Valentine la Touche McEntee, 1st Baron McEntee

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(16 January 1871 – 11 February 1953) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

-born

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

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 of ...

(MP) 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 ...

Background

McEntee was born in

Kingstown Kingstown is the capital, chief port, and main commercial centre of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. With a population of 12,909 (2012), Kingstown is the most populous settlement in the country. It is the island's agricultural industry centre ...

(now Dún Laoghaire) near

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, the son of William Charles McEntee, a physician, and Catherine, daughter of Valentine Burchell.

Career

McEntee was a

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...

by trade. From 1896 to 1899, like Con Lehane, he was a member of

James Connolly James Connolly ( ga, Séamas Ó Conghaile; 5 June 1868 – 12 May 1916) was an Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader. Born to Irish parents in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, Connolly left school for working life at the a ...

Irish Socialist Republican Party The Irish Socialist Republican Party was a small, but pivotal Ireland, Irish political party founded in 1896 by James Connolly. Its aim was to establish an Irish workers' republic. The party split in 1904 following months of internal political ...

. After a brief stay in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

he moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and became a member of

Social Democratic Federation The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Con ...

(SDF), whence he went on to help found the

Socialist Party of Great Britain The Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB) is a socialist political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1904 as a split from the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), it advocates using the ballot box for revolutionary purposes and oppos ...

in June 1904. So far as is known McEntee was not at all active in the SPGB. He resigned on 4 March 1905 after he was nominated as parliamentary candidate for the Labour Representation Committee (predecessor of the Labour Party). After leaving the SPGB McEntee joined the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

. By 1908 he was back in the SDF, being a local election candidate for that organisation in

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a large town in East London, east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London and the Historic counties of England, ancient county of Essex. Situated northeast of Chari ...

in that year. In 1909 he published a short pamphlet ''Socialism Explained'', a criticism of

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...

. The following year he was a delegate at the Social Democratic Party (as the SDF had been renamed) Conference and was elected to its 1910–1911 Executive Committee. McEntee presumably became a member of the Labour Party via the

British Socialist Party The British Socialist Party (BSP) was a Marxist political organisation established in Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of factional struggle, in 1916 the party's anti-war forces gained decisive control of the party and saw t ...

, the successor to the SDF, which affiliated in 1916. During the later part of 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 was a member of the relatively large and actively anti-war North London Herald League, as documented in Ken Weller's ''Don't Be a Soldier''. (Other ex-SPGBers in the NLHL include R. M. Fox of ''Smokey Crusade'' fame; Les Boyne, an early member who was also in

E. J. B. Allen Ernest John Bartlett Allen (29 March 1884 – 16 June 1945) was a British socialist active in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Allen was born in South Hinksey, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) and graduated from Oxford University. He joined t ...

's Advocates of Industrial Unionism and

Industrial League Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

. Harry Young, first active in the NLHL, was an SPGB member later in life.) In 1920, McEntee became a local councillor for the Labour Party in Walthamstow. He went on to become MP for Walthamstow West from

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

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 ...

and again from

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 cr ...

, and served

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

(PPS) to the

Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Works A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

George Hicks George Hicks may refer to: * George Hicks (trade unionist) (1879–1954), British trade unionist and politician * George Hicks (footballer) (1902–?), English footballer * George Elgar Hicks (1824–1914), English painter * George Hicks (RAF off ...

, from 1942 to 1945. He was also Mayor of Walthamstow from 1929 to 1930 and 1951 to 1952. He was appointed a

in 1948 and, in 1951, he was elevated to the peerage as Baron McEntee, of Walthamstow in the County of Essex, in recognition of his "political and public services".

Personal life

McEntee was twice married. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Crawford, in 1892. After her death he married Catherine, daughter of Charles Windsor, in 1920. He died in February 1953, aged 82, when the barony became extinct.

References

Sources

*"Valentine McEntee", ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'', volume X. *

(1904–1913 membership register)

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McEntee, Valentine 1871 births 1953 deaths Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers-sponsored MPs Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People from Dún Laoghaire Politicians from County Dublin British Socialist Party members Socialist Party of Great Britain members Social Democratic Federation members Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1931–1935 UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs who were granted peerages Labour Party (UK) hereditary peers Barons created by George VI British republicans