Pierse Loftus

Pierse Creagh Loftus (29 November 1877 – 20 January 1956) was an Irish-born British businessman and Conservative Party politician. A notable figure in the public life of Lowestoft and East Suffolk for several decades, he sat in the House of Commons from 1934 to 1945 as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lowestoft division of Suffolk.

Loftus was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland. When he was eight years old, he and his brother changed their surnames to Loftus, adopting their grandmother's maiden name.

He was educated at St. Augustine's School in Ramsgate and at The Oratory School in Birmingham. After working in South Africa for three years, where he served with the Maritzburg Defence Force in 1899, he returned to England; in 1902 he bought a share in Adnams Brewery, in Southwold, with his brother Jack. In the First World War he served with the Suffolk Regiment in France, reaching the rank of captain.

He was elected to East Suffolk County Council in 1922, and the following year became vice-chairman of the Lowestoft Conservative Association. In 1931 he became an alderman of the council.

When Gervais Rentoul, the Conservative MP for Lowestoft, resigned his seat in 1934 to become a Metropolitan Police magistrate, Loftus was selected as the Conservative candidate for the resulting by-election. The Conservative Party was part of the National Government, and Loftus stood as a "National Conservative", i.e. a supporter of the government, with the backing of the other parties in the government. He was opposed by the Labour Party and by an independent Liberal candidate. The campaign was dominated by the issues facing Lowestoft's fishermen, who had suffered from the loss of Russia as a market for herring.

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