A. V. Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Hillsborough
Encyclopedia
Albert Victor Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Hillsborough KG
, CH
, PC (1 May 1885 – 11 January 1965) was a British
Labour Co-operative
politician. He was three times First Lord of the Admiralty, including during the Second World War, and then Minister of Defence
under Clement Attlee
.
and one of four children, A. V. Alexander was the son of Albert Alexander, a blacksmith and later engineer who had moved from his native Wiltshire
to Bristol
during the agricultural depression of the 1860s and 1870s, and Eliza Jane Thatcher, daughter of a policeman. He was named after both his father and Prince Albert Victor, Queen Victoria's eldest grandson, but he was known as "A. V." from a young age. His parents had settled in Weston when they married, but the family moved to Bristol after Albert Alexander's death in August 1886. Alexander's mother worked as a corset-maker to provide for her children.
Alexander attended Barton Hill School from the age of three, at a cost of two pence per week. Against his mother's wishes, he chose not to continue to St. George's Higher Grade School in 1898, feeling the increased weekly charge of six pence was too expensive and that he would get nothing more from school. He began work aged thirteen, first for a leather merchant, and five months later as a junior clerk with the Bristol School Board. In 1903 he transferred to Somerset
County Council's newly formed local education authority
, where he worked in the School Management Department as a committee clerk. He was by this time a keen chorister and footballer, and a self-taught pianist. In later years, and until his death, Alexander was a vice-president of Chelsea F.C.
– his role at the club was taken on by Richard Attenborough
.
Raised an Anglican, Alexander converted to the Baptist movement in 1908 after he married Esther Ellen Chapple, a school teacher and Baptist. They were married on 6 June 1908. Their daughter, Beatrix, was born in 1909, and their son lived from 1911 to 1913. He joined the Weston Co-operative Society and became treasurer of the local Young Liberal
Association in 1908, and the local Trades and Labour Council in 1909. He was elected to the board of the Weston Co-op Society in 1910.
He volunteered for service when the First World War
began, but was not called-up until two years later. He joined the Artists Rifles, which principally served to train officers for assignment to other regiments. He trained in London and studied at Magdalen College
, Oxford
, before earning his commission in the Labour Corps
in December 1917. His health suffered during training, and he never saw active service, instead working as a posting officer in Lancashire
. In November 1918 he was promoted to Captain
, transferred to the General List, and became an education officer, preparing wounded soldiers for civilian life. He was demobbed in late 1919. Within a year of returning home, he became vice-president of the Weston Co-op Society and secretary of the Somerset branch of NALGO.
that November, and would hold the job until 1946. In this role, he directed the presentation of the Co-op's position and interests to government bodies and Member of Parliament (MPs). In July 1921 he campaigned directly to MPs to oppose a clause in the government's Finance Bill which would impose Corporation Tax on Co-ops. The government, which had a large majority, was defeated by two votes. Shortly after this, the Sheffield
branch of the Co-operative Party invited Alexander to be their Parliamentary candidate. He was duly elected for Hillsborough in November 1922
, one of only four Co-op MPs. He was re-elected in 1923
, 1924
and 1929
. He would continue to represent Sheffield, with one break, until 1950.
In his maiden speech
, Alexander criticised the Liberal Party for abandoning its progressive principles and championed economic theories that were central to the Labour Party
's manifesto. The Labour leadership accepted him as a spokesman on a number of issues, though the Co-op was not affiliated to the Labour Party until 1927. When Labour formed its first government in January 1924, Ramsay Macdonald
made Alexander Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
to the Board of Trade
, under Sidney Webb and Emmanuel Shinwell. Alexander's responsibilities included the merchant navy
, and answering Parliamentary Questions on all trade matters. The Co-op's Parliamentary Committee had an acting secretary in Alexander's place whilst he was in government, but he continued to take part in appeals to ministers.
