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==Early career== |
==Early career== |
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===Bar and Local Government=== |
===Bar and Local Government=== |
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He was a Liberal Parliamentary candidate at [[Macclesfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Macclesfield]] in the [[United Kingdom general election, 1929|1929 general election]], coming third. After this he concentrated on |
He was a Liberal Parliamentary candidate at [[Macclesfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Macclesfield]] in the [[United Kingdom general election, 1929|1929 general election]], coming third. After this he concentrated on his legal career. He was called to the bar in 1930.<ref name = "ODNB"/> |
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As a barrister, he was an opponent of capital punishment and was not always deferential to the bench: when a judge suggested holding a special sitting on the morning of Good Friday he withdrew his suggestion after Lloyd pointed out that the last judge to do so had been [[Pontius Pilate]].<ref>Matthew 2004, p158</ref> |
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Lloyd voted Conservative for the first time in [[United Kingdom general election, 1931|1931]].<ref>Thorpe 1989, p89</ref> He served as a councillor on [[Hoylake|Hoylake Urban District Council]] 1932–40. |
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In 1930-1 Lloyd was sympathetic to [[Oswald Mosley]]’s New Party, and was disappointed that it made so little headway. He broke with the Liberal Party in 1931 over their reluctance to accept tariffs, and thought the rump National Liberal Party not worth joining.<ref>Matthew 2004, p158</ref> Lloyd voted Conservative for the first time in [[United Kingdom general election, 1931|1931]].<ref>Thorpe 1989, p89</ref> |
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Lloyd served as a councillor on [[Hoylake|Hoylake Urban District Council]] 1932–40. He was chairman of the council at the age of 32. He considered himself a Conservative from the mid-1930s, but did not formally join the Conservative Party until he was selected as a Parliamentary candidate; he later wrote that he would have taken a more active role in Conservative politics had it not been for the war.<ref>Matthew 2004, p158</ref> |
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===World War II service=== |
===World War II service=== |
Revision as of 05:10, 14 February 2017
The Lord Selwyn-Lloyd | |
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File:Selwyn Lloyd, Speaker.png | |
Speaker of the House of Commons | |
In office 12 January 1971 – 3 February 1976 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Preceded by | Horace King |
Succeeded by | George Thomas |
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons | |
In office 16 October 1964 – 4 August 1965 | |
Leader | Sir Alec Douglas-Home |
Preceded by | Herbert Bowden |
Succeeded by | Fred Peart |
Lord Privy Seal Leader of the House of Commons | |
In office 18 October 1963 – 16 October 1964 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Prime Minister | Sir Alec Douglas-Home |
Preceded by | Iain Macleod |
Succeeded by | Herbert Bowden |
Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
In office 27 July 1960 – 13 July 1962 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Prime Minister | Harold Macmillan |
Preceded by | Derick Heathcoat Amory |
Succeeded by | Reginald Maudling |
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | |
In office 22[1] December 1955 – 27 July 1960 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Prime Minister | Anthony Eden Harold Macmillan |
Preceded by | Harold Macmillan |
Succeeded by | The Earl of Home |
Minister of Defence | |
In office 7 April 1955 – 20 December 1955 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Prime Minister | Anthony Eden |
Preceded by | Harold Macmillan |
Succeeded by | Sir Walter Monckton |
Minister of Supply | |
In office 18 October 1954 – 7 April 1955 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Prime Minister | Sir Winston Churchill |
Preceded by | Duncan Sandys |
Succeeded by | Reginald Maudling |
Member of Parliament for Wirral | |
In office 5 July 1945 – 11 March 1976 | |
Preceded by | Alan Crosland Graham |
Succeeded by | David Hunt |
Personal details | |
Born | John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd 28 July 1904 West Kirby, Wirral, Cheshire, England |
Died | 18 May 1978 Oxfordshire | (aged 73)
Political party | None (1971–1978) Conservative (1945–1971) |
Alma mater | Fettes College Magdalene College, Cambridge |
John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd CH CBE TD PC QC DL (28 July 1904 – 18 May 1978), known for most of his career as Selwyn Lloyd, was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Foreign Secretary from 1955 to 1960, then as Chancellor of the Exchequer until 1962. He was elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1971, serving until his retirement in 1976.
