Page "Mark Bonham Carter, Baron Bonham-Carter" Paragraph 4

Bonham Carter's family continued its heavy involvement in Liberal politics, especially when his sister Laura married the Liberal leader Jo Grimond.

It was in 1958 that the Torrington by-election was called in a safe Conservative seat, and Bonham Carter became the Liberal candidate.

Much to everyone's surprise, he won, overturning a 9, 000 majority, and giving the Liberals their first by-election gain since 1929.

Bonham Carter's margin of victory was extremely slim — just 219 votes.

Nonetheless, it was a major boost to the success-deprived Liberals, and was the first in a string of by-election victories that would make up the post-war Liberal Revival.

Grimond was personally hopeful that the articulate Bonham Carter would be his designated successor, but it was not to be-at the 1959 general election, just 18 months after his victory, he narrowly lost the seat to the Conservatives.

He continued to be a close advisor to Grimond throughout the latter's leadership, but would never again be an MP, despite a third, unsuccessful, and equally close candidature for Torrington in the 1964 general election.