The Viscount Waverley | |
|---|---|
 Anderson in 1943 | |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
| In office 24 September 1943 – 26 July 1945 | |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | Kingsley Wood |
| Succeeded by | Hugh Dalton |
| Lord President of the Council | |
| In office 3 October 1940 – 24 September 1943 | |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | Neville Chamberlain |
| Succeeded by | Clement Attlee |
| Home Secretary Minister of Home Security | |
| In office 4 September 1939 – 3 October 1940 | |
| Prime Minister | Neville Chamberlain Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | Samuel Hoare |
| Succeeded by | Herbert Morrison |
| Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal | |
| In office 27 October 1938 – 4 September 1939 | |
| Prime Minister | Neville Chamberlain |
| Preceded by | Herbrand Sackville |
| Succeeded by | Samuel Hoare |
| Member of theHouse of Lords | |
| Hereditary peerage 28 January 1952 – 4 January 1958 | |
| Succeeded by | The 2nd Viscount Waverley |
| Member of Parliament forCombined Scottish Universities | |
| In office 25 February 1938 – 23 February 1950 | |
| Preceded by | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Governor of Bengal | |
| In office 29 March 1932 – 30 May 1937 | |
| Preceded by | Stanley Jackson |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Brabourne |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1882-07-08)8 July 1882 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 4 January 1958(1958-01-04) (aged 75) Lambeth, London, England |
| Political party | National Independent |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh University of Leipzig |
John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley,GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, PC, PC (Ire), FRS (8 July 1882 – 4 January 1958), was a Scottishcivil servant and politician who is best known for his service in theWar Cabinet during theSecond World War, for which he was nicknamed the "Home Front Prime Minister". He served asHome Secretary,Lord President of the Council andChancellor of the Exchequer. TheAnderson shelters are named after him.
A graduate of theUniversity of Edinburgh and theUniversity of Leipzig where he studied the chemistry ofuranium, Anderson joined the Civil Service in 1905, and worked in the West African Department of theColonial Office. During theGreat War he headed the staff of theMinistry of Shipping. He served asUnder-Secretary for Ireland from 1921 to 1922 during its transition to independence, and as thePermanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from 1922 to 1931 he had to deal with theGeneral Strike of 1926. AsGovernor of Bengal from 1932 to 1937, he instituted social and financial reforms, and narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.
In early 1938, Anderson was elected to theHouse of Commons by theScottish Universities as a National IndependentMember of Parliament, and was a non-party supporter of theNational Government. In October 1938 he enteredNeville Chamberlain's Cabinet asLord Privy Seal. In that capacity, he was put in charge of air raid preparations. He initiated the development of the Anderson shelter, a small sheet metal cylinder made ofprefabricated pieces which could be assembled in a garden and partially buried to protect against bomb blast.
After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Anderson returned to hold the joint portfolio of Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security, a position in which he served underWinston Churchill. He retained responsibility for civil defence. In October 1940, he exchanged places withHerbert Morrison and became Lord President of the Council. In July 1941 as Lord President of the Council he was appointed as minister responsible for the British effort to build anatomic bomb, known as theTube Alloys project. He became the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1943 and remained in the post until theLabour Party's victory in thegeneral election in July 1945.
Anderson left the Commons when theuniversity constituencies were abolished at the1950 general election. He became Chairman of thePort of London Authority in 1946 and theRoyal Opera House in March the same year. He rejected an offer to join Churchill's peacetime administration when it was formed in 1951, and was createdViscount Waverley ofWestdean in theCounty of Sussex in 1952.