Family Background
Lloyd was born on 28 July 1904 at Red Bank in West Kirby, now in Merseyside, but then in the county of Cheshire.[2] His father John Wesley Lloyd (1865-1954) was a dental surgeon of Welsh descent and a Methodist lay preacher; his mother Mary Rachel Warhurst (1872-1959) was distantly related to Field Marshal Sir John French. He had three sisters.[3]
He was educated at the Leas School. He was particularly interested in military history as a boy.[4] He won a scholarship to Fettes College in 1918.[5]
Cambridge
In October 1923 he went up, as a scholar, to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where A. C. Benson was Master. There he was a friend of the future Archbishop Michael Ramsey.[6] Lloyd acquired the nickname “Peter” at this time.[7] Lloyd played rugby and was disappointed not to get a Blue.[8]
In October 1924 his sister Eileen sailed to India to marry and work as a doctor. She died there the following January, aged 25.[9]
Lloyd was an active Liberal as a young man, and in March 1925 he entertained H. H. Asquith at Magdalene after a Liberal Party meeting at the Cambridge Guildhall.[10] He became President of the Cambridge University Liberal Club.[11] Lloyd was also an active debater in the Cambridge Union Society, where his sparring-partners included Rab Butler, Patrick Devlin, Hugh Foot, Alan King-Hamilton and Geoffrey Lloyd.[12] Lloyd lost his scholarship in June 1925, after obtaining a second-class in Classics. He then switched to study History, in which he also obtained a Second.[13]
During the General Strike of May 1926 Lloyd, who earlier that year had begun eating dinners at Gray's Inn with a view to qualifying as a barrister, volunteered as a Special Constable. He later became critical of the Conservative Government’s clampdown on trade unions, e.g. the Trades Disputes Act of 1927.[14] The university authorities encouraged students who had worked for the government so close to their exams to extend their studies for an extra year, which meant that Lloyd was able to spend a very rare fifth year as an undergraduate.[15] Lloyd George had become Liberal leader and was injecting money and ideas into the Liberal Party, and was keen to attract promising young candidates. Selwyn Lloyd was a frequent speaker for the Liberal Party from 1926 onwards.[16]
In Michaelmas Term 1926 Lloyd and Devlin (then President of the Cambridge Union) persuaded Walter Citrine to join Lloyd in opposing the motion that “The power of trade unions has increased, is increasing and ought to be diminished”. They had invited the miners' leader A.J. Cook, to the consternation of the town authorities, but in the event he was unable to attend. Lloyd won the debate by 378 votes to 237 and was elected Secretary for Lent Term 1927, putting him on track to be Vice-President for Easter (summer) Term 1927, then President in Michaelmas 1927.[17] He took office as President in June 1927. At his retiring debate in November 1927 Samuel Hoare and Rab Butler (then being selected as Tory candidate for Saffron Walden) spoke.[18]
Lloyd finally graduated with a third-class in Law Part II in June 1928.[19][20]
Early career
Bar and Local Government
He was a Liberal Parliamentary candidate at Macclesfield in the 1929 general election, coming third. After this he concentrated on his legal career. He was called to the bar in 1930.[21]
As a barrister, he was an opponent of capital punishment and was not always deferential to the bench: when a judge suggested holding a special sitting on the morning of Good Friday he withdrew his suggestion after Lloyd pointed out that the last judge to do so had been Pontius Pilate.[22]
In 1930-1 Lloyd was sympathetic to Oswald Mosley’s New Party, and was disappointed that it made so little headway. He broke with the Liberal Party in 1931 over their reluctance to accept tariffs, and thought the rump National Liberal Party not worth joining.[23] Lloyd voted Conservative for the first time in 1931.[24]
Lloyd served as a councillor on Hoylake Urban District Council 1932–40. He was chairman of the council at the age of 32. He considered himself a Conservative from the mid-1930s, but did not formally join the Conservative Party until he was selected as a Parliamentary candidate; he later wrote that he would have taken a more active role in Conservative politics had it not been for the war.[25]
World War II service
By August 1939, with war clearly imminent, Lloyd was a captain in the Territorial Army (his obituary in “The Times” later stated wrongly that he had begun the war as a private).[26] He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1943.[27] By February 1944 he was Deputy Chief of Staff of the British Second Army. He later recalled that the work preparing for the Normandy landings was more intense than at any other time in his life.[28] His particular responsibility was preparation of the “loading tables”, allocating priceless shipping space to men, weapons, equipment and other supplies.[29] By March 1944 Montgomery knew him well enough to call him by his first name. He grew particularly close to the Second Army GOC, Miles Dempsey, with whom he crossed over to Normandy on D-Day and who remained a personal friend for the rest for their lives.[30]
He was promoted to the rank of brigadier in 1945.[21] He was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1945.[31]
Election to Parliament
He was elected to the House of Commons to represent Wirral in the 1945 general election. He became a member of the "Young Turks" faction of the Conservative Party. He took silk in 1947[32] and served as the Recorder of Wigan between 1948 and 1951.[21]
Ministerial offices
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
When the Conservatives returned to power under Churchill in 1951, Lloyd served under Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1951 to 1954. The following exchange is said to have taken place at his appointment: 'But, sir, there must be some mistake. I do not speak any foreign language. Except in war, I have never visited any foreign country. I do not like foreigners. I have never spoken in any foreign-affairs debate in the House. I have never listened to one.'