After the government fell in October 1924, Alexander returned to working for the Co-op full-time. He became well known for his testimonies before government committees, and used the Co-op's Parliamentary Committee to help co-ordinate responses to government action during the General Strike. In Parliament, he became a front bench spokesman on trade, staunchly criticising the protectionist policies of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
, Winston Churchill
. He also spoke on agriculture, local government and on social security
, where he called for increased welfare, citing the suffering of his own constituents during the depression. In early 1929, Alexander applied for the position of General Secretary of the Co-operative Union, but was beaten by Robert Palmer
. Within weeks, he became a member of the cabinet
in the second Labour government.
and from Downing Street
. Macdonald's primary concern was international disarmament, and Alexander persuaded the Admiralty to reduce their demands for new cruisers as a prelude to negotiations aimed at ending naval rivalry with the U.S.A.. In January 1930, a conference between the five major naval powers (Britain, the US, France
, Italy
and Japan
) was held in London. This resulted in a treaty between Britain, America and Japan, to limit growth and maintain parity of their naval forces. In the spring of 1931, Alexander and the Foreign Secretary, Arthur Henderson
, negotiated France and Italy's entry into the treaty. Though Alexander came into conflict with the admiralty over expansion of the fleet, he defended it against criticism of its spending and staffing levels. He also introduced a system to make it easier for working-class recruits to become officers. During the economic crisis in mid-1931, Alexander supported Snowden's defence of free trade against Macdonald and Henderson's proposals for protectionism, but sided with Henderson against Snowden and Macdonald's proposed cuts in government spending, especially unemployment benefit. He organised the cabinet opponents to the cuts, who advocated a socialist economy.
Faced with a cabinet split, the Prime Minister formed a coalition with the Conservative and Liberal parties. Snowden and a few others Labour MPs stayed with Macdonald, but the party went into Opposition. Alexander was prominent on the Opposition front bench, leading attacks on the government's policies, but was careful not to exploit the widespread dissatisfaction with pay cuts in the armed forces (especially the Invergordon Mutiny
), concerned that the military should not become involved in political matters. Effectively now number two after Henderson in the Parliamentary Labour Party
, he was being talked of as a future leader. Both Alexander and Henderson lost their seats in the 1931 General Election
. Henderson was succeeded by George Lansbury
, and Alexander's contemporary, Clement Attlee
, became deputy leader.
For the next four years, Alexander's main role was again as the Co-op's Parliamentary Secretary. He led opposition to renewed government plans to impose Corporation Tax on co-op stores, a fight that was lost this time with the 1933 Finance Bill. He also worked to have consumer interests represented on the new agricultural marketing boards. He was active in the Brotherhood movement (an organisation for nonconformists), spoke at rallies for the League of Nations
, wrote columns for Reynolds' News and gave lectures on the BBC
. Regaining his Hillsborough seat in 1935, Alexander became a front bench spokesman on trade and foreign affairs. Attlee, now leader of the PLP, asked him to join a new defence committee, working with Shinwell and Jack Lawson
to reverse the pacifist
ideals which had prevailed under Lansbury. Alexander had been warning of the dangers posed by fascism
for several years, and criticised the government's policy of appeasement
. In 1937, with Hugh Dalton
and Hastings Bertram Lees-Smith, he persuaded the PLP to put aside its mistrust of the Baldwin government and support the Service Estimates Bill which began rearmament. In October 1938, he closed the debate on the Munich Pact, attacking the government's abandonment of the Sudeten Germans
.
, Alexander, like all leading Labour figures, opposed forming a coalition
government under Neville Chamberlain
. Alexander firmly believed that Winston Churchill
should replace Chamberlain as Prime Minister. He worked with Arthur Greenwood
, and against Herbert Morrison, who favoured Lord Halifax as successor, to convince Attlee and the party's Executive
to support Churchill. In the closing days of April 1940, Churchill met with Alexander, Clement Attlee
and Sir Archibald Sinclair
to discuss the possibilities for a coalition government. Halifax's friend, Chips Channon
, described this as Churchill prematurely forming his cabinet in the expectation of becoming PM. Two weeks later, on 10 May, Churchill was Prime Minister of a coalition government; after forming his War Cabinet, which included Attlee and Greenwood, he invited Alexander and Sinclair, along with Anthony Eden
, to head the three service ministries.
Alexander returned to the Admiralty as First Lord, but like the other service ministers, was dominated by Churchill and existed very much in his shadow. It was a measure of Churchill's confidence in him that he was not given access to the secret information, nor was he allowed in the War Room. By appointing himself his own Minister of Defence, Churchill was well placed to exercise close supervision over the three services.