John Anderson was born at his parents' home at 1 Livingstone Place, Edinburgh, on 8 July 1882, the oldest child of David Alexander Pearson Anderson, a printer and stationer, and his wife Janet Kilgour née Briglmen. He had three younger siblings: a brother, Charles, who died frommeningitis in infancy, and sisters Catherine (Katie) and Janet (Nettie). The family moved toBraid Hills in May 1890. He attendedGeorge Watson's College in Edinburgh, where he was dux of the school, earning prizes for Anglo-Saxon, Old English, and Modern Languages.[1][2]
In October 1899, Anderson sat the examination for students entering theUniversity of Edinburgh, which determined order of merit for scholarships and bursaries. He was ranked eleventh, and awarded a bursary of £100 (equivalent to £14,000 in 2023). In his first year, he was ranked first in his class in mathematics and natural philosophy. In November 1900, the family moved toEskbank. The previous owner of their new home had been an amateur astronomer and Anderson took over a room with a large telescope.[3]
A neighbour, Andrew Mackenzie, had five daughters, and Anderson became the boyfriend of one of them, Christina (Chrissie) Mackenzie. In 1902 he took a bicycle tour of France and Switzerland, during which he wrote frequently to Chrissie. He graduated the following year with distinction in mathematics, physics and chemistry, earning a Bachelor of Science degree, and first class honours in mathematics and natural philosophy, earning a Master of Arts degree.[3]
The Anderson, Briglmen and Mackenzie families holidayed together in summer of 1903. On 29 August they were bathing in theRiver Ythan when a freak wave suddenly swept Nettie Anderson and Chrissie's sister Nellie Mackenzie into deep water. Nellie was rescued but Nettie drowned. Anderson and Chrissie were on their way to join the group at the time of the accident, but it fell to him to identify the body and inform his parents.[4]
Along with fellow ScotsmenJoseph Henry Maclagen Wedderburn, Forsyth James Wilson andWilliam Wilson, Anderson went to theUniversity of Leipzig in Germany, where he intended to study physical chemistry underWilhelm Ostwald. When he arrived he found that Ostwald had abandoned chemistry, so Anderson studied under Robert Luther instead. He chose to examine the chemistry ofuranium. AlthoughHenri Becquerel had discovered in 1896 that uranium had radioactive properties, Anderson studied only its chemical properties. On his return to Edinburgh he wrote a paper on the subject, but this was not a PhD thesis.[5]
Although Anderson was a brilliant student, winning numerous prizes, he decided to forsake a career in science for one in theCivil Service. At the time this was the normal career path for graduates of the University of Edinburgh, and his father advised him that if he wished to marry Chrissie the Civil Service would offer greater job security. To prepare, he took an honours course in economics and political science. In July 1905, he travelled to London with a fellow candidate,Alexander Gray and sat the Britishcivil service examination.[6]
In those days a candidate could take tests in as many subjects as they liked, and Anderson took fourteen, earning a score of 4566 out of a possible 7500, which was the highest score that year and the second highest ever; Gray came second with a score of 4107 out of 7900. Anderson was offered the choice of joining the Home Civil Service or theIndian Civil Service. Most candidates preferred the latter, as salaries and allowances were higher, but Anderson's parents did not want him to leave Britain, and he did not want to subject Chrissie to the rigours of life in India. He therefore joined theColonial Office as a Second Class Clerk on an annual salary of £200 (equivalent to £27,000 in 2023).[6]
Anderson commenced work at the Colonial Office on 23 October 1905, in the West African Department. He was known in the department as "young John Anderson" to distinguish him from anotherJohn Anderson who became theGovernor of the Straits Settlements. In London, Anderson shared accommodation with Gray and William Paterson, a family friend from Eskbank.[7] On 2 April 1907, he married Chrissie at St Andrew's Church in Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh; Gray was his best man and Chrissie's sister Kate and William Paterson were witnesses. The newlywed couple rented a house inSutton, London. They had two children:David Alastair Pearson on 18 February 1911, andMary Mackenzie on 3 February 1916.[8]
Anderson served on SirKenelm Digby's 1908 Committee on Northern Nigerian Lands. This did not involve travel to Nigeria, but the following year he went to Hamburg to meet with his German counterparts at theHamburg Colonial Institute, where his fluency in German was useful. In 1911 he was the secretary ofLord Emmott's departmental committee that recommended the introduction of a distinctive local currency inBritish West Africa.[9]
