William
Wedgwood Benn,
the son of John Benn and Lily Pickstone,
was born on
the 10th May 1877. He was given the name Wedgwood because his mother
was a distant relative of Josiah Wedgwood,
the famous potter and Unitarian
social reformer. William's father was the founder of Benn
Brothers, the publisher
of the successful trade journal, The
Cabinet Maker.
The family had a long tradition of charity
work. William's grandfather, Julius
Benn, was
a Congregational minister who
founded the Home in the East, an institute
for homeless boys in the East End of London. John
Benn was also active in a wide variety of causes and this had
a major influence on William's attitude towards the poor.
John Benn was a member of the Liberal
Party and when he became a candidate in the elections for the
London County Council
(LCC) in 1889, William and his brother Ernest
Benn, helped him in the campaign. Later William helped his father
win the Wapping seat in the House of Commons
in the 1892 General Election.
William went to University College, London where he obtained a first
class honours degree in French. He was also elected President of the
Union Debating Society. William was an opponent of the
Boer War
and during one debate on the subject he was grabbed by a group of
students and thrown out of the window. After university William began
work at the family publishing business.
John
Benn
lost his seat in the 1895 General Election
to the Conservative candidate, Harry
Marks, by four votes. Benn was unhappy about the way Marks had behaved
during the campaign and decided to petition under the 1883
Corrupt and Illegal Practice Act. He claimed that Marks "before,
during, and after the election" had been "guilty of bribery,
treating, undue influence, and of aiding, abetting, counselling and
procuring the offence of impersonation". John
Benn lost the court case held in February 1896 and as a result
had to pay legal costs of £6,000. The judge also ruled that Benn
could not be a candidate in the Wapping constituency for seven years.
In
1904 John Benn won a by-election at the
dockyard town of Devonport. William was selected as the Liberal
candidate for his father's old seat in Wapping. In the 1906
General Election the twenty-eight year old Benn, became the youngest
MP in the House of Commons.
William became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Reginald
McKenna, the First Secretary to the Treasury. He retained this
position when McKenna was promoted to the Cabinet as President of
the Board of Education.
Benn
won his seat in the January 1910 General Election
but his father lost at Devonport. After the election, Herbert
Asquith, appointed Benn as a Junior Government Whip. However,
during the parliamentary campaign Benn had said that his Conservative
rival, Percy Simmons, had voted in the House
of Commons against the 1906 Provision of
School Meals Act and was therefore against "the feeding of
children". Simmons sued Benn for libel and won his case. The
case cost Benn £5,000 and was in danger of being declared bankrupt
until his father, John Benn, was able to
raise the money to pay off his debts.
In 1910 Benn became Junior
Lord of the Treasury. This gave him the opportunity to work with David
Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1912 four government
ministers, including Lloyd George, were accused of being corruptly
involved in a government contract that had been given to the Marconi
company. Although the House of Commons
cleared the men of corruption, Benn was not convinced. Benn had previously
been a strong supporter of Lloyd George, now doubted both his honesty
and his leadership qualities.
Benn was a strong supporter of the trade union
movement. He upset some fellow members of the government when helped
raise funds for the strikers and their families, during the London
dockers strike in 1912.
When the First
World War was declared in August 1914, the Prime Minister, Herbert
Asquith, put Benn in charge of the National
Relief Fund. With the support of newspapers such as the Daily
Telegraph and the Times,
Benn was able to raise over £1,000,000 in ten days.
Although a member of the government, Benn believed that as he was
only 37, he should resign and join the armed forces. Benn became a
junior officer in the Middlesex Yeomanry and served in Egypt in 1915.
The following year he was transferred to the Royal Navy Air Service
and between May and December 1916, Benn flew as navigator on
forty-one mission in the Eastern Mediterranean.
When David Lloyd George ousted Herbert
Asquith as Prime Minister in 1916, he sent Benn a telegram offering
him the post of Chief Whip in the new government. Benn, who still
held had strong doubts about Lloyd George's moral integrity, refused
the post.
Just before his fortieth birthday, Benn starting training to become
a pilot. After completing his training he was then sent to Italy where
he was given the task of co-ordinating the work of the Royal Navy
Air Service and the recently formed Royal Flying
Corps. While in Italy, Benn took part in the operation that resulted
in the first successful parachute drop of a spy behind enemy lines.
During the First World War Benn was awarded
the Distinguished Flying Cross, the French Croix de Guerre and the
Italian Military Cross.
In the 1918 General Election Benn refused
to support Lloyd George's coalition government. Instead he represented
what became known as Asquith's Liberals. Although the Coalition achieved
a massive majority, Benn managed to win his seat. A large number of
Liberals lost, including Herbert
Asquith and Herbert Samuel.