'Young man, these all seem to me to be positive advantages,' growled Churchill in return.[33]
Minister of Supply and Minister of Defence
He then served as Minister of Supply (1954–1955). He was subsequently Minister of Defence (1955).
Foreign Secretary
He became Foreign Secretary in 1955. His tenure saw the Suez Crisis, which led to the fall of the Eden government. While Foreign Secretary he was noted for not being on particularly good terms with his American counterpart, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.
He was reappointed Foreign Secretary by the new Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in January 1957. This was met, in the words of a contemporary observer, with a “long, cold arch of raised eyebrows”, whilst Aneurin Bevan likened him to a monkey to Macmillan’s organgrinder.[34] He continued to serve as Foreign Secretary until 1960.
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In 1960 Lloyd became Chancellor of the Exchequer.[35] He became a focus of public unpopularity for the "Pay Pause" of 1961. The Conservatives lost the Orpington by-election on 14 March 1962.[36] Lloyd's second and final budget, on 9 April 1962, introduced an unpopular tax on children's sweets. Macmillan, disingenuously, as he had already decided to sack him, wrote to him on 11 April congratulating him and asking him to begin preparing an expansionary budget for 1963 to help the Conservatives win re-election.[37] At the Leicester North East by-election, on 12 July 1962, the Conservative share of the vote dropped from 48.1% in 1959 to 24.2%.[38]
Macmillan would have liked to appoint Lloyd Home Secretary, as he was moving Rab Butler from this post, but Lloyd had made clear when Macmillan became Prime Minister in January 1957 that as an opponent of capital punishment it would not be proper for him to accept that position (because a person sentenced to hang was entitled to appeal to the Monarch for mercy, which in practice meant that the Home Secretary, to whom the task was delegated, had the final say on whether any execution should proceed).[39] Macmillan later compared Lloyd to Augustine Birrell for his links to the nonconformist vote of North West England.[40]
Lloyd was sacked from the government and returned to the backbenches during the "Night of the Long Knives" reshuffle in July 1962. He was replaced by Reginald Maudling, then seen as a potential future leader of the Conservative Party, and whose remit was to reflate the economy going into the next General Election due by the end of 1964. Lloyd was cheered to the echo when he reentered the Commons after his sacking, whereas Macmillan entered in silence from his own party and jeers from the Opposition, and was subjected to public criticism (then almost unprecedented) from his predecessor Lord Avon. Lloyd privately thought Macmillan too obsessed with unemployment, risking higher inflation.[41] On 20 July 1962 Lloyd was appointed a Companion of Honour, having refused the offer of a peerage from Macmillan.[21][42]
Following his recent divorce, Lloyd had been living at Chequers, normally the Prime Minister's country residence. Lloyd left behind his black Labrador, "Sambo", for whom there was no room in his London flat. At a meeting of the new Cabinet at Chequers later that summer, the dog was observed to be sniffing amongst the ministers looking for his master. Macmillan ignored the animal, which was likened by one observer to Banquo's ghost.[43]
Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons
Lloyd became a popular figure with Conservative Party members after travelling the country in the bitter winter of 1962-3 (the worst since 1946-7) to write his report on party organisation. After Macmillan's impending resignation was announced, Lloyd was a pivotal figure in whipping up support for Alec Douglas-Home as a potential successor at the Blackpool Conference. He was also an influential figure with the Chief Whip Martin Redmayne.[44] He visited Macmillan in hospital on Wednesday 16 October, and advised against appointing Rab Butler, who, he said, was disliked in the constituency associations.[45]
Lloyd was called back to the government in 1963 by Alec Douglas-Home, who made him Lord Privy Seal[46] and Leader of the House of Commons until the Conservative defeat in the general election of 1964.
Speaker of the House of Commons
In 1969 Lloyd was captain of the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in its centenary year.[47]
In 1971, after the Conservatives had returned to power, Lloyd became Speaker. While he was Speaker, he was appointed to be a Deputy Lieutenant of Merseyside in 1974.[48] In a break with convention, both the Labour and Liberal Parties contested his seat in both the February 1974 and October 1974 general elections, but he retained it and continued to hold the speakership until 1976, when he was appointed to be the Steward of the Manor of Northstead[49] and was raised to the peerage.
