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J. R. Clynes

 
Political Biography: John Robert Clynes

(b. Lancashire, 27 Mar. 1869; d. 23 Oct. 1949) British; Home Secretary 1929 – 31, leader of Parliamentary Labour Party 1921 – 2, deputy leader 1922 – 31 A gravedigger's son, Clynes left school at 11 to become a textile worker and later a trade union official. He was president of the National Union of Gasworkers and General Labourers from 1912 to 1937.

Clynes was a member of both the Independent Labour Party and the Labour Party from their inception and was on the latter's National Executive Committee from 1909 to 1939. He sat in the Commons with only a four-year break from 1906 to 1945. In 1917 he became Minister of Food in David Lloyd George's wartime coalition government. After the war he was elected deputy leader and then, in 1921, leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party. But he lacked charisma and was replaced as leader by Ramsay MacDonald in 1922. He then resumed the deputy leadership.

Clynes held office in the inter-war two minority Labour governments: as Lord Privy Seal (1924) and Home Secretary (1929 – 31). Neither post reflected his true importance; he was actually one of the most influential figures in both administrations.

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Wikipedia: J. R. Clynes
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The Right Honourable
 John Robert Clynes


In office
8 June 1929 – 26 August 1931
Preceded by Sir William Joynson-Hicks
Succeeded by Sir Herbert Samuel

Born 27 March 1869
Oldham, England
Died 23 October 1949 (aged 80)
London, England
Political party Labour

John Robert Clynes (27 March 1869 – 23 October 1949) was a British trade unionist and Labour Party politician. He was a Member of Parliament for 35 years, and led the party in its breakthrough at the 1922 general election.

The son of the labourer, Patrick Clynes, he was born in Oldham on 27 March 1869 and began work in a local cotton mill when he was 10 years old. At 16 he wrote a series of articles about child labour in the textile industry and in 1886 he helped form the Piercers' Union. In 1892, Clynes became an organiser for the Lancashire Gasworkers' Union and came in contact with the Fabian Society. He joined the Independent Labour Party and attended the 1900 conference that formed the Labour Representation Committee which became the Labour Party.

Clynes stood for the new party in the 1906 general election and was elected to Parliament for Manchester North East becoming one of Labour's bright stars and was elected vice-chairman of the party in 1910. During the First World War Clynes was a supporter of British military involvement and in 1917 became Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Food Control in the Lloyd George coalition government, and Minister of Food Control in 1918.

Clynes became leader of the party following the war and led it through its major breakthrough in the 1922 general election when Labour went from 52 seats to 142.

Ramsay MacDonald had resigned as Labour leader in 1914 due to his wartime pacifism and lost his seat in the 1918 general election. MacDonald returned to the House of Commons in 1922. MacDonald's pacifism had been forgiven and when the newly titled position of "Leader of the Labour Party" and "Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party" was elected, Clynes was narrowly beaten by MacDonald.

When MacDonald became Prime Minister he made Clynes the party's leader in the Commons until the government was defeated in 1924. In the second MacDonald government of 1929–1931, Clynes served as Home Secretary. In 1931, Clynes sided with Arthur Henderson and George Lansbury against MacDonald's support for austerity measures to deal with the Great Depression and split with MacDonald when he left Labour to form a National Government. Clynes was one of Labour's casualties in the 1931 election, losing his Manchester Platting seat, but he regained the constituency in 1935 and remained in the House of Commons until his retirement in 1945.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir James Fergusson
Member of Parliament for Manchester North East
19061918
Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Manchester Platting
19181931
Succeeded by
Alan Ernest Leofric Chorlton
Preceded by
Alan Ernest Leofric Chorlton
Member of Parliament for Manchester Platting
19351945
Succeeded by
Hugh James Delargy
Political offices
Preceded by
The Lord Rhondda
Minister of Food Control
1918–1919
Succeeded by
George Henry Roberts
Preceded by
The Viscount Cecil of Chelwood
Lord Privy Seal
1924
Succeeded by
The Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded by
Sir William Joynson-Hicks
Home Secretary
1929–1931
Succeeded by
Sir Herbert Samuel
Party political offices
Preceded by
William Adamson
Chairman of the British Labour Party
1921–1922
Succeeded by
Ramsay MacDonald

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Political Biography. A Dictionary of Political Biography. Copyright © 1998, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "J. R. Clynes" Read more