Max Townley

Maximilian Gowran Townley (22 June 1864 – 12 December 1942) was a British land agent, agriculturist and politician. He served one term in Parliament as a Conservative, and later campaigned for policies to support agriculture. At the end of his life he chaired the River Great Ouse Catchment Board, where he attempted to prevent damage to Fenland farms caused by regular flooding.

Townley was the fifth son of Charles Watson Townley, who was Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire from 1874 to 1893, and was born at Fulbourn. He attended Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He went into business as a land agent to Lord St John of Bletso based in Melchbourne near Sharnbrook in Bedfordshire. In 1908 he was appointed as a Justice of the Peace of the county of Bedfordshire. He was also Chairman of Norfolk Estuary Company.

In September 1911, Townley was unanimously adopted as the Conservative candidate for Wisbech or North Cambridgeshire division, a seat held narrowly by Hon Neil James Archibald Primrose for the Liberal Party. However, when Primrose was killed during the First World War, the Conservative Association felt obliged to endorse the Liberal candidate Colin Coote by the terms of the electoral pact. During the war, Townley was a temporary Major in the Remount Service, attached to General Headquarters.

...
Wikipedia