The Earl of Swinton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations | |
| In office 24 November 1952 – 7 April 1955 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | The Marquess of Salisbury |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Home |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
| In office 31 October 1951 – 24 November 1952 | |
| Monarchs | George VI Elizabeth II |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Alexander of Hillsborough |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Woolton |
| Minister of Civil Aviation | |
| In office 8 October 1944 – 26 July 1945 | |
| Monarch | George VI |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | Post established |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Winster |
| Secretary of State for Air | |
| In office 7 June 1935 – 16 May 1938 | |
| Monarchs | George V Edward VIII George VI |
| Prime Minister | Stanley Baldwin Neville Chamberlain |
| Preceded by | The Marquess of Londonderry |
| Succeeded by | Kingsley Wood |
| Secretary of State for the Colonies | |
| In office 5 November 1931 – 7 June 1935 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | James Henry Thomas |
| Succeeded by | Malcolm MacDonald |
| President of the Board of Trade | |
| In office 25 August 1931 – 5 November 1931 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | William Graham |
| Succeeded by | Walter Runciman |
| In office 6 November 1924 – 4 June 1929 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | Stanley Baldwin |
| Preceded by | Sidney Webb |
| Succeeded by | William Graham |
| In office 24 October 1922 – 22 January 1924 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | Bonar Law Stanley Baldwin |
| Preceded by | Stanley Baldwin |
| Succeeded by | Sidney Webb |
| Secretary for Overseas Trade | |
| In office 1 April 1921 – 19 October 1922 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
| Preceded by | F G Kellaway |
| Succeeded by | Sir William Joynson-Hicks, Bt |
| Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade | |
| In office 22 August 1920 – 1 April 1921 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
| Preceded by | William Bridgeman |
| Succeeded by | William Mitchell-Thomson |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| In office 4 December 1935 – 27 July 1972 Hereditary peerage | |
| Preceded by | Peerage created |
| Succeeded by | The 2nd Earl of Swinton |
| Member of Parliament forHendon | |
| In office 14 December 1918 – 25 October 1935 | |
| Preceded by | constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Reginald Blair |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1884-05-01)1 May 1884 East Ayton,Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 27 July 1972(1972-07-27) (aged 88) |
| Resting place | Masham,Yorkshire, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | Mary Boynton (died 1974) |
| Alma mater | Winchester College |
Philip Cunliffe-Lister, 1st Earl of Swinton (1 May 1884 – 27 July 1972), known asPhilip Lloyd-Greame until 1924 and asThe Viscount Swinton between 1935 and 1955, was a prominent BritishConservative politician from the 1920s until the 1950s. He was notable through the 1940s and 1950s as being firstly the Minister for Aviation and then being on the steering committee for theConvention on International Civil Aviation. He retired from politics in 1955, and his status was raised to an earldom.
Beginning life asPhilip Lloyd-Greame, he was the younger son of Lieutenant-Colonel Yarburgh George Lloyd-Greame (1840–1928) ofSewerby House,Bridlington, Yorkshire, by his wife Dora Letitia O'Brien, a daughter of the Right ReverendJames Thomas O'Brien,Bishop of Ossory. His paternal grandfather was Yarburgh Gamaliel Lloyd, later Lloyd-Greame (1813–1890), who inherited Sewerby House by the will of his maternal uncle Yarburgh Greame, later Yarburgh (1782–1856).[1]
He was educated atWinchester College, an all-boyspublic school in Winchester. He studied law atUniversity College, Oxford, graduating with aBachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1905, then became anHonorary Fellow of his college and was admitted to theInner Temple in 1908.[2]
He joined the British Army in 1914, following the start of theFirst World War. He wasmentioned in despatches and promoted to the rank ofMajor. In 1916, he was awarded theMilitary Cross (MC) while serving on theWestern Front as abrigade major to the 124th Brigade of the41st Division. During the war, Cunliffe-Lister spent time withWinston Churchill at his advanced HQ Lawrence Farm.[3] They later worked together in theStanley Baldwin ministries of the 1920s, when Cunliffe-Lister served as a minister of state.[4] In 1917 he was appointed joint secretary to the Minister of National Service. He was noticed byDavid Lloyd George, who recruited the young man to be chairman of the Labour sub-committee of the war cabinet inDowning Street. At the end of the war, he stood as a Conservative candidate in theCoupon election of 1918.
He agreed to join the Coalition slate and was elected forHendon. He would hold this seat until his elevation to theHouse of Lords in 1935. His strong intellect was immediately recognizable as a member of the National Expenditure select committee scrutinizing the controversialMcKenna Duties andHomes Fit For Heroes, after which in 1920 he wasknighted.[5]
He achieved his first ministerial post as AdditionalUnder-Secretary Foreign Affairs in 1920 and took charge of the Overseas Trade Department in 1921 as Additional Parliamentary Secretary. In 1922 he became aPrivy Counsellor[6] and was appointedPresident of the Board of Trade, an office he would hold with two breaks until 1931. This fast elevation to the Cabinet came about because of the collapse of theLloyd George Coalition Government, which forced the new Prime MinisterBonar Law to promote many inexperienced MPs.