With Asquith out of Parliament,
Benn, who now represented Leith in Scotland, became the leader of
the group of Liberal MPs who refused to
support David Lloyd George. John
Benn, who was also opposed to Lloyd George, gave the group the
name, Wee Frees, after a small
group of Free Church of Scotland members who refused to accept the
union of their church with the United Presbyterian Church.
As leader of the Wee Frees, Benn was given an office and secretarial
staff. One of those he recruited to help in the office was the former
schoolteacher, Victor Gollancz. Later
Benn was responsible for introducing Gollancz to his brother Ernest
Benn. On William's recommendation, Gollancz joined Benn Brothers
and helped to turn it into one of Britain's most successful publishers.
In 1920 William married Margaret
Holmes, the daughter of Daniel Holmes, the Liberal
MP for Govan. Negotiations before the marriage involved William's
request that Margaret, like the rest of the Benn family, should become
a teetotaller. It was also agreed that
any children should be brought up as teetotallers. William and Margaret's
honeymoon was spent in Geneva at the first meeting of the League of
Nations. Over the next few years the couple had four children, including
the future Labour Cabinet minister, Tony
Benn.
In October, 1922, the Conservative
members of the coalition government decided to replace David
Lloyd George with Andrew Bonar Law.
In the General Election that followed, the
Conservatives won 345 seats. Only 54 Liberals
in the House of Commons supported Lloyd
George, whereas 62 MPs, including Benn, were followers of Herbert
Asquith.
Attempts were made to unite the two groups under the leadership of
David Lloyd George. Benn was totally opposed
to the idea and became the leader of what became known as the Radical
Liberals. Over the next few years his political views moved to the
left and when Lloyd George gained control of the Liberal
Party in January 1927, Benn joined the Labour
Party.
Benn took
the view that as he had been elected as a Liberal
he should resign his seat in Parliament. When the Labour
MP for North Aberdeen died that summer,
the constituency party invited Benn to replace him. Benn's main slogan
during the by-election campaign that he won on the 16th August, 1927,
was "The Labour Party is a Socialist Party, and I am standing
as a Socialist".
In the 1929 General Election the Labour
Party won 288 seats, making it the largest party in the House
of Commons. Ramsay MacDonald formed
a Labour Government but had to rely on the support of the Liberals
to hold onto power. MacDonald appointed Benn as his Secretary of State
for India. For the next two years Benn had the difficult task of trying
to run the Indian Empire from London.
The election of the Labour Government coincided
with an economic depression and Ramsay MacDonald
was faced with the problem of growing unemployment. MacDonald asked
Sir George May to form a committee to look into Britain's economic
problem. When the May Committee produced its report in July, 1931,
it suggested that the government should reduce its expenditure by
£97,000,000, including a £67,000,000 cut in unemployment
benefits. MacDonald, and his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip
Snowden, accepted the report but when the matter was discussed
by the Cabinet, the majority, including Benn, voted against the measures
suggested by Sir George May.
Ramsay MacDonald was angry that his
Cabinet had not supported him and decided to resign. When he saw George
V that night, he was persuaded to head a new coalition government
that would include Conservative and
Liberal leaders as well as Labour
ministers. Most of the Labour Cabinet totally rejected the idea and
only three, Philip Snowden, Jimmy
Thomas and John Sankey agreed to join
the new government.
MacDonald was determined to continue and his National Government introduced
the measures that had been rejected by the previous Labour Cabinet.
Labour MPs were furious with what had happened and MacDonald was expelled
from the Labour Party.
In October,
MacDonald called an election. The 1931 General
Election was a disaster for the Labour Party
with only 46 members winning their seats. Benn lost his seat at North
Aberdeen to a National Government candidate. MacDonald, now had
556 pro-National Government MPs and had no difficulty pursuing the
policies suggested by Sir
George May.
Benn was the Labour Party candidate at Dudley
in the 1935 General Election but once again
he was defeated. He had to wait until 18th February 1937, before returning
to Parliament when he won a by-election at Gorton, Manchester.
Benn was deeply respected in the Labour Party and this is reflected
in the votes he received when he stood for the party executive. In
1938 he came fifth in the ballot and in the following year he reached
second in the list.
Although nearly sixty-three at the outbreak of the Second World War,
Benn enlisted in the Royal Air Force as a
pilot officer. Over the next four years he flew on several operational
missions. Given the rank of Air Commodore, Benn worked for a while
as Director of Public Relations at the Air Ministry. In 1944 he became
a member of the Allied Control Commission that had the responsibility
of reconstructing a democratic government in Italy.
