Stanley Baldwin

Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947), British statesman and Prime Minister (1923-1924; 1924-1929; 1935-1937), who dominated politics in inter-war Britain. Born in Bewdley, England, he was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he briefly expressed an interest in ordination into the Anglican clergy. In 1908 he was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for the Bewdley division of Worcestershire, a seat that his father had held since 1892. Before his parliamentary career he had worked for the family business and served in local government.

His first decade at Westminster was unspectacular. His failure to secure ministerial preferment led him to consider in 1916 the possibility of retiring from politics. Eventually he was offered the post of financial secretary to the Treasury (1917-1921), before becoming President of the Board of Trade (1921-1922). He spoke against the Conservatives maintaining their wartime coalition with David Lloyd George at the October 1922 Carlton Club meeting. His reward was to be elevated to Chancellor of the Exchequer (1922-1923), which secured him vital national exposure. When Andrew Bonar Law resigned in May 1923, due to ill health, Baldwin was chosen as prime minister and Conservative Party leader in preference to Lord Curzon. He retained the party leadership until May 1937.

His first period as premier ended in January 1924 after calling an unnecessary general election to seek a mandate for tariff reform. He quickly returned to office, the following November, after the collapse of the minority Labour government led by Ramsay MacDonald, remaining prime minister for more than five years. When Britain's workers came out in the General Strike of 1926, he steadfastly refused to meet their demands. Using the new medium of radio, he rallied party and middle-class opinion against the strike; however, after the strike’s rapid collapse he found it difficult to moderate the demands of those who wished to impose anti-Union legislation. In the same year he visited Canada, becoming the first incumbent premier to visit an overseas dominion. His administration also saw Britain’s return to the gold standard, a series of local government and social service reforms, and in 1928 the reduction of the age of eligibility for female voters from 30 to 21 years. He resigned in June 1929, following a Labour victory in the general election. It was a defeat widely blamed upon Baldwin and party chairman, J. C. C. Davidson, and upon the new female “flapper” vote.

Opposition did not suit Baldwin’s leadership skills and he found himself engaged in a near civil war with elements in his party who favoured tariffs and opposed Indian self-government. These forces enjoyed considerable media support from the press empires of Lords Beaverbrook and Rothermere (see Newspapers: 20th Century Developments). Baldwin even contemplated resignation before confronting his critics at a party rally where he won a resounding vote of confidence. In September 1931, Baldwin became lord president, effectively a deputy to Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, in the coalition National Government, formed to resolve the political-economic crisis of 1931 caused by the Great Depression. Initially sceptical about the value of a coalition government he recognized that it provided a means of excluding Lloyd George from a return to office. The role of deputy suited Baldwin, offering protection from his critics and placing the burden of policymaking upon others. External affairs, especially Indian nationalism and Nazi Germany, dominated the political agenda of the 1930s. Problems arose for Baldwin over the passage of the 1935 India bill, with Conservative rebels led by Winston Churchill in open revolt. Baldwin reassumed the premiership in June 1935 and successfully led the National Government to victory in the November 1935 general election, hoping that it would re-unify his party.

As prime minister for the third time, Baldwin increasingly relied upon the services of Neville Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who took an especial interest in the issue of rearmament. Chamberlain considered himself to be the driving force behind the administration and found Baldwin’s lethargy frustrating, especially as he aspired to the premiership. The hope that November 1935 represented a new beginning was short-lived. Baldwin found his party and government divided over the Hoare-Laval pact over the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (December 1935) and the German remilitarization of the Rhineland (March 1936). Both events raised renewed questions about Baldwin’s suitability as leader. Throughout this period he was giving serious thought to retirement. The Abdication crisis in 1936 delayed this event. It also proved one of Baldwin’s greatest political achievements as he resisted the plans of King Edward VIII to marry an American divorcee, Wallace Simpson, and engineered the abdication of the king. Baldwin retired in May 1937 and was created 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley.

Baldwin left the political stage feted from all sides. However the slide towards war with the dictators and the early British military failures of 1940 meant that he was labelled one of the “guilty men”—accused of inadequately preparing Britain for war. His critics, including Churchill and “Cato”, unjustly claimed that Baldwin had put party before country on this vital matter. He was one of the foremost British political figures of his time, the dominant political figure of the inter-war years. He succeeded in capturing the political mood of the nation and through his radio and cinema newsreel appearances ensured that he was the first prime minister to be recognizable in voice and sight to the electorate. His political speeches emphasized the theme of “England” and used art, literature, and topography to get their central message across. He contributed to the decline of the Liberal Party by winning over substantial numbers of non-conformist votes to the Conservative Party. Under Baldwin the Conservatives became the “party of religion” rather than purely the “party of the Church of England”.

Yet despite leading the Conservative Party between 1923 and 1937 he failed to impose his vision upon the party and its policy, seemingly unable to inspire awe amongst his colleagues. His leadership was typified by bouts of impulsive and exhausting activity followed by prolonged periods of “drift” and lethargy. As a consequence, Baldwin proved something of a political enigma. He wrote many books, including Peace and Goodwill in Industry (1925), The Classics and the Plain Man (1926), This Torch of Freedom (1935), Service of Our Lives (1937), and An Interpreter of England (1939).