An example was Churchill's decision to send Force Z
including the battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse to Singapore without, as it transpired, adequate air support. Both ships were sunk
by the Japanese off the Malayan coast in December, 1941. Both Alexander and the First Sea Lord
, Dudley Pound
had vigorously opposed this deployment but were overruled by Churchill. This decision was made before Pearl Harbor
– the ships were sent east as a deterrent to Japanese aggression, at the request of the Australian government and British forces in the Far East. Initially an aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable
was included, but she ran aground in the Caribbean, and was not replaced by HMS Hermes
which was regarded as too slow. They were sunk immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack, before plans for their re-deployment in the light of actual hostilities with the Japanese could be decided upon and executed. Although Churchill had overall responsibility for the deployment, according to Richard Lamb, he 'had no responsibility for the fate of these two battleships'. The Admiralty view, argued for by Alexander and Pound, was that the Prince of Wales and the Repulse would have been better deployed in the Atlantic to counter the threat from the Tirpitz, the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau.
Alexander performed his duties with energy and diligence. He was committed to the administrative duties of his role, often sleeping in his office, but also took a keen interest in the welfare of sailors. He joined an Arctic Convoy in 1942, and visited troops a few days after D-Day
in 1944, the first British minister in France since the occupation in 1940. His radio broadcasts and public appearance boosted morale and made him very popular inside and outside the service. As a working-class politician in a top position, he was an important figure for national unity. He had regular meetings with Churchill when in London, acting as an advisor; they were good friends and Churchill arranged for Alexander to receive an Honorary Degree
from the University of Bristol
, of which Churchill was Chancellor. However, Alexander firmly supported Labour's withdrawal from the coalition in May 1945, following victory in Europe
. Campaigning in the election in July
, he drew a sharp distinction between Churchill and the Conservative Party, suggesting that the Tories would sideline the wartime leader as they had done Lloyd George
.
A member of the Cabinet following Labour's victory, Alexander strongly supported the Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin
, sharing his goals of maintaining Britain's influence and opposing the Soviet Union
. Britain's wartime ally was admired at the time, and his outspoken criticisms of Russia lessened Alexander's popularity. In 1946 he deputised for Bevin at the Paris Peace Conference
, and was part of the Cabinet delegation to India
, under Stafford Cripps
, exploring possibilities for independence. At the end of 1946 he became Minister of Defence, a role previously held only by Churchill and Attlee when they were serving as Prime Minister. Responsible for all three armed services, he often clashed with the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Lord Montgomery. He was responsible for formulating the system of National Service
and faced a protracted fight against Labour backbenchers who opposed the continuation of conscription
in peacetime. In January 1947 he was one of six ministers on the Gen 75 Committee
that secretly authorised Britain's nuclear programme
; in March he was in the negotiations for the Treaty of Dunkirk, laying the foundations for NATO. As the Cold War
began, Alexander's criticisms of the USSR gained wider acceptance. In 1948 he became a Freeman
of the City of Sheffield
.
. He retired from the Commons and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Alexander of Hillsborough, of Hillsborough in the City of Sheffield, three months before his sixty-fifth birthday. For practical reasons, the Minister of Defence needed to be a member of the Commons, and Emmanuel Shinwell succeeded to this role. However, Alexander retained a seat in the cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
. Although he never made it into the "top five" of the Labour government (Attlee, Bevin, Morrison, Dalton and Greenwood, later replaced by Cripps), he remained an influential member throughout. Out of office following Labour's defeat and his health starting to decline, Alexander retired from front-bench politics after the 1951 General Election
. He bought a farm in Essex
and, although he continued to attend the House of Lords
, he did not hold any front-bench briefs for the next four years. In December 1955, following the resignation of Lord Jowitt, Alexander was asked by Hugh Gaitskell
to take over as leader of the small group of Labour peers. His appointment was strongly supported by Labour's faction in the upper House, and he served in this role for the next nine years.
Alexander spoke on virtually every topic whilst leading the Opposition in the Lords. He supported the introduction of Life Peers, calling for them to be paid so that such appointments would be practical for working-class people. He also supported Tony Benn
's campaign to renounce his peerage, and opposed Britain's early attempts to join the European Economic Community
. Now a celebrity within the Co-op movement, Alexander continued to lobby for it in Parliament and with members of the government. In 1956 he became President of the UK Council of Protestant Churches. He often spoke on religious matters in the Lords, fiercely opposing closer relations between the Church of England
and the Catholic Church
and often quoting scripture at Lords Spiritual
. He was created Baron Weston-super-Mare, of Weston-super-Mare in the County of Somerset, and Earl Alexander of Hillsborough in 1963 – the last politician to be made an earl
until Harold Macmillan
became Earl of Stockton
in 1984 – and was appointed a Knight of the Garter
in 1964. He finally stood down as leader of the Labour peers in the run-up to the General Election in October 1964
. His last appearance in the Lords was shortly before Christmas that year, when he fiercely defended Harold Wilson
's foreign policy from Tory accusations of disloyalty. Aged eighty, Lord Alexander of Hillsborough died early in the new year, fourteen days before Winston Churchill. The peerages died with him as he had no sons.