In 1912, theChancellor of the Exchequer,Lloyd George, introducedNational Insurance, the start of thewelfare state in the United Kingdom. A new government department was created to administer it, chaired by SirRobert Morant. Anderson and Gray joined the new department.[10] When the position of secretary of the National Insurance Commission fell vacant in May 1913, Anderson was appointed to the position over the head of many more senior civil servants.[11] Anderson formed a good working relationship with the notoriously difficult Morant. "The trouble with young John Anderson", Morant lamented, "is that he is always so damned right."[12]
Following the outbreak of theFirst World War in August 1914, Anderson was involved in securing supplies of medical and surgical implements that had hitherto been imported from Germany. He summoned a group of experts to analyse and producearsphenamine, known as "606", a drug formerly sourced fromBayer in Germany. They went on to produce other substances, includingaspirin. Anderson registered for service under theDerby Scheme but was placed on the Army Reserve. This did not prevent a young woman from presenting him with awhite feather.[13]
Lloyd George became thePrime Minister of the United Kingdom on 7 December 1916, and one of his first acts was to create aMinistry of Shipping under SirJoseph Maclay, and Morant agreed to release Anderson to become its secretary on 8 January 1917.[14][15] Although it was not his idea, Anderson recognised the value of anAllied Maritime Transport Council, and threw his support behind it. After theArmistice of 11 November 1918, the Ministry of Shipping became embroiled in a controversy over the continuance of the blockade of Germany and the shipment of relief supplies for starving civilians. In the end the Germans agreed to turn all their ships over to the Allies to carry supplies. The vessels were eventually retained as reparations.[13] For his wartime service with the Ministry of Shipping, Anderson was made aCompanion of the Order of the Bath in the1918 New Year Honours,[16] and was promoted toKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the1919 Birthday Honours.[17]
Anderson became a secretary of theLocal Government Board in April 1919, but in July it was merged with the Health Insurance Commission to form the Ministry of Health, and Anderson became the second secretary under Morant, who had requested Anderson's appointment as his deputy. However, Anderson did not remain in that position for long either, for on 1 October 1919 he was appointed the Chairman of theBoard of Inland Revenue, with an annual salary of £2000 (equivalent to £116,000 in 2023) plus £300 (equivalent to £17,000 in 2023) war bonus, which was raised to £3000 (equivalent to £174,000 in 2023) plus £500 (equivalent to £29,000 in 2023) on 1 March 1920.[18]
Chrissie died on 9 May 1920 during an operation for cancer, leaving Anderson a widower with two young children. Nellie Mackenzie, who was training to be a nurse atSt Thomas' Hospital, gave up her career to care for them.[19] On 16 May, Anderson becameUnder-Secretary for Ireland.[20] He was also theHM Treasury representative,[21] and he became aPrivy Counsellor of Ireland on 3 June 1920.[22] The administrative arrangements were unorthodox: he did not supersede his predecessor,James Macmahon, but shared the position with him. They were answerable to theChief Secretary for Ireland, SirHamar Greenwood, but as a cabinet minister, Greenwood was located in London;Field Marshal French, theLord Lieutenant of Ireland (known as theviceroy), had wielded special executive powers in 1918 and 1919, but in 1920 reverted to the normal figurehead powers of that post. Anderson therefore wielded great executive power. He had two assistant under-secretaries,Alfred William Cope andMark Sturgis.[20]
Over eighty members of theRoyal Irish Constabulary had been killed during the previous year, and both numbers and morale were low. Anderson oversaw a recruitment campaign among ex-servicemen in England, Scotland and Wales. There were insufficient uniforms for them all, so they wore a mixture of khaki Armyservice dress and dark green Royal Irish Constabulary uniforms, giving rise to the nickname "Black and Tans". Major GeneralHugh Tudor was given a free hand to reorganise and reequip the constabulary, and facilitated cooperation between the constabulary and the military.[23]
In the face of aninsurgency, Anderson strove to avoid the appearance that Britain was engaged in a war of reconquest.[23] He travelled in anarmoured car with a police escort, and carried a revolver.[24] He was engaged in peace talks with theSinn Féin, but unlike Cope he was not in his element.[25] A settlement was brokered, and on 16 January 1922, the viceroy (Viscount FitzAlan) formally handed over power to theProvisional Government.[26] For his service in Ireland, Anderson was made an additionalKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in the1923 New Year Honours.[27]
