Stanley Baldwin | prime minister of United Kingdom | Britannica.com
prime minister of United Kingdom
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Alternative Titles: Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, Viscount Corvedale of Corvedale, Stanley Baldwin, Viscount Corvedale of Corvedale
Stanley Baldwin
Prime minister of United Kingdom
Also known as
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, Viscount Corvedale of Corvedale
Stanley Baldwin, Viscount Corvedale of Corvedale
born
Sir Winston Churchill
Stanley Baldwin, (born Aug. 3, 1867, Bewdley, Worcestershire , Eng.—died Dec. 14, 1947, Astley Hall, near Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire [now in Hereford and Worcester]), British Conservative politician, three times prime minister between 1923 and 1937; he headed the government during the General Strike of 1926, the Ethiopian crisis of 1935, and the abdication crisis of 1936.
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, 1932.
Bassano and Vandyk
A relative of the author Rudyard Kipling and the painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Baldwin was the only son of Alfred Baldwin, chairman of the Great Western Railway and head of a large concern that included iron and steel manufactories and collieries. Young Baldwin was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College , Cambridge. He managed his father’s diversified heavy industries for several years. From 1908 to 1937 he was a member of the House of Commons .
In December 1916 he became parliamentary private secretary to Andrew Bonar Law , chancellor of the Exchequer in David Lloyd George’s World War I coalition ministry. From 1917 to 1921 Baldwin served as financial secretary of the treasury, and in 1921 he became president of the Board of Trade . In October 1922, Bonar Law and Baldwin induced a majority of the Conservative members of Parliament to repudiate Lloyd George’s coalition. Baldwin was then appointed chancellor of the Exchequer in the new Conservative government headed by Bonar Law. Sent to Washington, D.C., in January 1923 to settle the British World War I debt to the United States , Baldwin was widely criticized at home for negotiating terms less favourable to Great Britain than had been expected. When ill health forced Bonar Law to retire from his position, it nonetheless was Baldwin whom King George V asked, on May 22, 1923, to form a government. For six months, in the face of uneasy developments abroad, such as the Italian seizure of Corfu, and mounting unemployment at home, Baldwin’s government pursued a tranquil course. In October he appealed for a mandate to reverse Bonar Law’s free-trade policy; but a mandate was refused, and Baldwin’s first ministry ended Jan. 22, 1924.
Baldwin returned to office Nov. 4, 1924, following the downfall of the first Labour prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald . The economic reforms—including the restoration of the wartime McKenna duties (a 40-percent income tax and a 50-percent excess-profits tax), the gold standard, and the silk tax—proposed by Baldwin’s appointee to the Exchequer, Winston Churchill , failed to prevent a further slump in the coal trade. When the miners went on strike (May 4, 1926) and they were supported with sympathetic strikes in other vital industries, Baldwin proclaimed a state of emergency, organized volunteers to maintain essential services, and refused to negotiate further with labour until the strike was called off (it ended May 12, 1926). The following year he secured passage of the antiunion Trade Disputes Act .
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Stanley Baldwin - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
(1867-1947). Three times British prime minister between 1923 and 1937, Stanley Baldwin headed the government during the general strike of 1926, the Ethiopian crisis of 1935, and the abdication crisis of 1936. In the general strike (May 4-12, 1926) the Conservative Baldwin proclaimed a state of emergency. He organized volunteers to maintain essential services and refused to negotiate with labor leaders until the strike ended. In December 1935 a British-French agreement allowed Italy to conquer Ethiopia and brought immediate public criticism of Baldwin’s government. The following year he skillfully handled the constitutional crisis that culminated in the abdication of King Edward VIII.
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