Peerage and later life
On 8 March 1976 he was created a life peer as Baron Selwyn-Lloyd, of Wirral in the County of Merseyside.[50] In retirement, he wrote two books, although he did not complete his planned memoirs. In 1978, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour, and he died at home in Preston Crowmarsh, Oxfordshire on 18 May 1978.[21]
Styles of address
- 1904–1943: Mr Selwyn Lloyd
- 1943–1945: Mr Selwyn Lloyd OBE
- 1945: Mr Selwyn Lloyd CBE
- 1945–1947: Mr Selwyn Lloyd CBE MP
- 1947–1951: Mr Selwyn Lloyd CBE KC MP
- 1951–1952: The Rt Hon. Selwyn Lloyd CBE KC MP
- 1952–1962: The Rt Hon. Selwyn Lloyd CBE QC MP
- 1962–1974: The Rt Hon. Selwyn Lloyd CH CBE QC MP
- 1974–1976: The Rt Hon. Selwyn Lloyd CH CBE QC DL MP
- 1976–1978: The Rt Hon. The Lord Selwyn-Lloyd CH CBE PC QC DL
Personal life
He was married, aged 46, in the Wirral in March 1951 to Elizabeth Marshall, known as Bae, his secretary and the daughter of Roland Marshall of West Kirby.[51] A solicitor by profession, she was born in 1928, making her 23 years his junior.[21] They had a daughter, Joanna, and divorced in 1957.[52][53] Rab Butler quipped that Selwyn’s wife had left him “because he got into bed with his sweater on”.[54]
References
- ^ S. Lloyd, 'Suez 1956: A Personal Account', p. 33
- ^ Matthew 2004, p157
- ^ Matthew 2004, p157
- ^ Matthew 2004, p157
- ^ Matthew 2004, p158
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p25
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p30
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p26
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p.31
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p28
- ^ Website of the Keynes Society for Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats, accessed 12 June 2012
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p27
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p26 the book does not specify exactly when he switched from History to Law or whether his history result was in June 1926 or June 1927 (the date when he should have graduated, had it not been for the General Strike)
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p35
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p35
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p38-40
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p36-7
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p36
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p26
- ^ Matthew 2004, p158
- ^ a b c d e f Thorpe, D. R. "Lloyd, (John) Selwyn Brooke, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd (1904–1978)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31371. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Matthew 2004, p158
- ^ Matthew 2004, p158
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p89
- ^ Matthew 2004, p158
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p76
- ^ "No. 36033". The London Gazette (invalid
|supp=
(help)). 2 June 1943. - ^ Thorpe 1989, p81
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p78
- ^ Thorpe 1989, p94
- ^ "No. 36917". The London Gazette (invalid
|supp=
(help)). 1 February 1945. - ^ "No. 37963". The London Gazette. 23 May 1947.
- ^ Never Had It So Good: A History of Britain from Suez to the Beatles by Dominic Sandbrook
- ^ Sandford 2005, pp.77-8
- ^ Edmund Dell, The Chancellors: A History of the Chancellors of the Exchequer, 1945-90 (HarperCollins, 1997) pp 258-82.
- ^ Thorpe 2010, p. 518
- ^ Thorpe 2010, p. 520
- ^ Thorpe 2010, p. 521
- ^ Thorpe 2010, p. 522
- ^ Thorpe 2010, p.xiv
- ^ Thorpe 2010, p. 524-5
- ^ "No. 42736". The London Gazette. 20 July 1962.
- ^ Thorpe 2010, p. 525
- ^ Thorpe 2010, p. 564
- ^ Thorpe 2010, p. 572
- ^ "No. 43143". The London Gazette. 25 October 1963.
- ^ Matthew 2004, p157
- ^ "No. 46330". The London Gazette. 18 June 1974.
- ^ "No. 46823". The London Gazette. 13 February 1976.
- ^ "No. 46847". The London Gazette. 11 March 1976.
- ^ Marriage registered in the Wirral Registration District in the first quarter of 1951.
- ^ D R Thorpe: Lloyd, (John) Selwyn Brooke, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd (1904–1978), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 accessed 13 Sept 2012
- ^ The Times (Thursday, 18 May 1978), p. 21.
- ^ Sandford 2005, pp.78
Further reading
- Dell, Edmund. The Chancellors: A History of the Chancellors of the Exchequer, 1945-90 (HarperCollins, 1997) pp 258-82, covers his term as Chancellor.
- Matthew (editor), Colin (2004). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 34. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198614111.
{{cite book}}
:|last=
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(help), essay on Selwyn Lloyd written by D.R.Thorpe - Sandbrook, Dominic (2005). Never Had It So Good. London: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-349-11530-6.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Thorpe, D. R. (1989). Selwyn Lloyd. London: Jonathan Cape Ltd. ISBN 978-0-224-02828-8.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Thorpe, D. R. (2010). Supermac: The Life of Harold Macmillan (Kindle ed.). London: Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-1-844-13541-7.
{{cite book}}
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External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Selwyn Lloyd
- A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Selwyn Lloyd" is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
- Portraits of Selwyn Lloyd at the National Portrait Gallery, London