Joseph King (31 March 1860 – 25 August 1943), was a British
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
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politician who later joined the
Labour Party.
Background
He was the eldest son of Joseph King of
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
and his wife Phoebe (née Powell). He was educated at
Uppingham School
Uppingham School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils 13-18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oakham School. The headma ...
,
Trinity College, Oxford
(That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody)
, named_for = The Holy Trinity
, established =
, sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge
, president = Dame Hilary Boulding
, location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH
, coordinates ...
, (where he was awarded a BA in 1883 and an MA in 1886)
Airedale College, Bradford,
University of Giessen
University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von ...
and
University, Berlin. He married, in 1887, Maude Egerton. They had one daughter. He was
called to the bar at the
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...
in 1889. Maude died in 1927. He married for a second time in 1928, to Helena G. Martins.
Political career
King was Liberal candidate for the
New Forest
The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, fea ...
Division of Hampshire at the 1892 General Election, coming second.
He did not contest the 1895 and 1900 General Elections. In 1904 he contested the
1904 Isle of Thanet by-election as a Liberal Party candidate, coming second. At the 1906 General Election he was Liberal candidate again at
Thanet Thanet may refer to:
*Isle of Thanet, a former island, now a peninsula, at the most easterly point of Kent, England
*Thanet District, a local government district containing the island
*Thanet College, former name of East Kent College
*Thanet Canal, ...
, coming second.
At the January 1910 General Election, King was elected Liberal MP for
North Somerset
North Somerset is a unitary district in Somerset, South West England. Whilst its area covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset, it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county. Its administrative headquarters is in the ...
, holding a seat for the party that was gained from the Conservatives in 1906. He was re-elected in December 1910.
Following the outbreak of World War I, King joined the
Union of Democratic Control
The Union of Democratic Control was a British advocacy group, pressure group formed in 1914 to press for a more responsive foreign policy. While not a pacifism, pacifist organisation, it was opposed to military influence in government.
World War ...
, a group of Liberal and Labour politicians who were critical of the secret diplomacy that they blamed for the conflict. He argued that Britain was obliged to protest at the German invasion of Belgium but not to go to Belgium's aid. He was a pacifist and opposed military conscription. His constituency was abolished as part of the 1918 boundary changes.
Support for the Soviet Union
He was sympathetic to the Bolsheviks, raising the matter of Trotsky's 1917 detention in a debate in 1918:
"Mr. KING asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that after the Russian revolution Mr. Trotsky was arrested by British authorities and placed in a camp with German prisoners at Halifax; that he was charged with being a German agent; and whether, in order to remove any ground for suspicion or he will now instruct our Ambassador or Chargé d'Affaires in Petrograd to convey to Mr. Trotsky the British Government's regret for this incident?
"Mr. BALFOUR: Mr. Trotsky was detained at Halifax on suspicion of being a German agent. The answer to the last part of the question is in the negative."
In 1919 he published a pamphlet called ''Three Bloody Men'', in which he blamed the Whites for starting the violence and condemned the British government for encouraging them. Denounced the Whites for having removed the lawful Provisional Government and alienated many anti-Bolsheviks.
![Ilford1918](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Ilford1918.png)
In 1920 he contested the
1920 Ilford by-election
The Ilford (UK Parliament constituency), Ilford by-election of 25 September 1920 was held after the death of the Coalition Unionist Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament Sir William Peter Griggs. The Coalition retained the se ...
as a Labour Party candidate.
At the
1923 General Election King was Labour candidate at
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
, coming second.
[British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig]
In 1933 he published ''The German revolution, its meaning and menace'', warning about Hitler.
Arts
King played a key role in the Peasant Arts movement in
Haslemere, Surrey. A number of the items produced are in the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
.
Bibliography
*The School Manager (1903)
*Electoral Reform: An Inquiry into our System of Parliamentary Representation, T. Fisher Unwin (1908)
* Chapter 1. Houses, The Management of Private Affairs, King, Bigham, Gwyer, Cannan, Bridge & Latter, Clarendon Press (1908)
* Filius Nullius (Nobody's Child) (1913) A pamphlet
The Russian Revolution: The First Year Pamphlet, Union of Democratic Control (1918)
* Soviets and Soviet Government, How it Arose in Russia, How it Works There, How it has been Imitated Elsewhere, and the Chances of Success for Soviets in Other Countries, Pamphlet (1919)
* Three bloody men: Mannerheim, "the Butcher" Denikin, the K.C.B., Koltchak, "the Bloody One." (1919)
* Russia and her allies: An account of British policy towards Russia, and of the military intervention of the allies, against the Soviet government, with…now ranged against it, Pamphlet (1919)
* The collapse of Germany (1923)
* Peasant Arts (1927)
* The German revolution, its meaning and menace, Williams and Norgate (1933)
* Invasion today, Watts & Co. (1941)
External links
British Pathe has newsreel footage of King standing outside the Ilford election count.
Election At Ilford 1920- British Pathé
The Russian Revolution: The First Year- photo-reproduction of the pamphlet
Three bloody men- photo-reproduction of the pamphlet
Sources
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Joseph
1860 births
1943 deaths
Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
People from Haslemere
Politicians from Liverpool
UK MPs 1910
UK MPs 1910–1918
Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford
English socialists