Stanley Baldwin

Prime minister of the United Kingdom (1923-1924, 1924-1929, 1935-1937)

• Born: August 3, 1867
• Birthplace: Bewdley, Worcestershire, England
• Died: December 14, 1947
• Place of death: Astley Hall, Worcestershire, England

Baldwin was the dominant political figure in British politics during the 1920’s and 1930’s and was prime minister on three separate occasions. He personified both the attempt to narrow class differences during that era and the unsuccessful policies to avoid a second world war.

Early Life

Stanley Baldwin was born in Bewdley, Worcestershire, England, four miles from his father’s iron mill. His father, Alfred Baldwin, had reinvigorated the family firm, and he was also successful in politics. Even though Baldwin came to represent the typical Englishman, his mother, Louisa MacDonald, was Scottish and Irish. She was the daughter of a Methodist minister and became a minor novelist and poet. One of her sisters married the Pre-Raphaelite painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and another became the mother of the writer Rudyard Kipling, who was one of Baldwin’s closest friends. Stanley was an only child and often lonely because of his father’s business and political interests and his mother’s uncertain health. He early came to love the English countryside and as a young boy was an avid reader of novels and history. As expected of one of his social class, he entered the exclusive public school of Harrow in 1881 and Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1885, where he studied history. He was an indifferent student and left the university in 1888 to join the family firm. He had earlier, however, considered becoming a clergyman in the Church of England: His later political career at times reflected his spiritual concerns.

The Baldwin firm had a history of excellent labor relations. Strikes and lockouts were unknown, and the managers knew the names and family background of all of the employees. This was influential in the formation of Baldwin’s attitudes toward the working class: Conflict was to be avoided in the search for a unified community. Yet life was not all work, for Baldwin loved long walks, tennis, village cricket, and the locale where he first met his future wife, Lucy Ridsdale. They were married in 1892 and eventually had seven children. Lucy was more extroverted than Baldwin, and they complemented each other well. It was an ideal relationship that endured more than fifty years.

Baldwin’s father died in 1908, and Baldwin replaced him as a Conservative member of the House of Commons. He spoke seldom and remained an obscure backbencher until the fall of H. H. Asquith in late 1916. In David Lloyd George’s coalition government, Baldwin became the parliamentary private secretary to Bonar Law, the head of the Conservative Party. The many sacrifices made in World War I affected Baldwin deeply. His cousin, Kipling, lost a son, and his mentor, Law, lost two. After the war ended, Baldwin sent an anonymous letter to The Times of London, stating that he had personally given one-fifth of his estate, œ120,000, to the government to help defray the enormous cost of the war. He hoped that others would follow his example, but few did. During the war, he had become joint financial secretary to the Treasury. In early 1921, he joined the cabinet as president of the Board of Trade but was overshadowed by such figures as Lloyd George, Law, Winston Churchill, Austen Chamberlain, and the first earl of Birkenhead.

Life’s Work

The attitudes and atmosphere of the postwar world offended Baldwin’s traditionalism. He was particularly disturbed by the cynicism and opportunism of many of his fellow members of the government, not least by Lloyd George himself. It appeared to Baldwin that the leaders of the coalition were interested only in maintaining themselves in power at whatever cost. When it was proposed that the coalition continue, Baldwin, though a member of the government, opposed it, and in October, 1922, Lloyd George resigned, never to hold office again. Law became prime minister, and because several leading Conservatives refused to abandon the idea of a new coalition, Baldwin, a less prominent figure, became Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In May, 1923, Law was forced to resign as prime minister as a result of ill health. The two leading candidates to replace him were Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon and Baldwin. Curzon expected to be appointed, but his abrasive personality and his membership in the House of Lords were handicaps too great to overcome, and at the age of fifty-five, Baldwin became prime minister. It was a meteoric rise from the obscurity of a few years before.

Baldwin faced several handicaps. His party was still divided. In addition, the British economy was suffering from the effects of the war. For both political and economic reasons, Baldwin, to the shocked surprise of many, argued that the solution to Great Britain’s economic problems was to adopt tariffs to protect domestic industry. Free trade had been an article of faith for most since the mid-nineteenth century, and it had served Great Britain well, but Baldwin believed that it was no longer adequate in the competitive modern world. The result, however, was political defeat, and in January, 1924, the Labour Party, under Ramsay MacDonald, took power. Although Baldwin was harshly criticized, he remained the leader of the Conservatives.

