My first election was in March 2013 in the 2013 City-wide elections for all 100 Common Council seats.
The vacancy arose following the retirement of Martin Farr who had been a Common Councillor since 1998.
Walbrook Ward was the most contested ward in the 2013 elections with eight candidates contesting the two Common Councillor seats.
Election day was, 21 March 2013 and myself and Lucy Frew, a law partner at Gide, were successfully elected (see further below, together with the full list of candidates and votes received).
Pauline Halliday OBE, Common Councillor since 1992, former Chief Commoner (2007-2008), the first female non-Aldermanic Sheriff in the City (1999-2000) and Deputy for the Ward sought defended her seat but was unfortunately unsuccessful in doing so.
The other candidates included Rev. Dr. William-Campbell-Taylor had previously been a Common Councillor in the City between 2001 and 2008. Whilst, he was also not successful in the Walbrook election, he was subsequently successfully elected in Portsoken Ward in a by-election in March 2014 running as a Labour candidate. In doing so he made history by becoming the first ever party political candidate to win a seat in the Court of Common Council.
Whilst the 2013 Walbrook Election was heavily contested, and there was significant campaigning by the majority of the candidates, at all times it was a fair campaign.
My colleague Lucy Frew stood down in late 2016.
Subsequently, Peter Bennett, the former City Surveyor (2007 to 2016), was elected in a by-election on 1 December 2016 – following his retirement as a Senior Officer of the Corporation.
| Candidate | Votes |
| James Thomson * | 74 |
|---|---|
| Lucy Frew * | 64 |
| Dorothy Newman | 39 |
| Pauline Halliday | 38 |
| Thomas Sermon | 30 |
| William Campbell-Taylor | 28 |
| Alice Thomas | 26 |
| Hari Mann | 21 |
Lucy Frew – Common Councillor, Walbrook Ward – 2013 to 2016
