List of Mayors of Sulgrave, Northamptonshire
1953–1961: Field Marshal Sir David Kenworthy
Sir David Kenworthy didn't have to retire from the public eye so soon. After the war, the celebrated Field Marshal was one of the most prominent men on the world's stage--universities were offering him visiting professorships, both major parties offered him a safe seat and the position of Foreign Secretary, and the King even offered him an earldom. It was quite a shock, even to old Army colleagues, when he chose to retire to the small village of Sulgrave (pop. roughly 400), and an even greater shock when the local council elected him Mayor. The mayorship may have been a mere ceremonial post, but it was no secret why the council wanted Sir David. His star power, so to speak, attracted attention to local business like never before, and this little village experienced a microscopic boom. Ever popular, and with the local economy continuing to grow, it seemed as though the mayoralty was his so long as he wanted it. He chose to retire after eight years as mayor, slightly disappointing his admirers, and began his well-deserved retirement.
1961–1963: Thomas MacBride
A progressive wave had swept over Sulgrave in the last few council elections, and when the old Field Marshal retired, the councillors elected Thomas MacBride to replace him. A young lawyer with experience at the Crown Prosecution Service, MacBride was the son of an Irish immigrant who became a successful trader in London. He may not have commanded the same star power as the Kenworthy years, but his youth and charisma electrified the village. His London connections proved useful, and speculations were rampant that he'd soon stand for Parliament. He was an active supporter of the national government's progressive social policies, and eagerly brought them to Sulgrave. However, residents of Sulgrave perhaps best remember MacBride for the events of one fateful trip he took to London. Amidst speculation that he had been recruited to stand for Parliament, MacBride's car was struck by a bus on the motorway. The wounds proved fatal.
1963–1969: Sir Nicholas Allred
Following a period of mourning, the council voted in Sir Nicholas Allred, a former MP and Leader of the House of Commons who had settled in Sulgrave following an early retirement. Allred had made many enemies in his time in Westminster, but the council, his no-nonsense approach and unparalleled powers of persuasion, selected him anyway. Allred's mayoralty was effective at first--his connections proved useful in securing government resources and financing developments for the village--but when news from Westminster came that an old political rival was appointed Local Government Minister, the council grew worried. Sure enough, the old feud was far from dead, and rumors of backroom threats to cut funding reached the ears of some of the councillors. With Allred unwilling to put on a conciliatory face and heal old wounds, councillors stepped in and called for his resignation, which he chose to do rather than face a humiliating defeat at the next annual mayoral election. Councillor Herbert Hamilton-Halsey, Allred's closest ally on the council, stepped in as interim mayor, intending to seek a full term.
1969–1969: Herbert Hamilton-Halsey
1969–1975: Bernard Dickinson
Alas, it was not to be: though Hamilton-Halsey had far fewer enemies than his predecessor, he also had fewer friends. Though the vote was tight, the final count had him losing to well-connected barrister Bernard Dickinson. Though it was no secret that the once-ceremonial post of mayor had lately become deeply political (most notably under Allred's leadership), Dickinson brought this new shift into the public eye. He made no secret of his governmental connections to win support from the council, and he used these connections to forge closer industrial cooperation with nearby towns and cities. What he did keep secret, however, was his sprawling political network of solicitors, operatives, and loyal aides who carried out the less-than-legal tasks a small-town mayor couldn't do alone. Dickinson's early successes--and a lack of viable opponents--got him handily re-elected six times, but everything began to unravel in 1975. It all began when a junior aide, disgruntled after being sacked by Dickinson's chief of staff, called a staff writer for the Sulgrave Herald. The aide knew of nothing more than a few cases of intimidation and bribery by more senior operatives, but the resulting found, in a matter of months, that individuals connected with the mayor installed listening devices in the offices of opposition councillors, and that Dickinson himself had personally received bribes from major corporations to allow them to make inroads in Sulgrave, a deeply unpopular development that put numerous small business owners out of business. A photograph taken of Dickinson meeting with a petrol company representative in a London café proved to be the proverbial bloody knife, sealing his political fate. In a speech that some believe to have been delivered while drunk, er, tired and emotional, Dickinson announced his immediate resignation.
