Back in the autumn of 1931, Britain was in the grip of election fever.

The country was in crisis following the collapse of the world economy. On August 24, the Labour Government resigned and a new all-party National Government was formed to deal with the emergency.

The National Government continued until it was replaced by a Coalition Government for the war years.

The Lincolnshire Echo, like all other newspapers, carried extensive coverage of election events in those days before television brought them into our homes.

Among the local coverage there was some humour in the headlines and stories of the Echo.

The headline above one picture read:
Com’ For T’ Win!

Very corny! It was a picture of the National Conservative candidate for the Gainsborough Division at an election meeting at Ingham. His name was Capt HF Comfort Crookshank.

Another, on election day, read:
Taylor losing Liddall by Liddall.

This was about the election in Lincoln, where the candidates were Robert Arthur Taylor and Walter Liddall.

Mr Taylor was the first Labour MP for Lincoln, first elected in 1924, but he lost his seat to Mr Liddall by 6,234 votes.

A little paragraph which took some working out was one in the City and County column, by The Gossiper.

It read: If Gainsborrow gains a Crookshank, that won’t be a Deer Purchase.

Then I realised that Captain Crookshank’s opponents were George Deer and GHD Purchase, who were the defeated candidates.

George Deer did eventually enter Parliament, as the representative for Lincoln in the post-war election of 1945, beating Walter Liddall, who had just received a knighthood.