Sir Ernest Craig, 1st Baronet (1859 – 9 April 1933) was a British Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 politician.

He was elected as Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for the Crewe division of Cheshire

Crewe (UK Parliament constituency)

Crewe was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1983. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 at a by-election in July 1912 after the death of his Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 predecessor, Walter McLaren

Walter McLaren

Walter Stowe Bright McLaren was a British Liberal Party politician who was Member of Parliament for the Crewe division of Cheshire for a total of 11 years between 1886 and 1912....

. Craig did not stand for re-election in 1918

United Kingdom general election, 1918

The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...

, when the seat was won a Coalition Liberal, and his next candidacy was at the 1924 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1924

- Seats summary :- References :* F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* - External links :* * *...

, when he won the seat in a straight contest with the sitting Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 MP Edward Hemmerde

Edward Hemmerde

Edward George Hemmerde, KC was an English rower, barrister and politician.-Education, the Law and family:Hemmerde was born at Peckham, south London, the son of James Godfey Hemmerde and his wife Frances Hope. His father was a bank manager and was with the Imperial Ottoman Bank. Hemmerde was...

. He stepped down from the House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 at the 1929 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1929

-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...

.

In the King's Birthday Honours 1927, he was made a baronet

Baronet

A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...

 on 1 July 1927, of Alsager

Alsager

Alsager is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, to the north-west of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and east of the railway town of Crewe...

 in Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

.

Ernest Craig, before becoming a politician, along with many other Englishmen went west to the USA and to New Mexico in particular. He owned the Last Chance Mine in Mogollon, Grant County, New Mexico, and a picture survives of him in 1908 seated in a motor vehicle at Hudson Springs (now Faywood Hot Springs). He introduced innovative methods of extracting gold. He also established a horse and buggy transport for mining company property movement between Mogollon and Silver City. His only child, Ernestine, later acquired the Mimbres Hot Springs, a few miles from Faywood. Her son Craig Wheaton-Smith managed the Mimbres Hot Springs ranch, and her grandson Simon Wheaton-Smith (Ernest Craig's great grandson) also resides in Silver City, New Mexico.

External links