Arthur Symonds

{{Short description|British politician (1910–1960)}}

{{for|the New Zealand cricketer|Arthur Symonds (cricketer)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}

{{Use British English|date=March 2018}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Arthur Symonds

| honorific_suffix = OBE

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name = Arthur Leslie Symonds

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1910|10|02|df=y}}

| birth_place =

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1960|02|25|1910|10|02|df=y}}

| death_place =

| other_names =

| education = Perse School,
Jesus College, Cambridge

| occupation = politician

| party = Labour Party

| years_active = 1945–1950

| known_for = Member of Parliament for Cambridge

| notable_works =

}}

Arthur Leslie Symonds, OBE (2 October 1910 – 25 February 1960) was a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom.

He grew up in Cambridge and was educated at the Perse School and Jesus College, Cambridge, before moving to Cornwall, where he was an Assistant Master at St. Austell County School for Boys between 1933 and 1940. He then served in the armed forces between 1940 and 1945, being mentioned twice in despatches, and earning an MBE.Who Was Who, Volume V: 1951–1960 (Charles Black, London, 1961)

He was elected as Member of Parliament for Cambridge in the Labour landslide at the 1945 general election,{{cite web |title=The city of Cambridge: Parliamentary representation Pages 68-76 A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3, the City and University of Cambridge |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol3/pp68-76 |website=British History Online |publisher=Victoria County History, 1959 |access-date=26 December 2022}} winning by a majority of only 682 votes over the incumbent Conservative MP Richard Tufnell. At the 1950 general election, he lost by 5,355 votes to the Conservative Hamilton Kerr. He made two more attempts at regaining the seat, in the general elections of 1951 and 1955, but did not contest it in 1959.

He was made a Justice of the Peace in Cambridge in 1957, and was awarded the OBE in 1959. He died in 1960, at the age of 49.Who Was Who, Volume V: 1951–1960 (Charles Black, London, 1961)