Order of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry, or knighthood, existing in England. The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St...
, CH
Order of the Companions of Honour
The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion....
, PC (1 May 1885 – 11 January 1965) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Labour Co-operative
Labour Co-operative
Labour and Co-operative describes those candidates in British elections standing on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party, based on a national agreement between the two parties....
politician. He was three times First Lord of the Admiralty, including during the Second World War, and then Minister of Defence
Secretary of State for Defence
The Secretary of State for Defence, popularly known as the Defence Secretary, is the senior Government of the United Kingdom minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence, chairing the Defence Council. It is a Cabinet position...
under Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
.
Background
Born in Weston-super-MareWeston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare is a seaside resort, town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which is within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located on the Bristol Channel coast, south west of Bristol, spanning the coast between the bounding high ground of Worlebury...
and one of four children, A. V. Alexander was the son of Albert Alexander, a blacksmith and later engineer who had moved from his native Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
to Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
during the agricultural depression of the 1860s and 1870s, and Eliza Jane Thatcher, daughter of a policeman. He was named after both his father and Prince Albert Victor, Queen Victoria's eldest grandson, but he was known as "A. V." from a young age. His parents had settled in Weston when they married, but the family moved to Bristol after Albert Alexander's death in August 1886. Alexander's mother worked as a corset-maker to provide for her children.
Alexander attended Barton Hill School from the age of three, at a cost of two pence per week. Against his mother's wishes, he chose not to continue to St. George's Higher Grade School in 1898, feeling the increased weekly charge of six pence was too expensive and that he would get nothing more from school. He began work aged thirteen, first for a leather merchant, and five months later as a junior clerk with the Bristol School Board. In 1903 he transferred to Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
County Council's newly formed local education authority
Local Education Authority
A local education authority is a local authority in England and Wales that has responsibility for education within its jurisdiction...
, where he worked in the School Management Department as a committee clerk. He was by this time a keen chorister and footballer, and a self-taught pianist. In later years, and until his death, Alexander was a vice-president of Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
– his role at the club was taken on by Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
.
Raised an Anglican, Alexander converted to the Baptist movement in 1908 after he married Esther Ellen Chapple, a school teacher and Baptist. They were married on 6 June 1908. Their daughter, Beatrix, was born in 1909, and their son lived from 1911 to 1913. He joined the Weston Co-operative Society and became treasurer of the local Young Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
Association in 1908, and the local Trades and Labour Council in 1909. He was elected to the board of the Weston Co-op Society in 1910.
He volunteered for service when the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
began, but was not called-up until two years later. He joined the Artists Rifles, which principally served to train officers for assignment to other regiments. He trained in London and studied at Magdalen College
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, before earning his commission in the Labour Corps
Labour corps
Labour Corps may be:*A forerunner of the British Royal Pioneer Corps*Solomon Islands Labour Corps, a Second World War organisation in the British Solomon Islands*Chinese Labour Corps, a British corps in the First World War...
in December 1917. His health suffered during training, and he never saw active service, instead working as a posting officer in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
. In November 1918 he was promoted to Captain
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)
Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...
, transferred to the General List, and became an education officer, preparing wounded soldiers for civilian life. He was demobbed in late 1919. Within a year of returning home, he became vice-president of the Weston Co-op Society and secretary of the Somerset branch of NALGO.
Parliamentary career
In late 1920, Alexander applied for the position of Parliamentary Secretary to the Co-operative Union. He was selected out of 104 candidates, moving to LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
that November, and would hold the job until 1946. In this role, he directed the presentation of the Co-op's position and interests to government bodies and Member of Parliament (MPs). In July 1921 he campaigned directly to MPs to oppose a clause in the government's Finance Bill which would impose Corporation Tax on Co-ops. The government, which had a large majority, was defeated by two votes. Shortly after this, the Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
branch of the Co-operative Party invited Alexander to be their Parliamentary candidate. He was duly elected for Hillsborough in November 1922
United Kingdom general election, 1922
The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...