All the while Anderson was in Ireland, he was still nominally the chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue, and he returned to this role in January 1922. But not for long; in March SirEdward Troup, thePermanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office, retired and Anderson was appointed to succeed him. At the time the Home office had seven divisions, each with its own Assistant Secretary: Aliens Control, Children and Probation, Crime, Factories and Shops, Channel Islands, Northern Ireland, and Police. Anderson worked an eight-hour day, from 10:15 in the morning to 18:15 each night, with an hour and a half for lunch.[28]
Through the Northern Ireland Division, Anderson continued to be involved with Irish issues. He helped negotiate the border between the newIrish Free State andNorthern Ireland in 1923.[29] He also chaired the 1925Committee of Imperial Defence subcommittee on air raid precautions.[30] That year also sawRed Friday, 31 July 1925, when the government capitulated to the demands of theMiners Federation of Great Britain to provide a subsidy of £23 million (equivalent to £1,700 million in 2023) to the mining industry to maintain miners' wages and secure industrial harmony.[31]
Appreciating that this might only temporarily stave off a major industrial dispute, the Prime Minister,Stanley Baldwin, appointed Anderson to the chairmanship of an inter-departmental committee to prepare for one. Each department was allocated a specific role: theBoard of Trade stockpiled food and coal, theMinistry of Transport arranged for distribution, and the Home Office was responsible for keeping law and order. When theUK General Strike of 1926 commenced on 4 May 1926, Anderson had been preparing for the eventuality for nine months. He was particularly determined to remain even-handed and avoid the appearance of favouring one side over the other.[31] WhenWinston Churchill suggested sending the Army to theLondon docks to protect the supplies of paper needed to print theBritish Gazette, Anderson cut him off with: "I would beg the chancellor of the exchequer to stop talking nonsense".[2]
Being the head of a department was the pinnacle of a Civil Service career, and by November 1931, Anderson had been the permanent under-secretary for nine years, but at age 49 he was still eleven years away from retirement. At this point an unexpected offer appeared. TheSecretary of State for India, SirSamuel Hoare, and theUnder-Secretary of State for India, SirFindlater Stewart, were searching for a successor to theGovernor of Bengal, SirStanley Jackson. The province was a troubled one, and they thought of Anderson, based on his service in Ireland and during the General Strike of 1926.[32] Jackson narrowly escaped an assassin's bullet at theUniversity of Calcutta on 6 February 1932. On 3 March, Anderson had lunch atBuckingham Palace with KingGeorge V, who made him an additionalKnight Grand Commander of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire (GCIE).[33][34]
Anderson sailed from England on theSS Ranpura on 10 March 1932, accompanied by William Paterson, Mary Anderson and Nellie Mackenzie;[33] his son Alastair was studying medicine atPembroke College, Cambridge.[32] Anderson arrived inCalcutta on 29 March, and was greeted with a 17-gun salute.[33] The position came with an annual salary of approximately £114,000 (equivalent to £9,784,000 in 2023), a sumptuary allowance of £25,000 (equivalent to £2,146,000 in 2023) and a grant of £100,000 (equivalent to £8,582,000 in 2023) to cover his staff's wages.[35] In addition to his personal staff he had 120 servants, a seventy-man mounted bodyguard, and a brass band. There were cars, two special trains, a yacht and a house boat.[36]
There were government houses inCalcutta,Darjeeling,Barrackpore andDacca.[36] The primary residence of the governor was in Calcutta, but when the weather became hot in April the governor and his staff would move to Darjeeling, returning when themonsoon broke in June. Each year they would spend a month in Dacca in fulfilment of a promise made whenBengal was reunited in 1911. They would then go back to Darjeeling, remaining until it became cold, and then return to Calcutta. Anderson visited all twenty-six districts of Bengal, usually travelling by train, but sometimes by river on a towed barge he named theMary Anderson after his daughter.[37] He regularly attended church services at St Andrew's Church in Calcutta and St Columba's Church in Darjeeling. On 26 March 1933, he was ordained as anElder of the Church of Scotland at St Andrew's.[38]
