In 1907 Pilditch was elected to the London County Council, representing Islington East. He was a member of the Conservative-backed Municipal Reform Party which took control of the council from the Progressive Party which was allied to the Liberal Party.[4] The Islington seat was marginal, and at the next council elections in 1910 he was returned for the safer electoral division of Strand.[5] He held the seat in 1913 and remained on the council until 1919.[2][6] He was a prominent member of the council, and served as vice-chairman in 1913–1914.[2][3]
Pilditch held a commission in the 1st Sussex Volunteer Artillery, retiring with the rank of captain.[1][2][3] During the First World War he was active in the raising of fifty battalions for the New Army in Surrey, Middlesex and London, and acted as honorary treasurer for the battalion funds.[2][3]
He was knighted in 1918[7] and created a baronet, "of Bartropps in the parish of Weybridge in the County of Surrey" in 1929.[2][8]
Death
He died at his home near Weybridge, Surrey in December 1948, aged 87. He was succeeded in the baronetage by his son, Philip Harold.[1][2]
Personal life
In 1888 he married Emily Mary Lewis, the daughter of a director of the National Provincial Bank.[1][2] The couple had two sons and a daughter, Mabel Emily who married Major Henry Hammick.[2] He established the business of Pilditch and Chadwick, surveyors and architects, of which he was head.[1][2][3]
References and sources
References
^ abcdefghi"Obituary: Sir Philip Pilditch". The Times. 20 December 1948. p. 6.