Background
Selley was born in Topsham, Devon, and became a builder"s apprentice.
Selley was born in Topsham, Devon, and became a builder"s apprentice.
He rose to run his own business, and estimated that he had been responsible for the building of more than 25,000 houses in London and its suburbs. He was appointed chairman of the council"s Housing Committee and of the Hospitals Planning and Development Sub-Committee. He was re-elected to the council in 1928, 1931 and 1934.
In the latter year the Municipal Reformers, who were allied to the parliamentary Conservative Party, lost control to the Labour Party.
He retired from the council at the 1937 elections. Selley first stood for Parliament at the Battersea South by-election in February 1929, when he lost by 2.1% of the votes to the Labour Party candidate, William Bennett.
He contested the seat again at the general election in May 1929, cutting Bennett"s majority to only 1.1%, and at the 1931 general election he defeated Bennett with a majority 36.2%. He was re-elected in 1935, and held the seat until he retired from the House of Commons at the 1945 general election.
He was knighted in 1944.
His intention was to demonstrate his belief that the Ministry of Works"s target for bricklayers to lay between 200 and 300 bricks per day was inadequate, and after completing the wall he pronounced that 800 was a more reasonable target. He was national president of Federation of Master Builders from 1945 to at least 1951, when he celebrated his 80th birthday by laying the 80th brick in a wall built in his honour at the Connaught Rooms. Selley was married in 1896 to Eleanor Kate Westcott, daughter of Thomas Westcott.
After his death in 1960, at the age of 88, his estate was valued at £63,204.
36th United Kingdom Parliament. 37th United Kingdom Parliament]
He served as the Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for Battersea South in London from 1931 to 1945. In 1925 Selley was elected to the London County Council as a member of the majority Municipal Reform Party, representing South Battersea.