbourne in 1945. He died in 1954.