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The Lord Parmoor | |
|---|---|
 Parmoor in 1940 | |
| Leader of the House of Lords | |
| In office 7 June 1929 – 24 August 1931 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | The Marquess of Salisbury |
| Succeeded by | The Marquess of Reading |
| Lord President of the Council | |
| In office 7 June 1929 – 24 August 1931 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Balfour |
| Succeeded by | Stanley Baldwin |
| In office 22 January 1924 – 3 November 1924 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | The Marquess of Salisbury |
| Succeeded by | The Marquess Curzon of Kedleston |
| Member of theHouse of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| In office 16 January 1914 – 30 June 1941 Hereditary Peerage | |
| Preceded by | Peerage created |
| Succeeded by | The 2nd Lord Parmoor |
| Member of Parliament forWycombe | |
| In office 10 February 1910 – 16 January 1914 | |
| Preceded by | Arnold Herbert |
| Succeeded by | William Baring du Pré |
| Member of Parliament forStretford | |
| In office 26 February 1901 – 8 February 1906 | |
| Preceded by | Sir John Maclure, 1st Baronet |
| Succeeded by | Harry Nuttall |
| Member of Parliament forStroud | |
| In office 7 August 1895 – 24 October 1900 | |
| Preceded by | David Brynmor Jones |
| Succeeded by | Charles Allen |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1852-10-03)3 October 1852 |
| Died | 30 June 1941(1941-06-30) (aged 88) |
| Nationality | British |
| Party | Conservative Labour |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Theresa Potter (d. 1893) (2)Marian Ellis (d. 1952) |
| Children | 4, includingStafford |
| Relatives | Peggy Cripps (granddaughter) Kwame Anthony Appiah (great-grandson) |
| Alma mater | New College, Oxford |
Charles Alfred Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor,KCVO, PC, KC (3 October 1852 – 30 June 1941) was aBritish politician whocrossed the floor from theConservative to theLabour Party and was a strong supporter of theLeague of Nations and ofChurch of England causes.
Cripps was born in 1852 inWest Ilsley,Berkshire,[1] the third son of Henry William Cripps, a wealthybarrister andQueen's Counsel fromBerkshire. He attendedWinchester College from 1866 andNew College, Oxford, from 1871, both on scholarships,[2] and won four first classes atOxford. At the end of his undergraduate years he was awarded a Fellowship atSt John's College, Oxford, which he held for six years.
He was called to the Bar from theMiddle Temple in 1877 and went into practice as abarrister. In 1890 he became aQueen's Counsel and in 1893 aBencher of the Middle Temple. He was appointed as Attorney-General to thePrince of Wales in 1895, an appointment he retained until 1914 under two further Princes, the future George V in 1901[3] and the future Edward VIII in 1910; his personal service to the royal family was rewarded in 1908 with a knighthood in theRoyal Victorian Order.
Cripps later claimed to have been a supporter of theLiberal Party, but in deference to his die-hard Conservative father, he declined to get involved in politics. However he sided with the Unionists over the issue of home rule for Ireland and was elected as aUnionist toParliament forStroud in 1895,[4] where he was a member of the South Africa Commission (investigating theJameson Raid). He lost his seat in 1900, but soon returned in a by-election as MP forStretford.[4]
As a devoutAnglican of thehigh church tradition, Cripps was very active in church affairs and was appointedVicar-General ofYork in 1900 and ofCanterbury in 1902. He again lost his seat in theLiberal landslide victory of 1906, but was elected forWycombe (the constituency which included the family home) in 1910.[5] He received apeerage from the Liberal government in 1914 and took the titleBaron Parmoor, of Frieth in the County of Buckingham,[6] from the family estate.
During theFirst World War he headed a committee determining compensation for damage caused by German air raids. Although not a judge, he was specially appointed to thePrivy Council[7] and to itsJudicial Committee, and was among the members of it which ruled on the case ofThe Zamora (1916),[8] concerning the owner's rights on requisition of a neutral cargo ship, which he later considered, when sitting as a member of theJudicial Committee of the House of Lords on the government's appeal concerning an owner's entitlement to compensation for requisition of a London hotel, in the case ofA-G v De Keyser's Royal Hotel Ltd (1920).
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Parmoor considered that his elevation to the peerage in a semi-judicial role had removed any previous political affiliations. The war had a profound effect on Parmoor's political views, as he considered the decision to go to war a disaster. He opposedconscription and sympathised withconscientious objectors, who he thought were subject to excessive punishment.
In the aftermath of war, he became very active in international causes, setting up the 'Fight the Famine Council' which had as its secondary objective the establishment of a League of Nations. The organisation was non-partisan but severaltrade unions and senior members of theLabour Party took part. When the NationalChurch Assembly was established in 1920 to govern theChurch of England, Parmoor was elected to theHouse of Laity and became its first chairman.
Parmoor approved of the statement on peace in the Labour Party's 1923 election manifesto. After the election, with a Labour government in prospect, he received a letter fromRamsay MacDonald inviting him to join it. Parmoor wrote that he "should rejoice in the formation of a Labour Government under your leadership". He was madeLord President of the Council and jointLeader of the House of Lords withViscount Haldane, with the difficult job of piloting government legislation through a House in which it had minimal support. Although the government lost practically every vote, Parmoor was able to persuade the opposition that they would lose support by wrecking the whole legislative programme. Macdonald, who was serving as his ownForeign Secretary, also chose Parmoor as British representative to the Council of theLeague of Nations, and to its Assembly in September 1924.
After the end of the Labour government, Parmoor remained active in the House of Lords, and when Haldane died in 1928, was elected Leader of the Labour Peers. He served again asLord President of the Council with special responsibility for League of Nations affairs in the second Labour government of 1929–1931, despite his advanced age of 76 at reappointment. He remained with the Labour Party when MacDonald formed theNational Government in August 1931, disapproving of MacDonald's actions on constitutional grounds, but stepped down as Leader of the Labour Peers at the dissolution of Parliament on 7 October.
In 1881, Charles Cripps married Theresa Potter, daughter of the Radical MPRichard Potter and sister ofBeatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, andCatherine Courtney, Baroness Courtney of Penwith.
Of the four sons of the marriage, the elder two, Alfred and Frederick, succeeded in turn to the peerage, the third son, Leonard, had a military career, and the youngest,Stafford, became a prominent political figure in the 1930s and 1940s. Charles' only daughter Ruth married the chemist,Sir Alfred Egerton.
Theresa died in 1893. In 1919, Lord Parmoor marriedMarian Ellis; there were no children of the marriage. Lord Parmoor died in June 1941, aged 88. His second wife died in July 1952.[citation needed]
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| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forStroud 1895–1900 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forStretford 1901–1906 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forWycombe 1910–1914 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Lord President of the Council 1924 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lord President of the Council 1929–1931 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the House of Lords 1929–1931 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords 1928–1931 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Parmoor 1914–1941 | Succeeded by Alfred Cripps |
