Sometimes people ask me ‘if you were an MP for a day what would you do?’  There has been one person who was an MP for just one day.  He holds the unofficial title as the ‘MP with the shortest service’.  7 MPs have been elected to parliament and were never able to take the oath of office.  Henry Compton was elected in a by-election in 1905 but shortly after the Tory government fell and he lost his seat 46 days later (there were other who never wanted to also).  Joseph Bell, Harry Wrightson, Bobby Sands, James Annand and Alfred Dobbs all died before being sworn in.  Sands died as a result of Hungerstrike 25 days after being elected from his prison cell.  Alfred Dobbs was run over by a car in 1945, 1 day after winning a seat in the Labour landslide of the year.

There is one other person to mention but he will get his own trivia slot and that is Thomas Higgins.  One of a handful of politicians  world-wide to be elected after they had died.