In December 1940, Benn was asked by Clement
Attlee to become a Labour member of
the House of Lords. At that time all peerages
were hereditary and meant that on his death, the title would be transferred
to his eldest son. He therefore discussed it with Michael, his eldest
son, telling him that "If you don't want to go to the House of
Lords, I shall turn it down." Michael had already decided he
wanted to be an Anglican clergyman and
replied that he could argue for socialism in the House of Lords while
Tony, the younger brother, could do the same in the House
of Commons. Benn took the title Lord Stansgate.
Michael and Tony Benn both joined the Royal Air
Force during the war. Tony successfully served as a pilot officer
in South Africa and Rhodesia, but Michael was tragically killed on
23rd June, 1944, when as a result of a faulty air speed indicator,
his aircraft crashed at Chichester.
After the 1945
General Election, Clement Attlee appointed
Lord
Stansgate
as his Secretary of State for Air. He held the post until October
1946, but continued to play an active role supporting the Labour
Party in the House of Lords until his
death on 17th November 1960.
Michael and William Wedgwood Benn in 1944.
(1)
Election leaflet on William Wedgwood Benn published in 1905.
He is not a rich man, but many of his less fortunate
neighbours have to thank him for practical help rendered them in various
ways. In short, one may say that he can and will number among his
friends not only those who have always supported the Liberal Party,
but many old residents who believe in a good man, and above all, one
who belongs to the district, and sympathizes with its needs.
(2)
Description of William Wedgwood Benn in the Evening News after
his victory in the 1906 General Election.
He is slim and boyish looking, with clean-shaven,
clear-cut features, light hair, and eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.
He does not look a day more than twenty-two, but confesses to being
"just a little older".
Although young in years, Mr Benn is by no means young politically,
for, as the son of Mr. J. Williams Benn, MP, LCC, he has been born
and brought up amid parliamentary surroundings. From his cradle he
has been able to devote himself entirely to one hobby - politics.
When not engaged in politics, Mr Wedgwood Benn, who is associated
with his father in trade journalism, devotes himself to The Cabinet
Maker (surely a happy omen, politically, for the future).
(3)
William Wedgwood Benn described life as a member of the armed forces
in his book, In the Side Shows (1919)
After about half-an-hour's progress we reached
the enemy's shrapnel, through which, of course, we were bound to pass
if we were to attain Chocolate Hill. At each line of the division
advanced into the beaten zone, the shells did their part, being timed
to burst just ahead of our march. Casualties began, but our orders
were strict, and forbade us to stop for anyone. When men fell they
had to be left for the stretcher parties which were following. Suddenly
I saw with horror my troop hit by a shell and eight men go down. The
rest were splendid. They simply continued to advance in the proper
formation at a walk, and awaited the order, which did not come for
another quarter-of-an-hour, before breaking into the double. Everyone
was intensely excited, but all were bravely self-controlled.
(4) Margaret Holmes, describing
her courtship with William Wedgwood Benn.
One day he was very brave and asked me to go to
the theatre with him. This was a great surprise to my father. However,
I was allowed to go with him. On the way home, as we walked by Hyde
Park Corner, he said, "Well we could live near the House in Westminster
and you could have a chop at the House every night." (I hate
chops.) And so that was his proposal. My reply was, "And what
shall I call you, Captain Benn?" For I'd always called him Captain
Benn, and he'd called me Miss Holmes.
(5) When his first son Michael
was born, William Wedgwood Benn said: "He's going to be a great
friend of mine." When Michael Benn was killed in June 1944, among
his papers was a letter addressed to his family.
Father, from whom I inherited those qualities
which I hoped would play their part later in my life and who was always
a friend I could trust and who was everything a friend could be. If
he knew how true his first words had come.
Mother, from whom I inherited the precious gift of religion. Time
alone would have shown what I intended to do with that.
To you all I say au revoir. It was my dearest wish to see us all united
after the war. I wanted then to settle down to do what I could to
prevent the suffering of another war from descending on the lives
of our children. How I longed to see a world when people could be
as free and happy as we were in our family.
(6)
The Times (November, 1960)
By his death British public life is deprived of one of its most vivid
personalities and the House of Lords loses one of its most endearing,
irrepressible, provocative, and witty debaters. "Wedgie Benn",
as he was affectionately known, was a fighter to the end of his days.
Age seemed only to sharpen the flashing blade of his scorn for injustice,
indolence, equivocation, or woolly mindedness in high places. The
spell of his charm could, however, vanquish the most acute exasperation
which he might provoke, and even his victims forgave him. For his
integrity of purpose was manifest. His physical bravery was matched
by high moral courage, and he stood in awe of nobody.
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