Edgar Sainsbury

Edgar John Sainsbury OBE (1863-29 January 1949) was a school teacher and leading member of the London County Council.

Born in Freemantle, Hampshire in 1863, the son of Edmund and Eliza Sainsbury, by 1881 he was working as a National School teacher in nearby Millbrook.

He moved to London, where he became headmaster of the Chelsea Central (Mixed) School, and President of the Association of Teachers of Central Schools. In 1920 he was awarded the Order of the British empire for his services to education during the First World War. He became a member of the executive of the National Union of Teachers, and served as the union's president in 1923. in that capacity hhe gave evidence to Consultative Committee on the Differentiation of the Curriculum for Boys and Girls Respectively in Secondary Schools. Politically a Conservative and Unionist, In March 1927 he was elected chairman of the newly-formed London Conservative Teachers Association. One of the association's aims were to "counteract, as far as possible, the effects of Socialism in the ranks of teachers".

He retired from teaching in 1928, entering local politics when he was elected to the London County Council as a Municipal Reform Party councillor representing Battersea South. Re-elected in 1931, he lost his seat in 1934 when the Labour Party won control of the council. He returned to the council in 1937 as an alderman, a position he held until his death.