S2E2 – 'The Perennial Candidate'

Lieutenant Commander Bill Boaks (1904 - 1986) was a bluff old seaman, decorated war hero, and frequent – though never successful – political campaigner.

An officer in the British Royal Navy, he took part in the sinking of the German battleship, Bismarck; and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his part in the Dunkirk evacuation.

Returning to London after the war, Boaks took his fight to politics. In 1951, he ran for parliament (very nearly in the sitting-Prime Minister’s ward) on a ticket that advocated equal pay for female workers. Clearly, this was never going to be a winner in London in the ’50s. And so, for the next thirty years, he campaigned on a subject that touches every British voter’s heart – road safety.

Over the course of his political career (such as it was), Boaks ran for elected office 28 times over 35 years, never receiving a vote share exceeding 0.5% – and, consequently, lost all of his paid deposits. A pioneer of British eccentric political campaigning, he holds the record for the fewest votes recorded for a candidate in a British parliamentary election, taking just five at a by-election in 1982.

After years of campaigning about road safety, Boaks was injured in a traffic accident in 1984 whilst alighting a bus. He was buried at sea with full honours in the naval graveyard outside Portsmouth Harbour.

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