Joseph Gurney Braithwaite

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Sir (Joseph) Gurney Braithwaite, Bt (24 May 189525 June 1958) was an English Conservative politician.

Gurney Braithwaite came from a Quaker family and was educated at Downs School, Colwall and Bootham School, York. During World War I, he served in the Royal Navy at the Suvla Bay landing, Gallipoli, and in Palestine. He became a stockbroker and company director.

Braithwaite contested Rotherhithe without success in 1929, and was elected the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hillsborough at the 1931 general election, losing the seat in 1935 to the previous incumbent, A. V. Alexander. He re-entered Parliament in a 1939 by-election for Holderness. In Parliament, he was active on issues relating to ex-servicemen and the Navy, and was himself a lieutenant-commander in the RNVR. During World War II he helped organise convoys in the Thames area.

At the 1950 general election, Braithwaite's Holderness seat was abolished and he was elected for the marginal Bristol North West constituency. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport in the government of Winston Churchill from 1951 to 1953. He was made a baronet in 1954. Boundary changes involved his seat being redrawn to Labour's advantage, and at the 1955 general election Braithwaite lost. He died three years later.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by:
A. V. Alexander
Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hillsborough
19311935
Succeeded by:
A. V. Alexander
Preceded by:
Samuel Servington Savery
Member of Parliament for Holderness
1939–1950
Succeeded by:
Seat abolished
Preceded by:
Creation
Member of Parliament for Bristol North West
19501955
Succeeded by:
Thomas Christopher Boyd
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by:
(new creation)
Braithwaite Baronets
1954–1958
Succeeded by:
(extinct)