, one of only four Co-op MPs. He was re-elected in 1923
United Kingdom general election, 1923
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...
, 1924
United Kingdom general election, 1924
- Seats summary :- References :* F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* - External links :* * *...
and 1929
United Kingdom general election, 1929
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...
. He would continue to represent Sheffield, with one break, until 1950.
In his maiden speech
Maiden speech
A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament.Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country...
, Alexander criticised the Liberal Party for abandoning its progressive principles and championed economic theories that were central to the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
's manifesto. The Labour leadership accepted him as a spokesman on a number of issues, though the Co-op was not affiliated to the Labour Party until 1927. When Labour formed its first government in January 1924, Ramsay Macdonald
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
made Alexander Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
A Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the government of the United Kingdom, junior to both a Minister of State and a Secretary of State....
to the Board of Trade
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
, under Sidney Webb and Emmanuel Shinwell. Alexander's responsibilities included the merchant navy
Merchant Navy
The Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom, and describes the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency...
, and answering Parliamentary Questions on all trade matters. The Co-op's Parliamentary Committee had an acting secretary in Alexander's place whilst he was in government, but he continued to take part in appeals to ministers.
After the government fell in October 1924, Alexander returned to working for the Co-op full-time. He became well known for his testimonies before government committees, and used the Co-op's Parliamentary Committee to help co-ordinate responses to government action during the General Strike. In Parliament, he became a front bench spokesman on trade, staunchly criticising the protectionist policies of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
, Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
. He also spoke on agriculture, local government and on social security
Social security
Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
, where he called for increased welfare, citing the suffering of his own constituents during the depression. In early 1929, Alexander applied for the position of General Secretary of the Co-operative Union, but was beaten by Robert Palmer
Robert Palmer, 1st Baron Rusholme
Robert Alexander Palmer, 1st Baron Rusholme was a senior official of the British co-operative movement and a Labour Co-operative member of the House of Lords.-Career:...
. Within weeks, he became a member of the cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
in the second Labour government.
First Lord of the Admiralty
Although many had expected Alexander to be appointed President of the Board of Trade, this position went to William Graham, protege of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Snowden. Instead, Alexander became First Lord of the Admiralty, the only Labour member to hold this position as a cabinet rank. The Admiralty was a political power in its own right, and usually able to resist pressure from the TreasuryTreasury
A treasury is either*A government department related to finance and taxation.*A place where currency or precious items is/are kept....
and from Downing Street
Downing Street
Downing Street in London, England has for over two hundred years housed the official residences of two of the most senior British cabinet ministers: the First Lord of the Treasury, an office now synonymous with that of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Second Lord of the Treasury, an...
. Macdonald's primary concern was international disarmament, and Alexander persuaded the Admiralty to reduce their demands for new cruisers as a prelude to negotiations aimed at ending naval rivalry with the U.S.A.. In January 1930, a conference between the five major naval powers (Britain, the US, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
) was held in London. This resulted in a treaty between Britain, America and Japan, to limit growth and maintain parity of their naval forces. In the spring of 1931, Alexander and the Foreign Secretary, Arthur Henderson
Arthur Henderson
Arthur Henderson was a British iron moulder and Labour politician. He was the 1934 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and he served three short terms as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1908–1910, 1914–1917 and 1931-1932....
, negotiated France and Italy's entry into the treaty. Though Alexander came into conflict with the admiralty over expansion of the fleet, he defended it against criticism of its spending and staffing levels. He also introduced a system to make it easier for working-class recruits to become officers. During the economic crisis in mid-1931, Alexander supported Snowden's defence of free trade against Macdonald and Henderson's proposals for protectionism, but sided with Henderson against Snowden and Macdonald's proposed cuts in government spending, especially unemployment benefit. He organised the cabinet opponents to the cuts, who advocated a socialist economy.
Faced with a cabinet split, the Prime Minister formed a coalition with the Conservative and Liberal parties. Snowden and a few others Labour MPs stayed with Macdonald, but the party went into Opposition. Alexander was prominent on the Opposition front bench, leading attacks on the government's policies, but was careful not to exploit the widespread dissatisfaction with pay cuts in the armed forces (especially the Invergordon Mutiny
Invergordon Mutiny
The Invergordon Mutiny was an industrial action by around 1,000 sailors in the British Atlantic Fleet, that took place on 15–16 September 1931...
