WINSTON Churchill was replaced as Prime Minister following the 1945 General Election, just weeks before Victory over Japan (VJ) Day, the end of the Second World War on August 15.

Labour won a substantial majority and the party's Clement Attlee was to be the new Prime Minister.

But, it was not so in the Skipton division where Captain Burnaby Drayson won the seat for the Conservatives with a majority of 2,201.

Counting took place at Skipton Town Hall over two days and the result was announced on Thursday, July 26.

The 32 year old Capt Drayson, a southerner, with links to Yorkshire, was at the time serving with the Royal Artillery. He had been a Territorial before the war and had been mobilised at the outbreak of hostilities.

After winning the election, he said one of his first jobs was to secure a house in the Skipton division, up until then, he had been living in Harrogate.

In its leader column the Craven Herald said: "Whatever the rest of the country has done in this election, the Skipton division has shown its faith in Mr Churchill and the policy for which he stood.

"The resounding success of Capt Drayson is a notable victory, the more notable because of the way so many other constituencies have turned."

Capt Burnaby took 17,905 votes: John Percival, Labour, 15,704, and Lieut Col Eric Townshend, Liberal, 9, 546.

He was to remain the area's MP until 1979, the closest he came to losing his seat was in October, 1974 when he was up against Liberal candidate Claire Brooks, he won by the narrow majority of 590.