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Wentworth Schofield

British politician (1891-1957)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ7983034 ↗
Source-derived summary

Lt Col Wentworth Schofield (17 April 1891 – 16 December 1957) was a British politician who served as the last Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale from 25 October 1951 to 16 December 1957.

Schofield was from Oldham, Lancashire, and was active in the cotton-spinning industry. He formed the Manchester Yarn Spinners' Association and was a committee member of the Oldham Master Cotton Spinners' Association and the Federation of Master Cotton Spinners' Association, as well as acting as secretary to a cotton trade association. He also served as senior vice-president of Oldham Chamber of Commerce and on the British national committee of the International Chamber of Commerce and the British Empires Chambers of Commerce. Also interested in foreign affairs, Schofield was an authority on the Congo Basin Treaties and served with the Territorial Army for 33 years, commanding a battalion of the Royal Tank Regiment in World War II, gaining the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Schofield contested the Rochdale seat without success at the 1950 general election but was first elected to Parliament in the 1951 general election, defeating the Labour incumbent. He retained the seat until his death in 1957 aged 66.

In the consequent 1958 Rochdale by-election, he was succeeded as MP by the Labour candidate Jack McCann, who fought off a strong challenge from the Liberal Ludovic Kennedy.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Wentworth Schofield” as british politician (1891-1957). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1891, 1957, 1951, 1950—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1891-04-17. The account is most persuasive where Wentworth, Schofield and British can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as british politician (1891-1957). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7983034. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1891, 1957, 1951 and 1950.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Wentworth Schofield”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Wentworth Schofield primary sources, Wentworth Schofield archive and Wentworth research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Wentworth Schofield”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Wentworth Schofield” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.