Herbrand Sackville, the son of Gilbert Sackville, 8th Earl De La Warr
and Muriel De La Warr, was born at Bexhill
on 20th June, 1900. His parents marriage had been in difficulty for
some time and they were divorced in 1902.
Whereas his father was a strong supporter of the Conservative
Party, his mother, was a Liberal and an active member of the National
Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. Herbrand's own political
views were closer to those of his mother and at Eton
and at Magdalen College, Oxford, began
expressing socialist views.
In 1915 Gilbert Sackville, 8th Earl De La Warr, was killed in the
First World War, Herbrand inherited his father's title and became
the first hereditary peer to take his seat in the House
of Lords as a supporter of the Labour Party.
Sackville was a conscientious objector
during the First World War but although unwilling
to take part in active combat, did join the Royal Naval Reserve (trawler
section) in 1918.
In 1924, Ramsay MacDonald, Britain's
first Labour Party Prime Minister, appointed
Sackville as his lord-in-waiting. In MacDonald's second administration
he was parliamentary under-secretary at the War Office (1929-30) and
at the Ministry of Agriculture (1930-31).
De La Warr agreed to join MacDonald's National Government in 1931
and served successively as parliamentary secretary to the Ministry
of Agriculture (1931), deputy minister to the Department of Fisheries
(1931-35), parliamentary secretary to the Board of Education (1935-36)
and parliamentary under-secretary of state for the colonies (1936-37).
When Neville Chamberlain became Prime
Minister in May, 1937, he appointed De La Warr to his Cabinet where
he served as lord privy seal. He did not agree with Chamberlain's
appeasement policy and on one occasion in Cabinet said he believed
Britain should go to war to "free the world from the constant
threat of ultimatums". This probably explains why in October
1938 he was demoted to the post of President of the Board of Education.
As a result of objections from the Labour Party,
who still had not forgiven him for joining Ramsay MacDonald's National
Government, De La Warr was not offered a place in the coalition government
formed by Winston Churchill in May,
1940.
When the Conservative Party won the
1951 General Election, Churchill appointed
De La Warr as his postmaster-general. Over the next four years he
introduced the international telex service, letter-sorting machines,
the national telephone numbering scheme and the laying of the trans-Atlantic
cable from Scotland to Newfoundland. He also had the task of defending
the introduction of commercial television against strong opposition
from members of the House of Lords. De La
Warr held the position of postmaster-general until Winston
Churchill resigned in April 1955.
After retiring from government, De La Warr served on several official
bodies including the Royal Commonwealth Society, the National Trust
and the Agricultural Research Council. Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl
de la Warr, died in London on 28th January,
1976.
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