1975–1977: Giles Austin
1977–1981: Harold Howe
Recognizing the need for change, the council elected one of their own, Giles Austin, to the mayor's post. A former political ally of Dickinson's who had quickly turned against him upon the emergence of the allegations, Austin was deemed the perfect balance between continuity and change for the moment. Though the citizens of Sulgrave never forgot his past support of the disgraced ex-mayor, modern residents look more kindly upon him for his success in "steadying the ship" following the scandals that rocked the small town. Austin served for two years before losing re-election to Harold Howe, the well-liked owner of a farm on the outskirts of the village. Howe's down-to-earth approach earned him goodwill from his fellow citizens, and his status as a relative outsider was a breath of fresh air to both councillors and constituents alike. Howe's mayoralty was marked by modest progress as Sulgrave's reputation began to repair itself.
1981–1988: Raymond Townes
By 1981, however, a challenger emerged. Raymond Townes, the Sulgrave native and successful West End playwright and director, moved back to his hometown and, soon enough, it was clear that he was putting out feelers for a challenge to Howe and his allies on the council. Sure enough, the charismatic thespian, master of both the grand poetic speech and the ever-popular straight talk, won both the mayoralty as well as a landslide in the council for his allies. There may have been some who thought that this meant a return to mayors who did little more than speeches and ribbon-cuttings, but they were wrong. With the backing of a strong majority of the council, Townes pushed through his plan of cuts to the council housing and public healthcare budgets, earning the deep ire of many of the town's poorer residents. Business owners and wealthier citizens, meanwhile, reveled in Townes's cuts to local taxes on the biggest earners. Townes nevertheless remained popular throughout his mayoralty, and opted to retire in 1988.
1988–1993: Julian Wakefield-Browne, 1st Viscount Tenterden
To replace him, the council turned in a different direction. During Townes's term, the retired diplomat Julian Wakefield-Browne, regarded as one of the top men in the Foreign Office, retired and settled down in Sulgrave. Ennobled shortly after as Viscount Tenterden, he quickly became a prominent figure in village life. It was no surprise, then, that Lord Tenterden defeated the affable but less well-connected solicitor Anthony Christodoulou to succeed the retiring mayor. Translating his diplomatic skills to something more domestic, Tenterden worked to increase cooperation with neighboring towns and cities, just as Parliament was debating local government reforms that would open up the possibility for metropolitan consolidation, more powerful councils, and greater resource sharing. Though sympathetic to Townes's financial policy, he walked back some of his predecessor's harsher cuts and increased taxes, despite earlier plans to not do so.
1993–2001: Samuel Hope
With an economic recession sweeping across Britain and the Continent, the aristocratic Tenterden lost popularity as a challenger emerged in Samuel Hope. Raised in council housing by a single mother, Hope had made his way out of poverty to earn a scholarship to Cambridge and made a living and a name for himself as a successful solicitor. With his wife (and law partner) Janet Hope by his side, he defeated Lord Tenterden at the 1993 election and assumed the mayorship for a new generation.
A charismatic and engaging speaker, Hope gained popularity especially from younger voters, whose support was crucial in unseating many of Townes and Tenterden's allies on the council. He carried out several major reforms to local government and utility operations, earning him and his allies repeated electoral successes. In 2000, however, scandal once again reared its head in Sulgrave. Rumors began to emerge of Hope carrying out an affair with a junior councillor. Despite his advisers' best attempts to allow the rumor to die a natural death, nothing could stop the barrage of allegations. His public denial was ineffective and failed to quell the suspicions. He ultimately stepped down in 2001, leading the people of Sulgrave to go in yet another direction for its new mayor.
2001–2009: The Hon. Jeremy Julian Wakefield-Browne
The Honourable Jeremy Julian Wakefield-Browne, so styled as the son of a viscount, had largely the same upper-class upbringing as his father. After his studies, he entered the world of business and eventually became the co-owner of an English Football League club. Despite the inevitable comparisons to his father, he was his own man. Citizens found him less cerebral but more personable, less diplomatic but more decisive. These attributes proved useful early on in his term when a bomb went off at a local community center, killing twenty and injuring fifteen. Wakefield-Browne promised a swift and thorough investigation, which he promised to personally coordinate in cooperation with the local police and national authorities. The Sulgrave Bomber, as the perpetrator became known, initially proved to be an enigma until police found evidence linking the bomb to a Sulgrave native who had moved to London as a young man. No paper trail was found and few records proved useful in locating him, and despite numerous sightings, the local government and police could not find him. In spite of this, the bombing led to an era of increased unity and solidarity among the people of Sulgrave, and Wakefield-Browne (commonly known simply as "Jules")'s popularity soared.