Anderson recognised that the root of Bengal's problems was financial. The chief source of revenue was collected under the terms of thePermanent Settlement of Bengal that had been concluded byLord Cornwallis in 1793 and taxed landowners known aszamindars based on the value of their land. Other forms of taxation, such asincome tax andexport duties were collected by the central government and little was returned to Bengal.[39] As a result, public infrastructure, such as police, education and health, had been run down. The export duty on thejute trade was particularly unfair, as it had been imposed during the Great War when the trade was booming, but by 1932 the trade was in decline due to competition from paper and cotton bags.[40] The globalGreat Depression caused the prices of agricultural commodities to fall. Anderson negotiated a revision of the financial arrangements with SirOtto Niemeyer, under which the provinces retained half of their income tax and jute duty receipts and provincial debts to the central government were cancelled.[41]
The other major task that Anderson confronted was dealing with terrorism. Collective fines were imposed on areas that sheltered or supported terrorists, and the funds used to increase the police presence.[42] He was aware that he was a target, but as the King's representative he continued to make public appearances, travelling in aRolls-Royce or an open horse-drawn carriage. On 8 May 1934 a would-be assassin fired at Anderson but the bullet passed between him and Nellie Mackenzie,[43][44] and the man was wrestled to the ground byCharles William Tandy-Green. A second man fired but also missed Anderson, though wounded the ankle of a teenager sitting behind the governor, and was tackled byBhupendra Narayan Singh. Tandy-Green and Singh were awarded theEmpire Gallantry Medal, which they exchanged for theGeorge Cross in 1940.[44][45][46] Five other members of the gang attempted to escape but were captured.[44] The would-be assassins were sentenced to hang, but Anderson commuted the sentences of two of them.[47] By 1935 he was described as the world's most-shot-at-man, having survived three assassination attempts.[48] Anderson tackled the problem of what to do with détenus, individuals who had been detained without trial on suspicion of terrorism by giving them training for jobs in agriculture and manufacturing.[49][50]
Anderson carried out a series of economic and social programs. He waged a campaign againstwater hyacinth, aninvasive plant species that threatened to clog Bengal's waterways. He regulated jute production through a system of voluntarily restrictions. He established a panel that examined the problem of rural debt, and sponsored legislation to reduce the debts of farmers. He introduced compulsory primary school education.[51] TheGovernment of India Act 1935 was scheduled to become operative on 1 April 1937, soon after his five-year term of office was due to expire, but at the request of the Secretary of State for India, theMarquess of Zetland, and theviceroy, theMarquess of Linlithgow, Anderson agreed to a six-month extension in order to oversee the transition to self-government,[52] but declined a request from Zetland for his term to be further extended.[53] For his services in India, Anderson was appointed aKnight Grand Commander of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India (GCSI) on 15 December 1937,[54] and was made aPrivy Counsellor in the1938 New Year Honours.[55]
After Ireland and Bengal, the British government could find no more dangerous assignment thanPalestine, and on 24 October 1937, the Prime Minister,Neville Chamberlain, offered Anderson the position ofHigh Commissioner for Palestine, but he declined. Another opportunity soon presented itself.[53] The sudden death ofRamsay MacDonald on 9 November 1937 created acasual vacancy in hisScottish Universities seat in theHouse of Commons, and theUnionist Party now needed to find another candidate. SirJohn Graham Kerr, another member for the Scottish Universities, discussed this with SirKenneth Pickthorn, one of the members forCambridge University, who suggested that Anderson might make a worthy candidate. Kerr contacted Katie Anderson, who informed him that Anderson was still en route for the UK on the liner SSComorin.[56]
Anderson arrived back in London on 11 December 1937. He spoke to Kerr, and agreed to stand for election as aNational Government candidate without a party label. His candidacy was announced on 4 January 1938. Voting was bypostal ballot, which meant that Anderson did not have to campaign but only needed to provide a statement of his political philosophy. In this he affirmed his support for the National Government and gave a qualified support forScottish nationalism. The results were announced on 28 February; Anderson received more votes than any other candidate, and was declared the winner. He took his seat on 2 March and, after a holiday in Switzerland with Mary Anderson and Nellie Mackenzie, made hismaiden speech in the House of Commons on 1 June. The occasion was a debate over the provision of funding authorised under the Air Raid Precaution Act of 1937, a subject that he had previously been involved with and with which he would come to be identified.[57]
