Arthur Steel-Maitland, the son of Colonel E. H. Steel and Emmeline
Drummond, was born on 5th July, 1876. Educated at Rugby
and Balliol College, Oxford, he assumed
the name Ramsay Steel-Maitland, on his marriage to Mary Gibson-Maitland
in 1901.
An Assistant Poor Law Commissioner, he was unsuccessful in his attempt
to become a Conservative MP for Rugby
in the 1906 General Election. Elected for
East Birmingham in the 1910
General Election, he was appointed as Head of the Conservative
Organization (1911-1916). In the coalition government formed by Herbert
Asquith during the First World War Steel-Maitland
was Under-Secretary for the Colonies. David
Lloyd George promoted him to the Board of Trade in 1917. In the
same year he was created a baronet.
Steel-Maitland entered the cabinet when Stanley
Baldwin appointed him Minister of Labour in November 1924. During
the General Strike Steel-Maitland worked
closely with Baldwin, William Joynson-Hicks
(Home Secretary) and Winston Churchill
(Chancellor of the Exchequer) in the dispute with the miners.
Defeated in the 1929 General Election, Steel-Maitland
returned to the House of Commons at a by-election
at Tamworth in December 1929. Arthur Steel-Maitland held the seat
until his death on 30th March 1935.
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