The Labour Party did not have a majority in the House of Commons, and in October the government was defeated. For the second time, Baldwin became prime minister. By then, he had established his personal ascendancy over the House of Commons. During his long career he spent many hours in the House, developing a sensitive feeling for its various moods. He cultivated members of the Labour Party in the attempt to incorporate that party into the polity of the nation and to eliminate its potentially revolutionary aims. Baldwin’s oratory was not spectacular, but he was one of the most compelling speakers in the Commons, with his appeal to traditional, moral, and national values. Physically he was of average height and gave the impression of a man comfortably at ease in the English countryside, broad-shouldered, his hair parted down the middle, and often with pipe in hand.

Baldwin’s second government lasted from 1924 until 1929. He was able to reunify the Conservative Party by bringing into the cabinet Austen Chamberlain and Birkenhead. More controversially, he appointed Churchill as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Churchill, a Liberal for many years and a close associate of Lloyd George, had only recently rejoined the Conservatives. It was brilliant politics by Baldwin: He brought a potentially formidable opponent into his government and at the same time detached Churchill from Lloyd George’s orbit. Yet Baldwin’s political success was purchased at some cost. Baldwin’s solution to the economic woes of the 1920’s was tariffs, but Churchill was a free trader, and during those five years the policy of protection was abandoned.

Economic problems were at the root of the greatest crisis of those years. Even before World War I, Great Britain had begun to lose its industrial advantage to Germany and the United States; the war accelerated that process. During the immediate postwar years, the coal industry had done well, but by the early 1920’s the coal mines on the Continent had recovered. The result was conflict between the British coal-mine owners and the working miners. The former wished to reduce wages and lengthen the hours of work; the latter resisted both. Finally, in May, 1926, the miners’ union, supported by most other Labour organizations, called a general strike. Much of the ordinary business of Great Britain came to a halt. Baldwin, who was sympathetic to the plight of the miners, nevertheless saw the strike as a challenge to constitutional government, and he refused to negotiate until the strike was called off. Baldwin, a master of the new medium, radio, appealed to the nation for an end to the strike, promising all parties that they could trust him to be fair. After several days, the general strike collapsed. Baldwin, however, failed to follow through on his promise, and although he won a political victory, the chance to reorganize the coal industry was lost.

His administration had successes. At the ministry of health, Neville Chamberlain proved to be an able domestic reformer, and at the Foreign Office, his brother, Austen, negotiated the Treaty of Locarno (1925), which seemed to establish permanently and peacefully the national borders of Western Europe. By 1929, however, the government had lost its momentum. Whatever Baldwin’s merits, he was not a forceful or dynamic leader. During the election, the Conservatives campaigned on the uninspiring slogan, “Safety First.” The result was the return of the Labour Party to power. Some blamed Baldwin for the defeat, but his popularity remained high among the voters.

There were two challenges to his leadership during the next few years. Newspaper proprietors Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Rothermere launched a campaign through their papers in favor of free trade within the British Empire and the adoption of tariffs toward the rest of the world. Baldwin was in favor of tariffs but doubted the practicality of such a program at that time. In addition, Baldwin saw this move as a political attack on himself and his party, and he successfully forced Beaverbrook and Rothermere to retreat. Baldwin’s other challenge came from Churchill over the future of India. Baldwin supported greater self-government for India, but Churchill disagreed, romantically looking to the past glories of the British Raj and warning of violence between Hindus and Muslims if the British yoke were removed. Churchill had considerable support, but again Baldwin triumphed.

By mid-1931, the worldwide economic depression had seriously affected Great Britain. Unemployment reached three million, and the Labour government was unable either to reduce it or to raise sufficient funds to maintain the welfare and other government programs. The result was a split in the cabinet over MacDonald’s decision to reduce benefits. MacDonald wanted to resign as prime minister, but King George V urged him to form a new coalition to solve the crisis. Baldwin somewhat reluctantly agreed to join the new national government. Although the Conservatives were by far the largest component, Baldwin became Lord President of the Council instead of prime minister, but during the next several years it was he rather than MacDonald who was the real leader of the government.

While the domestic economy improved during the 1930’s as the Depression waned, foreign affairs deepened into crisis. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the coming to power of Adolf Hitler in 1933, Benito Mussolini’s assault on Ethiopia, and other developments abroad forced difficult decisions on the government. As a result of the casualties in World War I, pacifism was widespread in Great Britain during the interwar years, and faith was placed, too optimistically, in the League of Nations. No one wanted war. The question was how to avoid it: by pacifism or by a strong defense. Baldwin himself had an abhorrence of war and was more concerned with domestic matters than foreign policy; reluctantly, however, and perhaps too slowly, he did lead the government toward rearmament.

