William Sampson Cluse (20 December 1875 – 8 September 1955) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Labour Party politician. Born in Islington, he was orphaned at the age of five, by the time he was eleven Cluse was working part-time. At the age of fifteen he was

apprenticed Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

to the printing trade. In 1900 he entered politics, joining the Social Democratic Federation. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Following the war he entered local government when he was elected to Islington Borough Council as a Labour Party councillor representing Tollington Ward in 1919. At the 1922 municipal elections he was elected to the council again, this time as a representative of St Peter's Ward. At the 1923 general election he was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for Islington South. Re-elected twice, he lost his seat at the 1931 general election. He regained the seat in 1935, retiring from parliament at the 1950 general election. He held a minor post in the war-time coalition government as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Transport and then to the

Minister of Aircraft Production The Minister of Aircraft Production was, from 1940 to 1945, the British government minister at the Ministry of Aircraft Production, one of the specialised supply ministries set up by the British Government during World War II. It was responsible ...

. On 17 December 1942, Anthony Eden, the foreign secretary, gave the first formal news of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

to the House of Commons. Cluse, an infrequent speaker, suggested that members "rise in their places" to observe a minute of silent protest. They did. He married Alice Louise Warner in 1902 and the couple had two children.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cluse, William Sampson 1875 births 1955 deaths UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs 1945–1950 Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies London Society of Compositors-sponsored MPs Members of Islington Metropolitan Borough Council British republicans