Herbert Samuel, the son of a successful banker, Edwin Louis Samuel,
was born in 1870. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford,
he took a strong interest in politics and became a member of the Liberal
Party.
Samuel unsuccessful contested Henley in the 1895
General Election. He also failed in the 1900
General Election but won the Cleveland seat in a by-election in
1902. After only three years in the House of
Commons, Samuel was given the post of Under-Secretary of State
for the Home Office by the new Prime Minister, Henry
Campbell-Bannerman. Later Herbert Asquith,
who replaced Campbell-Bannerman in 1908, appointed him as Post-Master
General (1910-1916) and Home Secretary (January 1916 - December 1916).
In 1912 Hilaire Belloc and G.
K. Chesterton of the political weekly, The
Eye-Witness, accused Samuel, along with David
Lloyd George and Rufus Isaacs of corruption.
It was suggested that the men had profited by buying shares based
on knowledge of a government contract granted to the Marconi
Company to build a chain of wireless stations.
In January 1913 a parliamentary inquiry was held into the claims made
by The Eye Witness. It was discovered
that Samuel had bought 3,000 shares in May, 1911 and sold them for
a good profit a few months later. Although the parliamentary inquiry
revealled that Samuel, David Lloyd George,
Sir Rufus Isaacs and the Master of Elibank
had profited directly from the policies of the government, it was
decided the men had not been guilty of corruption.
In the 1918 General Election Samuel supported
Herbert Asquith wing of the
Liberal Party instead of David Lloyd George
and was defeated at Cleveland. Two years later he was appointed as
the High Commissioner for Palestine, a position he held until 1925.
In 1925, Stanley Baldwin, the leader of
the Conservative Government, asked
Samuel to look into the problems of the Mining Industry. The Samuel
Commission published its report in March 1926. It recognised that
the industry needed to be reorganised but rejected the suggestion
of nationalization. The report also recommended that the Government
subsidy should be withdrawn and the miners' wages should be reduced.
The leaders of the Miners Federation and
the Trade Union Congress refused to accept
the report and the threatened General Strike
took place in May 1926.
Herbert Samuel returned to the House of Commons
following the 1929 General Election. Two
years later he was elected as leader of the Liberal
Party. He held the post until he was defeated in the 1935
General Election.
In 1937 he was granted the title Viscount Samuel and later became
leader of the Liberal Party in the House
of Lords (1944-55). Herbert Samuel died on 5th February, 1963.
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