), concerned that the military should not become involved in political matters. Effectively now number two after Henderson in the Parliamentary Labour Party
Parliamentary Labour Party
In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party is the parliamentary party of the Labour Party in Parliament: Labour MPs as a collective body....
, he was being talked of as a future leader. Both Alexander and Henderson lost their seats in the 1931 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1931
The United Kingdom general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the votes cast.The 1931 general election was the...
. Henderson was succeeded by George Lansbury
George Lansbury
George Lansbury was a British politician, socialist, Christian pacifist and newspaper editor. He was a Member of Parliament from 1910 to 1912 and from 1922 to 1940, and leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935....
, and Alexander's contemporary, Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
, became deputy leader.
For the next four years, Alexander's main role was again as the Co-op's Parliamentary Secretary. He led opposition to renewed government plans to impose Corporation Tax on co-op stores, a fight that was lost this time with the 1933 Finance Bill. He also worked to have consumer interests represented on the new agricultural marketing boards. He was active in the Brotherhood movement (an organisation for nonconformists), spoke at rallies for the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
, wrote columns for Reynolds' News and gave lectures on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. Regaining his Hillsborough seat in 1935, Alexander became a front bench spokesman on trade and foreign affairs. Attlee, now leader of the PLP, asked him to join a new defence committee, working with Shinwell and Jack Lawson
Jack Lawson
John James "Jack" Lawson, 1st Baron Lawson PC , was a British trade unionist and a Labour politician. A miner and later Member of Parliament in County Durham, he served in the governments of Ramsay MacDonald and Clement Attlee.-Background:Lawson was born in the port town of Whitehaven, Cumberland,...
to reverse the pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
ideals which had prevailed under Lansbury. Alexander had been warning of the dangers posed by fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
for several years, and criticised the government's policy of appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
. In 1937, with Hugh Dalton
Hugh Dalton
Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton PC was a British Labour Party politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945 to 1947, when he was implicated in a political scandal involving budget leaks....
and Hastings Bertram Lees-Smith, he persuaded the PLP to put aside its mistrust of the Baldwin government and support the Service Estimates Bill which began rearmament. In October 1938, he closed the debate on the Munich Pact, attacking the government's abandonment of the Sudeten Germans
Sudeten Germans
- Importance of Sudeten Germans :Czechoslovakia was inhabited by over 3 million ethnic Germans, comprising about 23 percent of the population of the republic and about 29.5% of Bohemia and Moravia....
.
Under Churchill and Attlee
Following the outbreak of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Alexander, like all leading Labour figures, opposed forming a coalition
Coalition
A coalition is a pact or treaty among individuals or groups, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest, joining forces together for a common cause. This alliance may be temporary or a matter of convenience. A coalition thus differs from a more formal covenant...
government under Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
. Alexander firmly believed that Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
should replace Chamberlain as Prime Minister. He worked with Arthur Greenwood
Arthur Greenwood
Arthur Greenwood CH was a prominent member of the Labour Party from the 1920s until the late 1940s. He rose to prominence within the party as secretary of its research department from 1920 and served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health in the short-lived Labour government of 1924...
, and against Herbert Morrison, who favoured Lord Halifax as successor, to convince Attlee and the party's Executive
National Executive Committee
The National Executive Committee or NEC is the chief administrative body of the UK Labour Party. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affiliated trade unions, the Parliamentary Labour Party and European Parliamentary Labour Party, Constituency Labour Parties,...
to support Churchill. In the closing days of April 1940, Churchill met with Alexander, Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
and Sir Archibald Sinclair
Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso
Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso KT, CMG, PC , known as Sir Archibald Sinclair, Bt between 1912 and 1952, and often as Archie Sinclair, was a British politician and leader of the Liberal Party....
to discuss the possibilities for a coalition government. Halifax's friend, Chips Channon
Henry Channon
Sir Henry "Chips" Channon was an American-born British Conservative politician, author and diarist. Channon moved to England in 1920 and became strongly anti-American, feeling that American cultural and economic views threatened traditional European and British civilisation. He wrote extensively...
, described this as Churchill prematurely forming his cabinet in the expectation of becoming PM. Two weeks later, on 10 May, Churchill was Prime Minister of a coalition government; after forming his War Cabinet, which included Attlee and Greenwood, he invited Alexander and Sinclair, along with Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
, to head the three service ministries.
