Guy Molesworth Kindersley (28 February 1876 – 30 November 1956) was a

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

who represented

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire Districts of England, district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842. History Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce peopl ...

, Hertfordshire. Kindersley was the son of Edward Nassau Molesworth Kindersley and his wife Ada Good Murray and brother of Lord Kindersley. He was educated at

Windlesham House School Windlesham House School is an independent boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 4 to 13 on the South Downs, in Pulborough, West Sussex, England. It was founded in 1837 by Charles Robert Malden and was the first boys' preparatory school ...

and

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Founded in 1843 for the sons of Church ...

. He became a stockbroker and was a Major in the army. In the 1923 general election he was elected as MP for Hitchin and retained the seat in

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

. He inadvertently played a major part in this Conservative victory. He was explosively anti-Communist and was used in the matter of the Zinoviev letter. A former MI5 agent and a director of a City company, took the forged letter to Kindersley, his "trusted friend in the City", just before the 1924 election. Kindersley, unaware of the plot, took the letter to the

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

, and its publication is said to have had devastating results for the Labour Party at the 1924 election. Kindersley retained the safe seat in the 1929 general election.

Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Caricatured as "Supermac", he ...

, later Prime Minister, had lost his seat at that election and was looking at Hitchin as a safer seat, knowing that Kindersley was planning to retire. However Macmillan wrote a letter of support for

Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...

and an attack on the Baldwin government because it would not implement a programme of public works to tackle unemployment. Kindersley told him not to do it again, and when Macmillan refused to back down, Kindersley announced he would fight the seat again, thus scuppering Macmillan's chances. In the event he did resign his seat at 1931 general election (and Macmillan was returned at his old seat at Stockton). Kindersley married Kathleen Agnes Rhoda Elton 21 Jan. 1905. She was the daughter of the Arts and Crafts potter Sir Edmund Elton. Their son

David Kindersley David Guy Barnabas Kindersley Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, MBE (11 June 1915 – 2 February 1995) was a British stone Letter cutting, letter-carver and typeface designer, and the founder of the Kindersley Workshop (la ...

became an engraver and script designer.

References

*Francis Beckett ''Macmillan'' 2006 Haus Publishing

External links

Portrait in the National Gallery Collection

Letter about the Zinoviev letter The Independent 11 February 1999
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kindersley, Guy Molesworth 1876 births 1956 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 Guy People educated at Windlesham House School People educated at Marlborough College