John Pybus

Sir Percy John Pybus, 1st Baronet, CBE (25 January 1880 – 23 October 1935) was a British Liberal Party politician.

Having completed an engineering apprenticeship John Pybus joined electrical engineers Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing Company when aged 26. During World War I he was appointed managing director. Phoenix became a major constituent of the amalgamation of businesses named English Electric in 1918 and Pybus became a joint managing director with two others. He was appointed managing director of English Electric in March 1921^[1] and chairman in April 1926.^[2] He was a member of many boards of directors including The Times newspaper and chairman of others including Phoenix Assurance.^[3]

In October 1928 he was selected as Liberal candidate for the Harwich Division.^[4] He remained a director of English Electric.

Pybus was first elected at the May 1929 general election, as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Harwich in Essex.^[3]

In 1931, when Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald split the party and formed a National Government. Pybus was one of the Liberal MPs to receive a ministerial post but then left to help form the breakaway Liberal National Party. Re-elected in Harwich at the 1931 general election as a Liberal National, Pybus served as Minister of Transport from 1931 until 1933.

Created a Commander of the British Empire in 1917 he was made a baronet, of Harwich in the County of Essex, in January 1934, and died on 23 October 1935, just weeks before the 1935 general election. His title became extinct on his death.^[3]

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Pybus