Alexander returned to the Admiralty as First Lord, but like the other service ministers, was dominated by Churchill and existed very much in his shadow. It was a measure of Churchill's confidence in him that he was not given access to the secret information, nor was he allowed in the War Room. By appointing himself his own Minister of Defence, Churchill was well placed to exercise close supervision over the three services.
An example was Churchill's decision to send Force Z
Force Z
Force Z was an Allied naval detachment consisting of the battleship , the battlecruiser , and four destroyers, , , , and . Initially an aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable was included, but she ran aground in the Caribbean, and was not replaced by HMS Hermes which was regarded as too slow.A renamed...
including the battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse to Singapore without, as it transpired, adequate air support. Both ships were sunk
Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse
The sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a Second World War naval engagement that took place north of Singapore, off the east coast of Malaya, near Kuantan, Pahang where the British Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were sunk by land-based bombers and...
by the Japanese off the Malayan coast in December, 1941. Both Alexander and the First Sea Lord
First Sea Lord
The First Sea Lord is the professional head of the Royal Navy and the whole Naval Service; it was formerly known as First Naval Lord. He also holds the title of Chief of Naval Staff, and is known by the abbreviations 1SL/CNS...
, Dudley Pound
Dudley Pound
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound GCB OM GCVO RN was a British naval officer who served as First Sea Lord, professional head of the Royal Navy from June 1939 to September 1943.- Early life :...
had vigorously opposed this deployment but were overruled by Churchill. This decision was made before Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
– the ships were sent east as a deterrent to Japanese aggression, at the request of the Australian government and British forces in the Far East. Initially an aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable
HMS Indomitable (R92)
HMS Indomitable was a modified Illustrious class aircraft carrier of the British Royal Navy. The Illustrious class came about due to the 1937 Naval Programme...
was included, but she ran aground in the Caribbean, and was not replaced by HMS Hermes
HMS Hermes (95)
HMS Hermes was an aircraft carrier built for the Royal Navy. The ship was begun during World War I and finished after the war ended. She was the world's first ship to be designed and built as an aircraft carrier, although the Imperial Japanese Navy's was the first to be commissioned...
which was regarded as too slow. They were sunk immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack, before plans for their re-deployment in the light of actual hostilities with the Japanese could be decided upon and executed. Although Churchill had overall responsibility for the deployment, according to Richard Lamb, he 'had no responsibility for the fate of these two battleships'. The Admiralty view, argued for by Alexander and Pound, was that the Prince of Wales and the Repulse would have been better deployed in the Atlantic to counter the threat from the Tirpitz, the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau.
Alexander performed his duties with energy and diligence. He was committed to the administrative duties of his role, often sleeping in his office, but also took a keen interest in the welfare of sailors. He joined an Arctic Convoy in 1942, and visited troops a few days after D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
in 1944, the first British minister in France since the occupation in 1940. His radio broadcasts and public appearance boosted morale and made him very popular inside and outside the service. As a working-class politician in a top position, he was an important figure for national unity. He had regular meetings with Churchill when in London, acting as an advisor; they were good friends and Churchill arranged for Alexander to receive an Honorary Degree
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
from the University of Bristol
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...
, of which Churchill was Chancellor. However, Alexander firmly supported Labour's withdrawal from the coalition in May 1945, following victory in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Campaigning in the election in July
United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
, he drew a sharp distinction between Churchill and the Conservative Party, suggesting that the Tories would sideline the wartime leader as they had done Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
.
A member of the Cabinet following Labour's victory, Alexander strongly supported the Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin was a British trade union leader and Labour politician. He served as general secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1945, as Minister of Labour in the war-time coalition government, and as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government.-Early...
, sharing his goals of maintaining Britain's influence and opposing the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Britain's wartime ally was admired at the time, and his outspoken criticisms of Russia lessened Alexander's popularity. In 1946 he deputised for Bevin at the Paris Peace Conference
Paris Peace Treaties, 1947
The Paris Peace Conference resulted in the Paris Peace Treaties signed on February 10, 1947. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of treaties with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland .The...
, and was part of the Cabinet delegation to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, under Stafford Cripps
Stafford Cripps
Sir Richard Stafford Cripps was a British Labour politician of the first half of the 20th century. During World War II he served in a number of positions in the wartime coalition, including Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Minister of Aircraft Production...
