Josiah
Wedgwood
was born in Barlaston on 16th March, 1872. His father, Clement Wedgwood,
was the grandson of Josiah Wedgwood,
the famous potter from Staffordshire. The Wedgwood family had a long
tradition of supporting liberal causes such as the anti-slavery
campaign and the 1832 Reform Act.
After attending Clifton College, Wedgwood entered the Royal Naval
Academy. When he finished his training he was sent to South Africa
where he took part in the Boer
War.
Like many radicals at the time, Josiah
Wedgwood
was deeply influenced by the writings of Henry
George. After reading Progress
and Poverty
Wedgwood wrote: "Ever since 1905 I have known that there was
a man from God, and his name was Henry George! I had no need thenceforth
for any other faith." In Progress
and Poverty George argued that the gap between the rich
and the poor could only be closed by replacing the various taxes levied
on labour and capital with a single tax on the value of property.
When Wedgwood returned to England from South Africa he became the
Liberal Party candidate for Newcastle-under-Lyme.
He won the seat at the 1906 General Election
and supported the Liberal Governments headed by Henry
Campbell-Bannerman (1906-1908) and Herbert
Asquith (1908-1916).
Wedgwood served during the First
World War as a Lieutenant Commander with the Royal
Naval Armoured Cars. He was seriously wounded in Gallipoli
but recovered and was promoted to Colonel and sent on a special mission
to Siberia.
In 1918 Josiah Wedgwood caused a scandal by divorcing his wife of
twenty-four years, with whom he had seven children. He was denounced
by local clergy for the adultery that served as the grounds for the
divorce. Wedgwood defended himself by claiming that no adultery had
taken place and the evidence had been concocted to satisfy England's
divorce laws. Wedgwood was then criticised for deliberately misleading
the courts.
Wedgwood had grown disillusioned with the Liberal
Party and in the 1918 General Election
he stood as an Independent. A year after his election victory he joined
the Independent Labour Party where he found
considerable support for his single tax proposals.
When Ramsay MacDonald formed the first
Labour Government in January, 1924, he appointed
Wedgwood as his Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Following the
Labour Party's success in the 1929 General Election,
Wedgwood was disappointed when MacDonald did not offer him a seat
in his Cabinet.
MacDonald's decision gave Wedgwood the freedom to campaign for his
favourite causes. As well as his continuing belief in the single tax,
Wedgwood was a strong supporter of Indian self-government and felt
that the Germans had been too harshly treated by the Versailles
Treaty. Wedgwood was an early critic of Hitler and argued for
changes in the law that would enable Germans fleeing from Fascism
to settle in Britain. He was also Chairman of the German Refugee Hospitality
Committee.
In 1929 Wedgwood began writing a history of Parliament that would
include the biographies of every person who sat in the House
of Commons. He managed to write two volumes but was unable to
find the time needed to finish the project.
Wedgwood was disappointed with what he achieved in politics. Near
the end of his career he wrote: "I have been everywhere, seen
everything, known everybody, done everything - but achieved nothing."
In 1943 he was granted the title Baron Wedgwood of Barlaston and spent
the last few months of his political life in the House
of Lords rather than his much loved House
of Commons. Josiah
Wedgwood died on 26th July, 1943.
(1)
Josiah Wedgwood, Memoirs (1942)
Ever
since 1905 I have known that there was a man from God, and his name
was Henry George! I had no need thenceforth for any other faith.
(2)
Josiah Wedgwood, Daily News (1910)
Three
men have been imprisoned and two are awaiting trial for taking part
in disseminating an opinion with which numbers of men of all politics
and religions sympathize. One is under remand for handing to soldiers
a leaflet urging them to fire on their fellow-countrymen; one is sentenced
to nine months hard labour and two small printers to six months hard
labour for printing the same appeal; the fourth for publicly declaring
that he agrees with the, is awaiting trial.
These men are prosecuted technically for inciting soldiers to disobey
orders (orders not yet given). Technically that is their offence.
In reality their offence is that they have ventured to question one
of the accepted ideas of comfortable society. The Crown lawyers imagine
that they are suppressing agitation by these 'Treason Trials'. In
reality, they are creating revolutionaries. For every man who is sentenced
under the obsolete act of 1797 ten men spring up fired with indignation
and with fanatical hatred of Government methods.
(3)
Josiah
Wedgwood, Staffordshire Evening Sentinel (1914)
In
a few days I shall be leaving for active service in France. This is
only what many thousand volunteers from North Staffordshire have done
already, or soon will be doing, but, as I have not had an opportunity
of speaking here since the war started, I want to use your columns
to tell my friends and constituents what is it that compels me to
go. Liberals, like myself, love liberty. It is a passion: I cannot
explain it. My political work has all been directed to the securing
of economic liberty for the worker. I must now leaving the struggle
to others and to my children. There is other more elementary and more
painful work to be done for liberty. It has to be done. All who think
like me ought to take part.
(4)
Josiah Wedgwood comments when Clement Attlee became leader of the
Labour Party.
He is far and away the best leader the Labour Party has had or could
have. In the first place he is better read man than any other in Parliament
in my time. He has the highest standards which free him from both
ambition and selfishness. I have never heard him depreciate a colleague.
In every respect he is the exact antithesis of MacDonald. Nobody is
afraid of him or for him: all like him.
(5)
Josiah Wedgwood, letter to Camila, his daughter (1942)
I hate fighting but I have to go on doing it. It is the curse with
which I was born. Here I am after thirty-three years in Parliament,
having been everywhere,
seen everything, known everybody, done everything - but achieved nothing.
The whole world is infinitely worse than it was thirty-three years
ago. But if I started again it would all be the same.
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