Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

Chapter Four At Westminster When a general election was called at the end of the Great War, the Liberals and the Conservatives (still widely known at that time as the Unionists) decided to field a combined slate of candidates and, hopefully, form another coalition government. In the previous six elections, stretching over a period of 26 years, the seat of East Norfolk had returned a Liberal, Sir Robert Price. Learning that he would not be returned unopposed, he decided to stand down, citing his age, 65, as the reason. At this point there was no official candidate in place and the scene was set for some political sharp practice. The ‘Khaki’ election, 1918 The Conservatives moved much faster than the Liberals, and John Cator, the chairman of the East Norfolk Unionist Association, announced the adoption of Captain Michael Falcon as the Unionist Coalition candidate for the constituency on 9 November. Falcon was duly cabled in Palestine, where he was serving, sent back his assent, and, like many other soldier candidates, was summoned home. (The presence of so many candidates from the armed services led to this election being known as the ‘Khaki’ election.) As luck would have it there was a Yarmouth drifter docked in Haifa, close to where Falcon was stationed, manned by a crew from Winterton. This enabled the prospective coalition candidate to reach home quickly. Quite why Captain Falcon was chosen by the Unionists to contest East Norfolk remains unclear. He had never expressed interest in a political career before the War, his sole deed of a political nature being to support ‘Plum’ Warner in speaking in favour of conscription at a public meeting in King’s Lynn. 23 Perhaps the local Unionists thought that, as a well-known 43 23 At Cambridge, for instance, there is no record of Falcon joining the Union Society, which would have been the first port of call for any undergraduate with an interest in a political career.