, exploring possibilities for independence. At the end of 1946 he became Minister of Defence, a role previously held only by Churchill and Attlee when they were serving as Prime Minister. Responsible for all three armed services, he often clashed with the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Lord Montgomery. He was responsible for formulating the system of National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
and faced a protracted fight against Labour backbenchers who opposed the continuation of conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
in peacetime. In January 1947 he was one of six ministers on the Gen 75 Committee
Gen 75 Committee
The Gen 75 Committee was a subcommittee of the British Cabinet, convened by Prime Minister Clement Attlee on 29 August 1945. The purpose of the committee was to discuss and establish the British government's nuclear policy...
that secretly authorised Britain's nuclear programme
History of nuclear weapons
The history of nuclear weapons chronicles the development of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons possess enormous destructive potential derived from nuclear fission or nuclear fusion reactions...
; in March he was in the negotiations for the Treaty of Dunkirk, laying the foundations for NATO. As the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
began, Alexander's criticisms of the USSR gained wider acceptance. In 1948 he became a Freeman
Freedom of the City
Freedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...
of the City of Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
.
Leader in the Lords
A. V. Alexander decided not to seek re-election in the 1950 General ElectionUnited Kingdom general election, 1950
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...
. He retired from the Commons and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Alexander of Hillsborough, of Hillsborough in the City of Sheffield, three months before his sixty-fifth birthday. For practical reasons, the Minister of Defence needed to be a member of the Commons, and Emmanuel Shinwell succeeded to this role. However, Alexander retained a seat in the cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is, in modern times, a ministerial office in the government of the United Kingdom that includes as part of its duties, the administration of the estates and rents of the Duchy of Lancaster...
. Although he never made it into the "top five" of the Labour government (Attlee, Bevin, Morrison, Dalton and Greenwood, later replaced by Cripps), he remained an influential member throughout. Out of office following Labour's defeat and his health starting to decline, Alexander retired from front-bench politics after the 1951 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1951
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats...
. He bought a farm in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
and, although he continued to attend the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
, he did not hold any front-bench briefs for the next four years. In December 1955, following the resignation of Lord Jowitt, Alexander was asked by Hugh Gaitskell
Hugh Gaitskell
Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell CBE was a British Labour politician, who held Cabinet office in Clement Attlee's governments, and was the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1955, until his death in 1963.-Early life:He was born in Kensington, London, the third and youngest...
to take over as leader of the small group of Labour peers. His appointment was strongly supported by Labour's faction in the upper House, and he served in this role for the next nine years.
Alexander spoke on virtually every topic whilst leading the Opposition in the Lords. He supported the introduction of Life Peers, calling for them to be paid so that such appointments would be practical for working-class people. He also supported Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
's campaign to renounce his peerage, and opposed Britain's early attempts to join the European Economic Community
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...
. Now a celebrity within the Co-op movement, Alexander continued to lobby for it in Parliament and with members of the government. In 1956 he became President of the UK Council of Protestant Churches. He often spoke on religious matters in the Lords, fiercely opposing closer relations between the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
and the Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
and often quoting scripture at Lords Spiritual
Lords Spiritual
The Lords Spiritual of the United Kingdom, also called Spiritual Peers, are the 26 bishops of the established Church of England who serve in the House of Lords along with the Lords Temporal. The Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian, is not represented by spiritual peers...
. He was created Baron Weston-super-Mare, of Weston-super-Mare in the County of Somerset, and Earl Alexander of Hillsborough in 1963 – the last politician to be made an earl
Earl
An earl is a member of the nobility. The title is Anglo-Saxon, akin to the Scandinavian form jarl, and meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke...
until Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
became Earl of Stockton
Earl of Stockton
Earl of Stockton is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 24 February 1984 for Harold Macmillan, the former Conservative Prime Minister, just under three years before his death...
in 1984 – and was appointed a Knight of the Garter
Order of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry, or knighthood, existing in England. The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St...
in 1964. He finally stood down as leader of the Labour peers in the run-up to the General Election in October 1964
United Kingdom general election, 1964
The United Kingdom general election of 1964 was held on 15 October 1964, more than five years after the preceding election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party had retaken power...
. His last appearance in the Lords was shortly before Christmas that year, when he fiercely defended Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
's foreign policy from Tory accusations of disloyalty. Aged eighty, Lord Alexander of Hillsborough died early in the new year, fourteen days before Winston Churchill. The peerages died with him as he had no sons.