Hubert Carr-Gomm | |
|---|---|
 Hubert Carr-Gomm in 1919 | |
| Member of Parliament forRotherhithe | |
| In office 1906 – 25 November 1918 | |
| Preceded by | John Macdona |
| Succeeded by | John Lort-Williams |
| Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister | |
| In office 1906–1908 | |
| Prime Minister | Henry Campbell-Bannerman |
| Preceded by | position established |
| Succeeded by | Geoffrey Howard |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Hubert William Culling Carr-Gomm (1877-06-20)20 June 1877 India |
| Died | 21 January 1939(1939-01-21) (aged 61) Tenerife |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse(s) | Kathleen Rome(m. 1906–1913, divorce) Eleanor Russell(m. 1916) |
| Education | Eton College |
| Alma mater | Oriel College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Publisher |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Branch/service | British Army |
| Years of service | 1898–1907 and 1914–1918 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | Volunteer Battalion of theQueen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) 2/22nd Battalion,The London Regiment (The Queen's) |
| Battles/wars | First World War |
Hubert William Culling Carr-Gomm (20 June 1877 – 21 January 1939) was a BritishLiberal politician and publisher.[1]
Carr-Gomm's family came fromFarnham Royal inBuckinghamshire but his father, Francis Culling Carr (1834–1919) was a member of theIndian Civil Service and District Judge ofTinnevelly so Hubert was born in India.[2] In the year that he was born, his mother, Emily Blanche Carr, was bequeathed by her aunt, Lady Elizabeth Ann Gomm (1807-1877), all the estates of her late husband, Field Marshal SirWilliam Maynard Gomm (1784-1875), on the proviso that the family assumed the name of Gomm in addition to Carr.[3] Upon the death of his mother in 1909 he inherited these estates.[4] Hubert was educated atEton andOriel College, Oxford where he graduated with anMA in Modern History in 1900. Between 1898 and 1907 he served in the Volunteer Battalion of theQueen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey).[5] In 1909 he was appointed aJustice of the Peace for Buckinghamshire[6] In 1906 he married Kathleen Rome. This marriage ended in divorce in 1913 because of his wife's adultery withEliot Crawshay-Williams, Liberal MP forLeicester, who was married with two children. It was a considerable scandal not least because, according to the poet and writerLucy Masterman, the wife of another Liberal MP,Charles Masterman, Carr-Gomm and Crawshay-Williams had been friends at school, college and in politics. It ruined Crawshay-Williams’ political career.[7] Carr-Gomm was remarried in 1916 to Eleanor Russell the daughter of abarrister of theInner Temple.
Carr-Gomm was for a time Secretary of the London Liberal Federation and in the1906 general election he was elected Liberal MP forRotherhithe. He held the seat until 1918. From 1906 to 1908 he was Assistant Private Secretary to Liberal Prime MinisterSir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. At the1918 general election Carr-Gomm was again adopted by the Rotherhithe Liberals but was not one of those candidates favoured with thegovernment coupon. This was instead bestowed on hisConservative opponentJohn Rolleston Lort-Williams who was successfully returned. Carr-Gomm fought Rotherhithe once more in1922 but again lost to Lort-Williams. In the1923 general election he switched to being Liberal candidate forPaddington South but lost to the sittingUnionist MP,Douglas King.
Carr-Gomm continued to take an interest in political questions after leaving Parliament. In 1922 he wrote toThe Times, perhaps unsurprisingly condemning the thenDavid Lloyd George-led government as being a coalition around one man or one set of men rather than around established parties and ideas.[8] In 1936 he privately published a pamphlet calling for a system ofproportional representation to be used in municipal elections in London where local government wards were ideal for its introduction.[9]
In theGreat War, Carr-Gomm served in France andSalonika as a Captain in the2/22nd Battalion,The London Regiment (The Queen's). After landing in Salonika in 1917, Carr-Gomm was appointed to command the Second Entrenching Battalion.[10] In 1921, the publisherJohn Lane who had been the co-founder of the imprintBodley Head set up a successor company and Carr-Gomm became one of the directors.
In later life Carr-Gomm and his second wife lived at Tile House,Seaford, East Sussex. While travelling in theCanary Islands he contractedpneumonia and died on 21 January 1939 inTenerife, aged 61.[5] A small collection of photo-copied papers consisting of recollections of Parliament, three letters fromWinston Churchill and a note by Carr-Gomm on his father and the treatment of the Indians by the rubber companies inPutumayo,Peru are deposited in the archive of the London School of Economic and Political Science.[11]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forRotherhithe 1906 –1918 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Office established | Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister 1906–1908 | Succeeded by |