In 1935, after George V’s Silver Jubilee, MacDonald stepped down, and for the third time Baldwin became prime minister. He continued to face difficult foreign policy decisions: to oppose Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia at the risk of having Mussolini turn to Hitler for support, or to attempt to come to terms with Hitler and risk alienating France. Baldwin’s last accomplishment, however, concerned the throne. In January, 1936, George V died and was succeeded by his son, Edward VIII , a popular figure among all classes in Great Britain. He had never married, and at the time he became king he was romantically attached to an American, Wallis Simpson, a divorcé who had remarried. In the fall of 1936, Mrs. Simpson filed for a divorce. Edward hoped that he could marry Simpson even though she might not officially become queen, but neither Baldwin, the opposition Labour Party, nor the overseas Dominions would accept such a solution. Edward’s choices were limited either to marriage or to the kingship, but he could not have both. He chose the former and abdicated the throne in favor of his younger brother, who became George VI.

Significance

Baldwin resigned in May, 1937, the recipient of praise and honors. He accepted an earldom and a seat in the House of Lords. Neville Chamberlain, the new prime minister, more actively pursued a policy of appeasement toward Hitler. He failed, and in September, 1939, World War II began. With the outbreak of war, Baldwin’s reputation declined. The fall of France and other defeats called into question the British policies of the 1930’s, and Baldwin bore the brunt of the criticism, much of which was unfair. Many who had opposed any rearmament during the 1930’s now criticized Baldwin for not rearming faster. Some, like Churchill, failed to give Baldwin credit for what had been accomplished in spite of adverse public opinion. Others failed to differentiate between Baldwin’s policies and those of Chamberlain. During Baldwin’s last years, he spent most of his time at his country home, and as his health declined, his long walks ended. He was aware of his great unpopularity but understood the reasons. His wife died in 1945, and Baldwin followed in December, 1947. His ashes were placed in Worcester Cathedral.

Baldwin was so influential during the interwar years that the era is often referred to as the Age of Baldwin. He was consciously a unifying figure, seeking a societal consensus, wishing to bring the Labour Party into the political arena as reformers rather than as revolutionaries. He appeared to be, and in many ways was, the archetypal Englishman. He was more successful in politics than in economics, more comfortable in domestic matters than in foreign affairs, which made him more suited to the 1920’s than to the troubled 1930’s.

Bibliography

Churchill, Winston S. The Gathering Storm. Vol. 1 in The Second World War. London: Cassell, 1948. This volume of Churchill’s account of World War II has continued to influence both the scholarly and popular perception of the 1930’s. As such, Baldwin plays a major, but not heroic role. The theme set down by the author reveals his interpretation: “How the English-speaking peoples through their unwisdom, carelessness and good nature allowed the wicked to rearm.”

Gilbert, Martin. Winston S. Churchill: The Prophet of Truth, 1922-1939. Vol. 5. London: Heinemann, 1976. Gilbert’s exhaustive biography of Churchill is one of the scholarly landmarks of the twentieth century. Baldwin is one of the leading characters as Gilbert follows Churchill through the interwar years.

Graves, Robert, and Alan Hodge. The Long Week End. New York: Macmillan, 1941. Graves, one of Great Britain’s premier men of letters, and Hodge have collaborated in creating a readable social history of the years between the world wars. Inasmuch as the volume only incidentally concerns politics, Baldwin appears infrequently, but the authors brilliantly capture the social milieu of the Age of Baldwin.

Middlemas, Keith, and John Barnes. Baldwin: A Biography. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969. This long study was the first major reinterpretation of Baldwin’s life and career, and as such, it deliberately takes issue with the earlier assessments by Churchill and G. M. Young. The authors are not uncritical of Baldwin but make every effort to understand his actions and motivations in sympathetic terms.

Perkins, Anne. Baldwin. London: Haus, 2006. Perkins, a British journalist, provides this brief overview of Baldwin’s life and political career, including the significant events during his three terms as prime minister. One of the entries in the British Prime Ministers of the Twentieth Century series.

Ramsden, John. The Age of Balfour and Baldwin. London: Longmans, Green, 1978. This volume continues the current scholarship regarding Baldwin and his career. It stresses the moral basis of Baldwin’s leadership, his attempt to affect others outside the Conservative Party, his Englishness, and his position on the moderate Left of the political spectrum.

Taylor, A. J. P. English History, 1914-1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965. The Oxford History of England is, overall, the most satisfactory series of volumes on the history of England, and Taylor’s volume is among the most provocative. Taylor is not an admirer of Baldwin, but his work is well worth reading and a good place to begin in the study of Great Britain in the twentieth century.

Williamson, Philip, and Edward Baldwin, eds. Baldwin Papers: A Conservative Statesman, 1908-1947. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Contains Baldwin’s letters, reports of his conversations, relevant documents, and illustrations. Arranged chronologically and augmented with extensive commentary.