thumb|right|Harry Willcock

Clarence Harry Willcock (23 January 1896 – 12 December 1952) was a British Liberal Party activist and dry cleaning firm manager. He is best remembered for being the last person in the United Kingdom to be prosecuted for refusing to produce an identity card, a wartime requirement introduced in 1939 but which was continued by the post-war Attlee government.

Life

Willcock was born on 23 January 1896, in Alverthorpe, Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the illegitimate son of Harry Cruickshank, a native of Leeds who worked in the textile trade, and Ella Brooke, whose family were wholesalers to tailors. He was adopted by a widow, Mary Willcock, whose surname he adopted. During World War I he served with the Northumberland Fusiliers, but was not sent overseas.

He was active in Liberal politics – a councillor and magistrate in Horsforth – then stood for Parliament as candidate in Barking in 1945 and 1950, coming third – last (at the first exceeding 12.5% of the vote, at which his deposit was refunded). After the war, in 1945, the Attlee government chose to continue them.

On 7 December 1950, Willcock was stopped for speeding on Ballard's Lane, North Finchley, London. Police Constable Harold Muckle asked him to produce his card. Willcock refused, reportedly saying "I am a Liberal, and I am against this sort of thing". Muckle gave Willcock a form to produce his card at any police station within two days, to which Willcock replied "I will not produce it at any police station and I will not accept the form". He then threw the form on the ground. Willcock failed to produce the form within this time, and was prosecuted under the Act. Former Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has described Willcock as one of his heroes.

See also

  • National Registration Act 1939
  • Identity document

References

  • "Policing by plastic" by Alan Travis; The Guardian, 30 May 2003
  • "Harry Willcock: the forgotten champion of Liberalism" by Mark Egan in Journal of Liberal Democrat History; issue 17, Winter 1997
  • Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg MP on why Willcock is one of his personal heroes, 29 October 2009