Gordon Lang

Rev. Gordon Lang (25 February 1893 – 20 June 1981) was a Welsh Congregationalist minister and Labour Party politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Oldham from 1929 to 1931, and for Stalybridge and Hyde from 1945 to 1951.
Lang was born in Monmouth, and attended the town's grammar school and Cheshunt College. He combined his pastoral work with political activity including being honorary secretary of the United Europe Movement and a leading member of the Proportional Representation Society.

In 1929 he was nominated as one of two Labour candidates for the two-seat Oldham constituency along with James Wilson. The election saw a large swing to the party, and Lang and Wilson were elected, unseating the two sitting members (one Conservative and one Liberal.)

Following the collapse of the second Labour Government and the formation of a National Government, a further general election was held in 1931. Lang and Wilson defended their seats against two government candidates, but were heavily defeated. Lang stood at Oldham again at the next general election in 1935, but failed to regain the seat for Labour.

In 1937, Philip Dunne, the Conservative MP for Stalybridge and Hyde retired due to ill health. Lang was chosen to contest the ensuing byelection, which was a straight fight with Horace Trevor-Cox, Conservative and National Government candidate. Lang came close to taking the seat, reducing the Conservative majority in 1935 of 5,081 to just 334.

With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, elections were postponed. It was not until 1945 that another general election was held. Lang and Trevor-Cox were again the candidates of the Labour and Conservative parties respectively, joined by a Liberal candidate, Donald Burden. There was a Labour landslide, and Lang was comfortably elected with a majority of 4,370 votes. He held the seat at the next general election in 1950. The result of the election was a slender Labour majority, and a further election was called in 1951. Lang announced that we would not contest the election due to ill health, and retired from the Commons.

Lang continued in his ministry, and was appointed chaplain to the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain. He died at his home in Chepstow in June 1981, aged 88.