The Right Honourable Sir Laming Worthington-Evans Bt GBE
Secretary of State for War
In office 13 February 1921 – 19 October 1922
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Winston Churchill
Succeeded by	The Earl of Derby
In office 6 November 1924 – 4 June 1929
Prime Minister	Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by	Stephen Walsh
Succeeded by	Tom Shaw
Personal details
Born	(1868-08-23)23 August 1868 Colchester
Died	14 February 1931(1931-02-14) (aged 62)
Nationality	British
Party	Conservative
Spouse	Gertrude Hale
Alma mater	None

Sir Worthington Laming Worthington-Evans, 1st Baronet (23 August 1868 – 14 February 1931) was a BritishConservative politician.

Born Laming Evans, he was the son of Worthington Evans and Susanah Laming. He assumed the prefix surname of Worthington by Royal Licence in 1916, although he had been calling himself Worthington Evans (without a hyphen) for many years. He trained as a solicitor.

Worthington-Evans was commissioned into the part-time2nd Middlesex Artillery Volunteers in 1891 and was promotedlieutenant in 1893 andcaptain in 1897. He served as temporary major in theFirst World War.

Worthington-Evans unsuccessfully contested theColchester constituency in1906. He won the seat inJanuary 1910.

Worthington-Evans was made aBaronet, of Colchester in the County of Essex, in 1916. He served inDavid Lloyd George's coalition government asParliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions from 1916 to 1918, and as Minister of Blockade (not a member of the small wartime War Cabinet) in 1918.

In 1919 he was sworn of thePrivy Council, and served in Lloyd George's Cabinet asMinister of Pensions from 1919 to 1920, asMinister without Portfolio from 1920 to 1921 and asSecretary of State for War from 1921 to 1922. Whilst Worthington-Evans was Secretary of State for War he famously said "If the Arab population realised that the peaceful control of Mesopotamia (Iraq) ultimately depends on our intention of bombing women and children, I’m very doubtful if we shall gain that acquiescence of the fathers and husbands of Mesopotamia to which the Secretary of State for the Colonies (Winston Churchill) looks forward." He was a member of the British delegation that negotiated theAnglo-Irish Treaty. He was one of the British delegates to theInternational Economic Conference at Genoa in 1922. He was appointed aGBE in 1922.

As with many Cabinet Ministers in the Lloyd George Coalition, Worthington-Evans declined office inBonar Law's new government whenLloyd George fell in October 1922. Alone amongst the "Coalition Conservatives" he accepted an invitation the following May when Law retired and was succeeded byStanley Baldwin. He served under Baldwin asPostmaster General between May 1923 and January 1924. He also served on various Cabinet Committees, including those relating to Northern Ireland and Unemployment. He became chairman of the latter in August 1923.

Worthington-Evans also served in Baldwin's second government (1924–29) as Secretary of State for War. He was a member of several Conservative and Unionist Party committees including the Policy committee which he chaired in 1927.

At the1929 United Kingdom general election he transferred to theLondon seat ofWestminster St George's. His death caused the1931 Westminster St George's by-election at which the seat was won byDuff Cooper, a result seen as an endorsement of the continued leadership ofStanley Baldwin.

He married Gertrude Hale in 1898 and had one son and one daughter. He died in February 1931, aged 62, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son, William. The papers of Worthington-Evans (from 1895 to 1931) are held at theBodleian Library,University of Oxford.

• Who Was Who
• Dictionary of National Biography
• Murray, PaulThe Irish Boundary Commission And Its Origins

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Laming Worthington-Evans

• Hansard 1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by Sir Laming Worthington-Evans
• Portraits of Laming Worthington-Evans at theNational Portrait Gallery, London
• Bodleian Library,holdings of personal papers
• Laming Worthington-Evans on 'How to Vote at the Election' - sound recording from the British Library

• 1868 births
• 1931 deaths
• Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
• Royal Artillery officers
• Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
• Secretaries of state for war (UK)
• Postmasters general of the United Kingdom
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• UK MPs 1923–1924
• UK MPs 1924–1929
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