Sir Charles Sykes, 1st Baronet, KBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (11 April 1868 – 16 November 1950) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 politician and wool

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

 merchant.

Sykes entered the wool trade at a young age. During the First World War he served as Director of Wool Textile Production and as chairman of the Board of Control of the Worsted and Woollen Trades. In the Second World War he served as an adviser to the War Office

War Office

The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...

 on textile and clothing production.

In 1918 he was elected to Parliament

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 as Coalition Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 member for Huddersfield

Huddersfield (UK Parliament constituency)

-Elections in the 2000s:-Elections in the 1990s:- Notes and references :...

, but lost the seat in 1922.

He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1918 and created a Baronet

Baronet

A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...

in the 1921 Birthday Honours, both for his war services.