Mary Anderson and Nellie Mackenzie had preceded Anderson to England and rented a house at 11 Chepstow Villas inNotting Hill for nineguineas a week (equivalent to £669 in 2023). Although this was a bargain, Anderson feared that his income would not be sufficient to keep up the rental payments. Before leaving Calcutta he accepted a directorship from theMidland Bank, and after his return to England he joined the boards ofVickers,Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and the Employers Liability Assurance Corporation.[53] The directors' fees gave him an annual income of around £5,000 (equivalent to £354,000 in 2023). He was approached by members of the board ofImperial Airways who were seeking a new full-time chairman with an offer of more than twice that amount. However, Chamberlain stipulated that if he accepted then he would have to resign his other directorships and his seat in the House of Commons at the next general election, which was due in 1940. Anderson therefore declined the appointment.[58] He would sometimes go horse riding inHyde Park with Mary Anderson,[59] but sought a more rural environment. He disposed of the house in Chepstow Villas in October and bought a 10-acre (4.0 ha) property nearMerstham in December. During the week he lived with William Paterson and his wife.[60][61]
In May 1938, Hoare, who was now theHome Secretary, appointed Anderson to chair a new Committee on Evacuation to examine the problems involved in evacuating people and industries from densely populated industrial areas in the event of a war. Over the next eight weeks the committee held twenty-five meetings and examined fifty-seven witnesses. The committee submitted its report in July. The scheme outlined in the report was implemented when theSecond World War broke out in September 1939.[62][63] Meanwhile, in October 1938 Anderson entered Chamberlain's ministry asLord Privy Seal. In that capacity, he was put in charge of civil defence.[64] He initiated the development of a type of air-raid shelter, and engaged William Paterson to design it. Paterson worked with his co-director, Oscar Carl (Karl) Kerrison, and together they devised a small sheet metal cylinder made ofprefabricated pieces which could be assembled in a garden and partially buried to protect against bomb blast. It became known as theAnderson shelter. When war broke out in September 1939, some 1.5 million Anderson shelters had been delivered.[65]
Under a pre-arranged plan, on the outbreak of the Second World War on 3 September 1939, Anderson exchanged places with Hoare and became Home Secretary andMinister of Home Security. In the wake of theNorwegian campaign Chamberlain resigned on 10 May 1940 and Winston Churchill became the Prime Minister but Anderson stayed on as Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security in the newcoalition government.[61] Measures taken in Ireland and Bengal were now applied to the UK. Anderson created special tribunals to assess the reliability ofaliens resident in the UK. He informed the House of Commons that of the 73,353 aliens in the UK, no less than 55,457 were refugees from Nazi oppression; only 569 were interned. However, as the tide of war turned against the UK, the pressure to act against aliens grew, and on 16 May some 3,000 men whose reliability was classed as uncertain were interned, and in June 3,500 women and children were sent to theIsle of Man. Anderson then decided to intern refugees previously considered reliable, and some 8,000 were transported to Canada and Australia. One transport, theSS Arandora Star was sunk by aU-boat. Members of theCommunist Party of Great Britain, thePeace Pledge Union and theBritish Union of Fascists were rounded up. In June 1945, there were still 1,847 persons held in detention underDefence Regulation 18B.[66]
Oncethe Blitz began, the contingencies that Anderson had been preparing for were realised, and Anderson came under heavy attack in the press and the House of Commons over the issue of not providing deep shelters. On 8 October 1940, in a reshuffle precipitated by Chamberlain's resignation due to ill-health, Anderson was replaced byHerbert Morrison, a less able administrator, but a more adept politician. Anderson becameLord President of the Council and full member of theWar Cabinet.[67] The Lord President served as chairman of theLord President's Committee. This committee acted as a central clearing house which dealt with the country's economic problems. This was vital to the smooth running of the British war economy and consequently the entire British war effort. Anderson had no staff of his own, but used that of the War Cabinet, particularly its Economic Section. As chairman of the Manpower Committee, he controlled the allocation of the most critical of wartime resources: people.[68]
