Robert Michael Maitland Stewart, Baron Stewart of Fulham, (6 November 1906 – 10 March 1990) was a British Labour Party politician, life peer and Fabian Socialist who was a

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 34 years, and served twice as Foreign Secretary in the first cabinet of Harold Wilson.

Early life

The son of Robert Wallace Stewart, author and lecturer, and Eva Stewart née Blaxley, Stewart was born in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...

and educated at Brownhill Road Elementary School,

Catford Catford is a district in south east London, England, and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Lewisham. It is southwest of Lewisham itself, mostly in the Rushey Green and Catford South wards. The population of Catford, includ ...

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553. ...

and St. John's College, Oxford, where he graduated with a first class BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1929. Whilst at Oxford he was involved in student politics and was elected as President of the

Oxford Union The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...

for

Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, ...

Term 1929. He was also the president of St John's Labour Club that same year. Stewart began his career as an official in the Royal Household during 1931. He worked for a short period with the Secretariat of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

, before becoming a schoolmaster, first at the Merchant Taylors' School in London, then at Coopers' Company's School,

Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

, and then at

Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in eastern Somerset, England. The town is built on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, and centres on the River Frome. The town, about south of Bath, is the largest in the Mendip d ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Stewart served in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

, joining the Intelligence Corps in 1942, before transferring to the

Army Educational Corps The Royal Army Educational Corps (RAEC) was a corps of the British Army tasked with educating and instructing personnel in a diverse range of skills. On 6 April 1992 it became the Educational and Training Services Branch (ETS) of the Adjutant Gene ...

in 1943. He was promoted to captain in 1944. On 26 July 1941 he married Mary Birkinshaw, later Baroness Stewart of Alvechurch; they had no children. They were one of the few couples who both held titles in their own right.

Political career

Stewart had contested the Lewisham West constituency in 1931 and 1935, and Fulham East in 1936; after the war he became MP for Fulham East 1945–55, then for Fulham 1955–74, and Hammersmith, Fulham 1974–79. Soon after his initial election, he was made one of the

Lords Commissioners of the Treasury In the United Kingdom there are at least six Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, serving as a commission for the ancient office of Treasurer of the Exchequer. The board consists of the First Lord of the Treasury, the Second Lord of the ...

(more commonly known as a junior whip), then a junior minister, as

Under-Secretary of State for War The position of Under-Secretary of State for War was a British government position, first applied to Evan Nepean (appointed in 1794). In 1801 the offices for War and the Colonies were merged and the post became that of Under-Secretary of State fo ...

(1947–51) and later as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply (May–October 1951). Following Labour's defeat in the 1951 election, Stewart was a rising figure on the shadow front bench, serving as Shadow Minister of Education (1955–59) and then as Shadow Minister of Housing and Local Government (1959–64). Stewart was Fabian Summer School director in 1952 and lecturer in 1954. He was Fabian New Year School lecturer in 1954–55 and publicist in 1956. He is listed as a member of the Fabian Society International Bureau Committee during 1957–58 and was mentioned in ''Fabian News'' November – December 1964 as a former member of the Fabian Executive Committee.

Government 1964–70

When Harold Wilson became Prime Minister in 1964, Stewart was appointed

Secretary of State for Education and Science The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. The incumbent is a member of the Ca ...

. He was promoted to

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...

in January 1965 after his predecessor Patrick Gordon Walker's bid to regain a

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

seat in the 1965 Leyton by-election failed. He was described by the press as relatively unknown to the public but was extremely well known within Fabian socialist circles. He became

Secretary of State for Economic Affairs The Secretary of State for Economic Affairs was briefly an office of Her Majesty's government in the United Kingdom. It was established by Harold Wilson in October 1964. Wilson had been impressed by the six-week experiment of a Minister for Econom ...

in 1966. From 1966 to 1968, he was

First Secretary of State The First Secretary of State is an office that is sometimes held by a minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The office indicates seniority, including over all other Secretaries of State. The office is not always in use, ...

. He returned to the Foreign Office from 1968 to 1970. As foreign secretary, he was instrumental in supplying arms to support the Nigerian military dictatorship's crushing of the secessionist Republic of Biafra in the

Nigerian Civil War The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Nigerian–Biafran War or the Biafran War, was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence ...

(when up to one million people died), later saying "It would have been quite easy for me to say: This is going to be difficult – let's cut off all connexion with the Nigerian Government. If I'd done that I should have known that I was encouraging in Africa the principle of tribal secession – with all the misery that could bring to Africa in the future."

Post-Government

A committed

pro-European Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Politi ...

, Stewart was leader of the Labour Delegation to the Council of Europe in June 1970, and joint president of the Labour Committee for Europe with George Brown and Roy Jenkins. He served as a

member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

from 1975 to 1976. Stewart was a supporter of a

United Ireland United Ireland, also referred to as Irish reunification, is the proposition that all of Ireland should be a single sovereign state. At present, the island is divided politically; the sovereign Republic of Ireland has jurisdiction over the maj ...

, supporting a peaceful resolution to the

partition of Ireland The partition of Ireland ( ga, críochdheighilt na hÉireann) was the process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. ...

. Stewart was made a member of the Privy Council in 1964. He was appointed a Companion of Honour (CH) in the

1969 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1969 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced in supplements to the ''Lond ...

. He retired from the House of Commons in 1979. He was elevated to the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

, being created a life peer with the title Baron Stewart of Fulham, of Fulham in Greater London, on 5 July 1979. He died in 1990, aged 83.

References

Bibliography

*''The Forty Hour Week'' (Fabian Society), (1936) *''Bias and Education for Democracy'' (1937) *''The British Approach to Politics'' (1938) *
Policy and weapons in the nuclear age
' (1955) *''Modern Forms of Government'' (1959) *
An incomes policy for Labour
' (1963) *''Fabian Freeway'' Rose L. Martin (1966) *
Labour and the economy : a socialist strategy
' (1972) *''Life and Labour'' (1980) – his autobiography *''European Security: the case against unilateral nuclear disarmament'' (1981)

External links

*
The Papers of Lord Stewart of Fulham and Baroness Stewart of Alvechurch
held at

Churchill Archives Centre The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers of ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart of Fulham, Michael Stewart, Baron 1906 births 1990 deaths British Secretaries of State British Secretaries of State for Education British Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs British Secretaries of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies British Army personnel of World War II Intelligence Corps officers Royal Army Educational Corps officers Presidents of the Oxford Union People educated at Christ's Hospital Stewart of Fulham, Michael Stewart, Baron Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom National Union of Teachers-sponsored MPs Alumni of St John's College, Oxford People from Bromley First Secretaries of State of the United Kingdom Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Spouses of life peers UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 Labour Party (UK) MEPs MEPs for the United Kingdom 1973–1979 Members of the Fabian Society Schoolteachers from London Ministers in the Attlee governments, 1945–1951 Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970 Schoolteachers from Somerset Military personnel from Kent