The Lord Snell | |
|---|---|
 Snell in 1936 | |
| Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms | |
| In office 31 May 1940 – 21 April 1944 | |
| Monarch | George VI |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Lucan |
| Succeeded by | The Earl Fortescue |
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India | |
| In office 13 March 1931 – 24 August 1931 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | The Earl Russell |
| Succeeded by | The Marquess of Lothian |
| Member of theHouse of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| In office 23 March 1931 – 21 April 1944 Hereditary Peerage | |
| Preceded by | Peerage created |
| Succeeded by | Peerage extinct |
| Member of Parliament forWoolwich East | |
| In office 15 November 1922 – 22 March 1931 | |
| Preceded by | Robert Gee |
| Succeeded by | George Hicks |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1865-04-01)1 April 1865 Sutton-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, England |
| Died | 21 April 1944(1944-04-21) (aged 79) |
Henry Snell, 1st Baron SnellCH CBE PC (1 April 1865 – 21 April 1944), was a British socialist politician and campaigner. He served in government underRamsay MacDonald andWinston Churchill, and as theLabour Party's leader in theHouse of Lords in the late 1930s.
Born inSutton-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, the son of agricultural workers, Harry Snell was educated at his local village school before beginning work as a farm hand at the age of eight. He worked full-time from the age of ten and became an indoor servant at the farm aged twelve. Dissatisfied with this work, Snell left and travelled around the county, taking a variety of jobs including work as a groom and at Hazelford Ferry on theRiver Trent and as a French polisher inNottingham. During long periods of unemployment he occupied himself with extensive reading, and was particularly influenced by the writing ofHenry George. Inspired byCharles Bradlaugh and the cause ofsecularism in Nottingham 1881, he joined theNational Secular Society. He rejected the austere and literalist Anglicanism of his up-bringing, but retained some religious faith and decided to join theUnitarian Church, impressed by its scientific approach to Christian doctrine and its progressive and tolerant values.[citation needed]
A Unitarian teacher, John Kentish-White, introduced Snell to the works ofLord Byron andSamuel Taylor Coleridge. Through acquaintances made in the Unitarian movement, Snell was able to find a job in London as a clerk at the offices of the Midland Institute for the Blind. Here he continued his self-education at the reference library ofUniversity College London, being influenced by the writings ofThomas Paine,William Morris,John Ruskin andJohn Stuart Mill. EventuallyUnitarianism would grow even too strict for him, and he became an agnostic and member of theNational Secular Society, and a "devoted advocate" of the Ethical Union (nowHumanists UK).[1] Of his ties to the BritishEthical movement, he once remarked:
Although political and Labour questions arrested my attention, and made constant demands on my time and energies, my deepest and most abiding interests were in religion and ethics, and to these great subjects that the best thought and work of my life has been given.
After hearingAnnie Besant address a meeting of the Secular Society on the subject of socialism, Snell joined theSocial Democratic Federation. He worked onJohn Burns' campaign forParliament in 1885, and began to address public meetings himself, appearing alongside the likes ofHenry Hyndman,Tom Mann,Eleanor Marx andBen Tillett. He was active in supporting theBryant and May match factory strike and theLondon dock strike of 1889.[citation needed]
In 1890, Snell began social work for the Woolwich Charity Organisation Society, and later became secretary to the director of theLondon School of Economics. He joined theIndependent Labour Party and, in 1894, theFabian Society, travelling extensively around Britain to lecture on socialist topics with speakers includingRamsay MacDonald andBruce Glasier. Snell also lectured for the BritishSouth Place Ethical Society (eventually becoming President) and its American counterpart. Snell stood unsuccessfully inHuddersfield as a candidate for the Labour Party inJanuary andDecember 1910[2] and1918. He was elected to theLondon County Council in 1919, serving until 1925,[3] and became Member of Parliament forWoolwich East, the seat formerly held byWill Crooks, at the1922 General Election, being re-elected in1929.[4]
In late 1929, Snell was appointed to theShaw Commission, which had been set up to investigateArab uprisings inPalestine. When the Commission published its findings in March 1931, Snell delivered a Minority Report, disagreeing with the Commission's recommendation thatJewish immigration and land purchase be curtailed. Snell also dissented from the Commission's claims that Palestine was overcrowded, agreeing with reports published two years earlier that had found the area to be under-populated and greatly under-cultivated. He described the impact of Jewish immigration as having raised the standard of living for Arab workers, and asserted that the Commission was wrongly and dangerously encouraging the view that immigration was a menace to Arabs and threatened their economic future. Following this, Snell became a strong supporter ofZionism.[5]
From 1931 to 1932, he served as President of the British Ethical Union (now known asHumanists UK), an organisation promotinghumanism asa non-religious basis for morality.[6]
Snell was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the1930 Birthday Honours.[7]
Snell resigned his seat in the Commons in 1931, to make way forGeorge Hicks, a leading member of theTrades Union Congress,[citation needed] and was raised to the peerage asBaron Snell, ofPlumstead in theCounty of Kent, on 23 March 1931.[8] Ramsay MacDonald made himUnder-Secretary of State for India and, upon the formation of the National Government a few months later, asked Snell to continue in this role. However, Snell refused, choosing to remain loyal to the Labour Party. In the Lords, he spoke on agricultural issues, with particular concern for rural workers, and on foreign affairs, and was a member of the British Institute of Parliamentary Affairs and the Empire Parliamentary Association. He was also appointed to theBritish Council, eventually becoming vice-chairman. In 1935, whenArthur Ponsonby chose to resign withGeorge Lansbury, Snell became Labour's leader in the Lords, serving underClement Attlee. He published an autobiography,Men, Movements and Myself, in 1936,[9] and was made aPrivy Counsellor in 1937.[10]
As leader in the Lords, Snell took a strong line against the growing threat of fascism, and attacked the Government's appeasement ofNazi Germany and its refusal to intervene to help the Republican government during theSpanish Civil War. He also continued to champion Zionism. During a debate in the Lords in 1938 he spoke in support of the policy ofpopulation transfer of Arabs in Palestine for the purposes of developing the land and creating cohesive settlements, pointing out that similar transfers had occurred inLibya and other Arab countries without any protest. Aged seventy-five and with his health failing, he stood down as leader of the Labour peers in 1940. However, he recovered and was appointed byWinston Churchill asCaptain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (DeputyLeader of the House of Lords) a year later (having been considered as Leader, but passed over in favour of aConservative). He chaired several committees and inquiries during theSecond World War,[citation needed] and was appointed aMember of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1943.[11] Whilst still in the role of Deputy Leader, Snell fell ill at the end of March 1944, and died less than a month later, his peerage becoming extinct at that time.
Hishumanist funeral was conducted by his friendH.J. Blackham, whereClement Attlee was among the mourners in a private ceremony.[1]
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| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forWoolwich East 1922–1931 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Under-Secretary of State for India 1929–1931 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Ernest Dence | Chairman of the London County Council 1934–1938 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms 1940–1944 | Vacant Title next held by The Earl Fortescue |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | London Division representative on theIndependent Labour Party National Administrative Council 1910–1911 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords 1935–1940 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Snell 1931–1944 | Extinct |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
