"VBCW map of King's secret cadre of army officers" Topic

Of possible interest, a coloured map of the UK General Election results in 1935 with the constituencies of elected former commissioned officers coloured in dark grey.

In my muddled mind and VBCW world these officers form a secret military society, akin to the Spanish Union Militar Espanola, involved in a conspiracy to allow the Royal perogative to usurp parliamentary democracy. Any officer taking a commission agreed to serve and assist the monarch in whatever capacity when demanded and one of the rewards was the guarantee of a parliamentry seat at some point in the future. Thus King Edward VIII has a sizeable faction (180+) in the House of Commons to do his bidding and Mosley can govern. (The majority of members of Prime Minister Baldwin's last Cabinet thereby remained in place at His Majesty's pleasure.

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I think this (WIP) map might be of use to a newcomer to VBCW wondering what factions might exist in a particular part of the country (King or Parliament) and then develop it to their own liking. All is up for grabs.

I'm thinking that each rank from Second Lieutenant to Brigadier-General represents the number of armed experienced men at immediate disposal of each Royal Parliamentarian, ie., Captain = 120 men.

It is interesting to note that all the major ports appear entirely under the control of the King's men. Also, Scotland and Northern Ireland look decidely vulnerable to a concerted Royalist/Nationalist uprising, or counter-rising. Half of Antrim (one of two members) and Belfast East were King's Party officers. Map not included for some unsatisfactory reason.

The Isle of Man has become a submarine, lurking somewhere in coastal waters and not where you might expect to see it!

Depending on the interest shown I will provide a list of the constituencies and army ranks of the elected members.

Thanks.

D'Ewell

What do the colours represent?

…oh yeah!

The colours blues, reds, yellow and green represent the main political parties (essentially, Conservatives, Labour and Liberals of one hue or another). The dark grey represents the three main parties whose elected member was a commissioned army officer.

I'm suggesting that this could form the basis of a secret political group supporting the King and also having experienced fighting men under their control to fight the good VBCW fight. The map also shows main areas of political support for the various parties.

Interesting what a high proportion of "the Establishment" had served in the Army. I think an equivalent map today would have a tiny handful of grey constituencies.

Many of these would date back to WW1 and quite possibly distributed fairly evenly among the parties. A few prominent socialist politicians had held commissioned rank in WW1. There would still be a certain status to rank that might influence selection committees when choosing a candidate – for any party.

A few prominent socialist politicians had held commissioned rank in WW1

With respect GildasFacit, not as many as you may think though by 1935. Very, very few in comparison with the other parties but prominent amongst them was Major Clem Atltlee.

An awful lot of them had only been given war emergency commissions, which had ceased at the end of WW1. So while they were 'commissioned officers', the vast majority had only held short-service/emergency commissions and had long ceased to be serving officers.

For example, in my own county of Pembrokeshire during the 1920s and 30s, the constituency swung back and forth between Major Gwilym Lloyd George (Liberal and son of the wartime PM) and Major Charles William Mackay Price (Conservative). Neither were Regular Army and both had only been emergency-commissioned for a few years during WW1 and were long-resigned from the Army, despite the honorific of 'Major'.