Archibald Sinclair Retains His Seat in the 1945 General Election?

Archibald Sinclair was the leader of the Liberal Party in the UK from 1935 until he lost his seat as the Member of Parliament for Caithness and Sutherland in the 1945 general election by only 61 votes. He stood again in 1950 but lost a second time by 269 votes. The party itself didn't do all that well either dropping from 21 seats to 12, it getting even worse in 1950 being reduced to 9, and finally in 1951 just 6. His replacements as leader Clement Davies was seen by some as a bit past it and more of a caretaker leader, though he eventually stayed leader for 11 years, and developed something of a mixed posthumous reputation - some saw him as a bit useless and representing a lost decade for the party, others that he was able to attain the large achievement of keeping the party alive and functioning. His replacement in turn was Jo Grimond during whose tenure the party was able to start to recover, although how much that was down to him and how much outside factors is up for debate.

Anyway! Suppose that Sinclair somehow had slightly better luck and narrowly won in 1945, he suffered a minor stroke in 1952 and a more serious one in 1959 so at that point or a couple of years afterwards he's likely to step down in the mid-1950s. If he did then who replaces him? Grimond is about but he's only been an MP for two years in 1952 if Sinclair decides to go straight away, considering the small size of the parliamentary party though would he be able to get it, and if so do people think he would do better than Davies in turning the party's fortunes around?
 
Top