In 1923, Law was forced to resign due to failing health and there was discussion as to whether he would be succeeded byStanley Baldwin orLord Curzon. As the last survivor of Law's Cabinet, Lloyd-Greame would later assert that it was Cabinet hostility to Curzon that prevented his appointment as Prime Minister, when he returned from the Imperial Economic Council. On 27 November 1924 Lloyd-Greame changed his surname to Cunliffe-Lister so as to be able to inherit property from his wife's family. Raised toKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 1929.[7]
In 1931 Cunliffe-Lister was one of the Conservatives chosen to negotiate with the Labour Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald as the latter's government collapsed and was replaced by the multi-partyNational Government. As a sign of his prominence within the party, Cunliffe-Lister was one of just four Conservatives in the emergency Cabinet of 10, serving for the third and final time asPresident of the Board of Trade.
The National Government won a massive election victory in the1931 general election but was internally divided on the question ofprotective tariffs. So as to balance the Cabinet Cunliffe-Lister was replaced at the Board of Trade by the supposed Free TraderWalter Runciman, and instead becameSecretary of State for the Colonies, which he would hold until June 1935. When MacDonald retired as Prime Minister and was succeeded byStanley Baldwin a Cabinet reshuffle took place in which Cunliffe-Lister becameSecretary of State for Air. At the1935 general election he did not contest his seat and was instead ennobled asViscount Swinton,[8] retaining his ministerial office for the next three years into the premiership ofNeville Chamberlain he took the strategic post of Secretary of State for Air responsible for Britain air defences in the lead up to war.
He also seemingly served on the Home Security Executive during the war. Letters were exchange between himself and O.Allen Harker regarding the detention ofBarry Domvile.[9] KV2-834, National Archives.
As Swinton was now in theHouse of Lords his hands were free to be Chairman of the UK Commercial Corporation responsible for boosting enterprise and output. So Chamberlain appointed theChancellor of the Duchy of LancasterLord Winterton (an Irish peer who sat in theHouse of Commons) to speak for the Air Ministry in the Commons. This arrangement did not prove successful and in May 1938 there was a disastrous debate on air and it became clear to Chamberlain that the Secretary of State must sit in the House of Commons. Swinton was dismissed, his political career seemingly over.
After serving as Minister Resident in West Africa and being made aMember of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1943,[10] during theSecond World War Swinton's career revived when he was appointed as the firstMinister of Civil Aviation, a post he held until the end of the war. During 1944 he served on the executive committee and on the Steering Committee at theConvention on International Civil Aviation done in Chicago, formally representing the United Kingdom.[11]
WhenWinston Churchill formed his peacetime government in 1951 he appointed Swinton asChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for War Materials a year later. As Deputy Leader of the House of Lords, Lord Swinton was alsoSecretary of State for Commonwealth Relations for three years. When in 1955 Churchill retired, Swinton insisted on retiring too, and he was further ennobled as theEarl of Swinton.[12] Towards the end of his life, Swinton was anHonorary Fellow ofUniversity College, Oxford.[13]
Philip Lloyd-Greame married Mary Constance "Mollie" Boynton (died 1974) on 5 September 1912.[2] She was the granddaughter of industrialistSamuel Cunliffe-Lister, 1st Baron Masham who had boughtSwinton Park in 1882. In 1924, Philip and Molly Lloyd-Greame took the name of Cunliffe-Lister and moved to Swinton (sold in 1980 by the 2nd Earl and bought back 2000 by his nephew, Lord Masham and the latter's family).[14]
Their elder son, John, was killed in the Second World War, leaving two sons of his own, of whom the elder grandson succeeded his grandfather as the2nd Earl of Swinton, and was succeeded 2006 by his younger brother as the3rd Earl of Swinton. The third Earl has two sons, both of whom are now married.[15]
In theBBC miniseriesWinston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, Swinton was portrayed byWalter Gotell.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forHendon 1918–1935 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of the Board of Trade 1922–1924 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Board of Trade 1924–1929 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Board of Trade 1931 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for the Colonies 1931–1935 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Air 1935–1938 | Succeeded by |
| New office | Minister of Civil Aviation 1943–1945 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1951–1952 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations 1952–1955 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Senior Privy Counsellor 1965–1972 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Earl of Swinton 1955–1972 | Succeeded by |
| Viscount Swinton 1935–1972 | ||
| Baron Masham 3rd creation 1955–1972 | ||
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| People | |
| Other | |
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