In the months and years following the bombing, Wakefield-Browne appealed to the community's sense of patriotism and lobbied hard for the construction of an RAF training facility to be built within the borders of Sulgrave. This deeply divided residents, with some worried about the increased costs and traffic, but with the post-bombing sentiment still looming, a local plebiscite turned out 67-33 in favor of the construction. Wakefield-Browne opted to retire after eight years in the mayor's post, and a new face emerged to replace him.
2009–2017: Neil Gupta
Neil Gupta, the mixed-race son of a Sulgrave native and an Indian graduate student, was born and raised in Sulgrave and worked as a community organizer and activist before obtaining a law degree and becoming a law professor. Upon the announcement that he would seek the mayorship, rumors began to emerge, especially among older and more conservative residents, that Gupta was ineligible to serve because he was not a British citizen. Though records disproved that claim almost immediately, the racist stunt by the so-called "birthers" was emblematic of a rising populist tide that would reach its peak less than a decade later. With residents gradually growing tired of Wakefield-Browne's leadership, and a wave of new young voters backing progressive councillors, Gupta was handily elected mayor in 2009. Under Gupta's direction, the cuts to local health services under Townes were finally completely reversed and the budget was even increased to purchase new ambulances and hire more nurses and assistants. Measures were passed to protect LGBT+ residents, the council and local government agencies promoted solar and wind energy as alternatives to non-renewable sources, and foundations were laid to take on the local government reforms offered by the national government. It was also under his mayoralty that authorities finally located and apprehended the Sulgrave Bomber, leading to a second wave of public unity, this time combined with widespread celebration. He elected to retire in 2017, and a familiar name emerged to replace him.
2017–2018: Janet Hope
Though their time in power ended in scandal, Samuel and Janet Hope quickly rebuilt their reputation. They returned to their law practice and Samuel even served as informal legal advisors to Wakefield-Browne and Gupta. In 2002, Janet stood for the local council, and won a seat despite the popularity of Wakefield-Browne and his allies. As a leading councillor, she was the frontrunner to succeed Gupta, who publicly endorsed her. In office, however, she lacked the charisma and dynamism of her husband or her predecessor, and despite her legal successes and impressive personal background, she was ultimately forced to contend with the forces of populism.
2018–2021: James Randall Burton
The wealthiest man in Sulgrave (or so he claimed, other sources put him at number two), James Randall Burton was a successful restaurateur known for his loose tongue. Previously an apolitical figure who donated to both Tenterden and Hope, Burton's decision to enter politics rocked the village. When campaign season geared up in 2017, Burton made no secret of the fact that he financed the campaigns of several council candidates--the Sulgrave First Team--who in turn pledged to elect him mayor the following year. Sure enough, they unseated numerous incumbents on a platform of resistance to local government reform and consolidation, a moratorium on new residents, and general loyalty to Burton. With his allies firmly in place, Burton was elected mayor in 2018. Once in office, his pronouncements gained widespread notoriety among fellow mayors, MPs, and even the Housing and Communities Secretary, who personally interjected to block his attempts to bar people from moving to Sulgrave. While opposition grew, it seemed as though his support base would not shrink, and indeed, it may have even grown. With the help of his chief ally Graham Shilling, a deeply conservative councillor and brother of the local vicar, the council passed a number of right-wing measures, delighting his base and incensing his opponents.
All came crashing down for Burton when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Britain. In contrast to other mayors and local executives, Burton downplayed the crisis, eschewing the wearing of masks and making rude comments about public health officials. When the national government rolled out their vaccination plan, he actively opposed it and worked against it, sharing anti-vaccine comments on government social media accounts. His allies suffered at the ballot box, and his popularity continued to sink.
2021–0000: Sir Dominic Flanagan, 1st Baronet
In response, the people turned to Sir Dominic Flanagan. The longest-serving councillor in Sulgrave's history (and perhaps the longest-serving incumbent councillor in the country), Flanagan had held his seat for 48 years and been the council's president for the last ten. He had even been given a baronetcy in recognition of his service to local government. His son Dom was previously speculated as a future councillor--perhaps even an MP--but he was killed in action while serving abroad as an Army officer. When the time came, Flanagan defeated Burton in 2021, becoming mayor after almost five decades of public service. Time will tell what becomes of Sulgrave after centuries of village life--Flanagan has expressed openness to finalizing the plans for consolidation into West Northamptonshire--but one thing is clear: political life in Sulgrave will never cease to excite.
