Stanley Baldwin

Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC, ( born August 3, 1867 in Bewdley, Worcestershire, † December 14 1947 in Astley Hall, near Stourport -on-Severn ) was one of the most influential conservative politicians in Britain in the interwar period. In the years 1923-1937 he held, among others, three times prime minister.

Life

Rise and first term

In 1908 the industrialist Stanley Baldwin was elected to succeed his father Alfred Baldwin ( 1841-1908 ) MP for the constituency in the House of Bewdley. In the Tory party, he made a name for himself as a representative of a strictly conservative, industry-friendly course.

First government experience was gained since 1917 as Deputy Chancellor of the Exchequer in the war cabinet of the last Liberal prime minister David Lloyd George. In 1921 he was appointed Minister of Commerce. The following year, Baldwin was instrumental in the downfall of Lloyd George. Meanwhile, conservative successor Andrew Bonar Law made ​​him his chancellor of the exchequer. As Bonar Law in 1923 resigned his office for health reasons, Baldwin was elected as a leading politician of the Tories as the new prime minister. In negotiations with the U.S. at that time he tried in vain to reach a decree of British debt from the time of the First World War.

Second Term

After an interruption - from January to November 1924, the term of the first Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald - Baldwin was up to the general election on May 3, 1929 Prime Minister. ( More details here May 4 - November 30, 1926 ) In this time of great general strike was in 1926. Unlike the beginning of his political career, he now advocated for a moderate policy with the balance of interests of the workers. Against the resistance of parts of his own party (about Winston Churchill ), he tried to be unemployment through protective tariffs Lord and pleaded for cooperation between employers and trade unions in arbitration commissions.

Third term

After the elections of 1929, first leader of the opposition, he entered in 1931 again as Lord President of the Council in the second cabinet MacDonald. Baldwin was considered a gray eminence of the cabinet, whose policies he primary feature a 'silent Premier ". In 1935, he took over the office for the third time officially.

In the abdication crisis to King Edward VIII Baldwin kicked strongly in favor of an abdication of the monarch. The main reason was not his reservations about Edwards planned marriage to the divorced American Wallis Simpson, but against the uncritical attitude of the king of Hitler's Germany and the autocratic tendencies Edwards. After retiring from office in 1937, Baldwin proved to be a sharp critic of the appeasement policy of his successor, Arthur Neville Chamberlain.

On his departure from office Baldwin was raised as Earl Baldwin of Bewdley in the hereditary nobility. His urn was buried in Worcester Cathedral.

About Baldwin

" Baldwin knew little about Europe and the little that he knew displeased him. "

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