Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the son of
the Lord Provost of Glasgow, was born
in 1836. After being educated at Glasgow High School and Trinity College,
Cambridge, he joined the family drapery
business.
In the 1868 General Election Campbell-Bannerman
was elected as Liberal MP for Stirling.
After the 1884 General Election the Prime
Minister, William Gladstone, appointed
Campbell-Bannerman as his Chief Secretary for Ireland, but he did
not enter the Cabinet until he became War Secretary in 1886.
Campbell-Bannerman was not a very good parliamentary orator but had
a reputation as an efficient political operator and in 1898 became
leader of the House of Commons. Campbell-Bannerman
opposed the Boer War and advocated comprehensive
social reforms and in doing so established himself as one of the most
important figures on the progressive wing of the party.
When Arthur Balfour and his Conservative
government resigned in 1905, Edward VII
invited Campbell-Bannerman to form a government. He accepted and in
the 1906 General Election that followed the
Liberal Party had a landslide victory.
Important legislation passed during the first few months of office
included the Trades Disputes Act and the
Provision of School Meals Act.
Henry Campbell-Bannerman became very ill and on 4th April 1908 he
was forced to resign and died eighteen days later.
(1)
George
Lansbury, Looking Backwards and Forwards (1935)
Campbell-Bannerman was kindness itself. I often
wonder what the developments in English politics would have been had
this genial, kindly Scotsman lived. There might have been no war in
1914; the course of the Labour Movement might have been different
- for this man believed in peace and was not afraid of the word Socialism,
and did believe unemployment was a national problem and the unemployed
the care of the State.
(2)
J. R. Clynes, Memoirs (1937)
Campbell-Bannerman was a remarkable man. Appointed as Liberal leader
when the Party fortunes had almost vanished, he built them up again
by calm, patient, indomitable work, until his gentle and unflinching
courage had its reward in a sweeping Liberal victory. He was deeply
sensitive, a passionate lover of peace, a man of wide outlook and
great understanding. He was nit a brilliant orator, but the House
always listened to him with respect and sympathy, simply because of
his quiet sincerity.
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