In 1941, Anderson began courtingAva Wigram, the daughter of the historianJohn Edward Courtenay Bodley,[69] and the widow ofRalph Wigram, a senior civil servant who served in the British Embassy in Paris during the 1930s and died in 1936. Their only child, Charles, was born severely disabled in 1929.[70] Anderson arranged with KingGeorge VI for himself and Ava to be married in theChapel Royal atSt James's Palace. The ceremony was officiated byEdward Woods, theBishop of Lichfield; Alastair Anderson was the best man; and while John's father felt that he was too old to travel, Mary and Katie Anderson were there, as was William Paterson. The newlyweds spent their honeymoon atPolesden Lacey. They now owned three houses between them, so they sold them and bought the Mill House atIsfield in September 1942.[71]
As Lord President of the Council, Anderson was the minister responsible for several scientific organisations, including theDepartment of Scientific and Industrial Research, theAgricultural Research Council and theMedical Research Council.[72] In August 1941, Anderson became the cabinet minister responsible for the oversight of the British project to build anatomic bomb, known as theTube Alloys project.[73] A special section of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was created to manage it, under the leadership ofWallace Akers. Anderson negotiated cooperation with the Americans at theSecond Washington Conference in June 1942, but after the establishment of theManhattan Project later that year cooperation broke down. In response to a request from the Americans, Anderson flew to Washington, D.C., on 1 August 1943 for negotiations withJames B. Conant andVannevar Bush. He had to reassure the Americans that Britain's interest was in winning the war, and not in profits to be made from nuclear energy afterwards. He then moved on to Canada for negotiations with officials there. The culmination of his efforts was the signing of theQuebec Agreement on 19 August 1943, which paved the way for theBritish contribution to the Manhattan Project.[74] In 1945 Anderson was elected aFellow of the Royal Society under Statute 12, which covered those who "rendered conspicuous service to the cause of science, and whose election would be of signal benefit to the Society".[21]
Following the unexpected death on 21 September 1943 of SirKingsley Wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Anderson was appointed to that office on 24 September. He retained responsibility for Tube Alloys, and his chairmanship of the Manpower Committee. As Chancellor, he introduced thepay-as-you-earn tax system that had been devised byPaul Chambers; the enabling legislation was to have been introduced by Wood on the day that he died. The system was very successful, and was gradually extended to all employers except the armed forces.[75] In a written Commons answer of 12 June 1945, he announced the creation of theArts Council of Great Britain, a successor body to the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA).[76]
In January 1945, Churchill wrote toKing George VI to advise that should he and his second-in-command (and heir apparent)Anthony Eden die during the war, John Anderson should become Prime Minister: "it is the Prime Minister's duty to advise Your Majesty to send for Sir John Anderson in the event of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary being killed." Although not a member of a political party, Churchill thought Anderson had the abilities to lead the National Government, and that an independent figure was essential to the maintenance of the coalition.[77] During theYalta Conference Anderson opposed the Soviet Union's demands forwar reparations from Germany because of the roleWorld War I reparations played in the Great Depression and the collapse of theWeimar Republic.[78]
AfterGermany surrendered on 7 May 1945,[79] Churchill unsuccessfully attempted to broker a continuation of the wartime coalition government until after the end of the war with Japan, which was thought at the time to be over a year away. On 23 May Churchill then submitted his resignation to the King, who called an election for 5 July. Anderson retained his role of Chancellor of the Exchequer in theChurchill caretaker ministry, and remained in the post until theLabour victory in thegeneral election in July 1945. He was returned in his Scottish University electorate, along with Sir John Graham Kerr and SirJohn Boyd Orr.[80]On 29 June 1945, Churchill had initialled a minute from Anderson, seeking "authority to instruct our representatives on theCombined Policy Committee to give their concurrence for the use of the atomic bomb against Japan."[81] After thebombing of Hiroshima, Anderson gave a broadcast on theBBC Home Service on 7 August 1945 in which he described the challenges and potentialities of nuclear energy in layman's terms.[82]
