Stanley Baldwin
Three-time British Conservative Prime Minister (1867-1947)
Also known as: Baldwin, Stanley Baldwin, Lord Baldwin, Earl Baldwin of Bewdley
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (1867-1947), was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times between 1923 and 1937 — the dominant domestic political figure of the inter-war British scene. Quigley treats him as the political ground on which the The Milner Group's policy line was implemented: a Worcestershire ironmaster turned Conservative ('like Baldwin and Chamberlain') who 'displayed a more complete grasp of the forms than of the substance of the old aristocratic attitude' (T&H 479).
Three premierships
Baldwin succeeded Bonar Law in May 1923 and led the Conservatives through three premierships interrupted by short Labour governments: May 1923-January 1924, November 1924-June 1929, and June 1935-May 1937. His December 1923 general election (over tariff reform) cost him his majority; he won decisively in 1924 (after the Zinoviev Letter), governed through the 1926 General Strike, lost in 1929 to MacDonald, returned to office in 1935, and managed the Abdication Crisis of December 1936 before retiring in 1937. Quigley summarizes the chronological frame: 'Bonar Law October 1922-May 1923; Stanley Baldwin May 1923-January 1924; Ramsey MacDonald January 1924-November 1924; Second Baldwin November 1924-June 1929; Second MacDonald June 1929-August 1931; National Government (MacDonald) August 1931-June 1935; Third Baldwin June 1935-May 1937' (T&H 497).
Baldwin and the Group
Quigley does not place Baldwin in the The Milner Group but treats him as a Conservative leader whose Cabinets were heavily staffed by Group and Cecil Bloc insiders. The 1923 Washington Conference delegation: 'The four delegates from the United Kingdom were of the Cecil Bloc (Lord Salisbury, Curzon, and the Duke of Devonshire), the other being Prime Minister Baldwin' (AAE 131). The 1932 Ottawa Imperial Economic Conference and Imperial Conference of 1937: 'five were from the Milner Group (Lord Halifax, Sir John Simon, Malcolm MacDonald, W. G. A. Ormsby-Gore, and Sir Samuel Hoare). The others were Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain, and J. Ramsay MacDonald' (AAE 132). On the famous protest against the 1930 White Paper on Palestine: 'Baldwin, Austen Chamberlain, and Leopold Amery protested against the document in a letter to The Times on 30 October 1930' (AAE 144).
1926 General Strike
Quigley uses Baldwin's handling of the 1926 General Strike as a window onto the relationship between political authority and economic interest: 'In 1926 Prime Minister Baldwin had a direct personal interest in the outcome of the coal strike and of the General Strike, since he held 194,526 ordinary shares and 37,501 preferred shares of Baldwin's, Ltd., which owned great collieries' (T&H 487). The government 'issued its own news bulletin (the British Gazette under Churchill), used the British Broadcasting Corporation to attack the unions' (T&H 500). The strike was broken in nine days. Quigley reads this as characteristic of the new business-class Tory leadership style: less ideological than the old Cecil-and-Salisbury Conservatism, more pragmatically aligned with bank and industrial interest.
Hoare-Laval and the appeasement decade
Baldwin's third government (1935-1937) presided over the Hoare-Laval Pact crisis, the abdication of Edward VIII, and the early stages of the appeasement consensus that would define Chamberlain's premiership. 'To save his government, Baldwin had to sacrifice Hoare, who resigned on December 19th' 1935 (T&H 589). Quigley summarizes the inter-war moral hindsight: 'We now have two villains (Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain) and two heroes (Eden and Churchill)... not because the former pair shared correct ideas at the time (in fact they disagreed on much), but simply because their advice was not followed' (Book Reviews, 156). Baldwin retired in 1937 and died in 1947.
Cited in
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 27 Quigley
Maurice Hankey, the fourth Marquess of Salisbury, Lord Lansdowne, Bishop Henson, Halifax, Stanley Baldwin, Austen Chamberlain, Lord Carnock, and Lord Hewart.
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 132 Quigley
five were from the Milner Group (Lord Halifax, Sir John Simon, Malcolm MacDonald, W. G. A. Ormsby-Gore, and Sir Samuel Hoare). The others were Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain, and J. Ramsay MacDonald.
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 144 Quigley
Baldwin, Austen Chamberlain, and Leopold Amery protested against the document in a letter to The Times on 30 October 1930.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 477 Quigley
Sir Austen Chamberlain and Stanley (Lord) Baldwin were agreed that ''unconstitutional' is a term applied in politics to the other fellow who does something that you do not like.'
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 487 Quigley
In 1926 Prime Minister Baldwin had a direct personal interest in the outcome of the coal strike and of the General Strike, since he held 194,526 ordinary shares and 37,501 preferred shares of Baldwin's, Ltd., which owned great collieries.
- book-reviews · p. 156 Quigley
two villains (Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain) and two heroes (Eden and Churchill). The latter pair have now given their own versions of events, while the other two are defended by biographers, Baldwin by his son in 1955 and Chamberlain by Ian Macleod last year.