The new Prime Minister,Clement Attlee, appointed Anderson the chairman of the new Advisory Committee on Atomic Energy on 14 August 1945. On 9 November, he accompanied Attlee to Washington, D.C., for talks on atomic energy with PresidentHarry S. Truman and Canadian Prime MinisterMackenzie King. Talks took place on thepresidential yachtUSS Williamsburg. The President and the two Prime Ministers were joined by Anderson; the President'sChief of Staff,Fleet AdmiralWilliam D. Leahy; theUnited States Secretary of State,James F. Byrnes;Lord Halifax; andLester B. Pearson. They agreed to continue the Combined Policy Committee and theCombined Development Trust, and agreed to collaborate, but the Americans soon made it clear that this extended only to basic research. The 1946McMahon Act ended all cooperation on nuclear weapons. On 7 January 1948, with the post-warBritish atomic weapons project in full swing and being managed by other committees, Anderson tendered his resignation from the Advisory Committee.[83]
Anderson left the Commons on 23 February 1950 at thegeneral election, when the university constituencies were abolished. He declined offers from theUlster Unionist Party to contest asafe seat in Northern Ireland, and from Churchill to contest the blue-ribbonConservative Party seat ofEast Surrey. Atthe Boat Race 1951, Attlee tried to get Ava to persuade Anderson to accept apeerage, but Anderson still hoped thatuniversity constituencies would be restored and he could contest his old seat. He rejected an offer to become theChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in Churchill's peacetime administration when it was formed in October 1951;[84] Churchill had wanted Anderson to be an "overlord" of the Exchequer, Board of Trade and Supply, but he declined thinking such an arrangement inappropriate in peacetime.[85] He was createdViscount Waverley, ofWestdean in theCounty of Sussex, on 29 January 1952.[86]
Meanwhile, Anderson had become Chairman of thePort of London Authority in 1946 and Chairman of theRoyal Opera House in March the same year. He also became a director of theCanadian Pacific Railway and theHudson's Bay Company. He resumed his membership of the boards of ICI, Vickers and the Employers' Life Assurance Corporation that he had given up when he became a minister, but not the Midland Bank, which in those days would have been considered improper for a former Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Port of London Authority chairman had often been part time and unpaid in the past, but now that a full-time role was called for Anderson insisted on being paid, and was given an annual salary of £7,500 (equivalent to £393,000 in 2023). The job was an immense one, as the port had been badly damaged by bombing during the war, and a major reconstruction effort was called for. Ava used the Port Authority's yacht, theSt Katharine, to hold party cruises on the river around theLondon Docks for special guests, and invitations were highly sought after.[70][87][88]
In addition to British honours and awards, Anderson received many awards from other countries. These included being made a Grand Officer of theLegion of Honour by France; a Commander of theOrder of the Crown of Italy; the Knight Grand Cross of theOrder of St Olav of Norway, theOrder of the North Star of Sweden, of theMilitary Order of Christ of Portugal, and theOrder of the Dannebrog of Denmark. He was awarded an honoraryD.C.L. byOxford University, and honoraryD.Sc. byMcGill University, and honoraryLL.D. by the University of Edinburgh,University of Aberdeen,University of Cambridge,University of St Andrews,University of Liverpool,University of Leeds,University of Sheffield and theUniversity of London, and was an Honorary Fellow ofGonville and Caius College, Cambridge.[21] It was intended that he should be awarded theOrder of Merit in the1958 New Year Honours but an operation on 17 August 1957 revealed that he hadpancreatic cancer, and it was feared he would not live long enough to receive it, so QueenElizabeth II made an immediate award, which was conferred at his hospital bed.[89][90] He died on 4 January 1958 in St Thomas' Hospital,[91] and was buried in the churchyard in Westdean.[92]
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Chairman,Board of Inland Revenue 1919–1922 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by James Macmahon Macmahon also remained Joint Under-Secretary | Joint Permanent Under-Secretary to theLord Lieutenant of Ireland 1920–1922 | Office abolished |
| Preceded by | Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office 1922–1932 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of Bengal 1932–1937 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCombined Scottish Universities 1938–1950 | Constituency abolished |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Lord Privy Seal 1938–1939 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Home Secretary 1939–1940 | Succeeded by |
| New office | Minister of Home Security 1939–1940 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lord President of the Council 1940–1943 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Exchequer 1943–1945 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Viscount Waverley 1952–1958 | Succeeded by |
Caretaker Cabinet ofWinston Churchill (May–July 1945) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| People | |
| Other | |
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