Hastings Bertrand Lees-Smith PC (26 January 1878 – 18 December 1941) was a British Liberal turned Labour politician who was briefly in the cabinet as

President of the Board of Education 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 ...

in 1931. He was the acting Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party (as chairman of the

Parliamentary Labour Party In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in Parliament, i.e. Labour MPs as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes draw a distinction between the Labour ...

) from 1940 until his death, during the time Clement Attlee was in government.

Family background

Lees-Smith was from an army family. His father was a major in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

and he was born in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. He was educated at

Aldenham School Aldenham School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged eleven to eighteen, located between Elstree and the village of Aldenham in Hertfordshire, England. There is also a preparatory school for pupils from the ages of five to ele ...

, as a cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

. Rejecting a military career, he chose academia and was appointed as a lecturer in Public Administration at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

in 1906, where he remained throughout his political career. He was also Chairman of the Executive Committee of

Ruskin College, Oxford Ruskin College, originally known as Ruskin Hall, Oxford, is an independent educational institution in Oxford, England. It is not a college of Oxford University. It is named after the essayist, art and social critic John Ruskin (1819–1900) an ...

, from 1907 to 1909. He resigned on appointment as Professor of Public Administration at the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

. In 1909, he went on an extended tour of India to lecture at

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

on economics and advise on economics teaching. As a result of his experiences he wrote ''Studies in Indian Economics''. He joined a territorial regiment in 1915, and was wounded as a

stretcher bearer A stretcher-bearer is a person who carries a stretcher, generally with another person at its other end, especially in a war or emergency times when there is a very serious accident or a disaster. In case of military personnel, for example removi ...

on the Western Front and invalided out of the armed forces in 1917. In 1938, he distributed 40 British passports to German Jews in Frankfurt, thus aiding their escape. ''The Chest of Surprises'' describes the Lees-Smith family history.

Liberal Party

At the January 1910 general election, Lees-Smith was elected as a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

for the two-member Northampton constituency. Unlike his fellow Northampton MP,

Charles McCurdy Charles Albert McCurdy (13 March 1870 – 10 November 1941) was a British Liberal Member of Parliament and minister in the Lloyd George Coalition Government. He was made a member of the Privy Council in 1920. Background McCurdy was educated a ...

, Lees-Smith allied with H. H. Asquith rather than

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during ...

in the Liberal split 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 ...

and, as a consequence, was not offered support by the Coalition in the 1918 general election. Rather than defend Northampton (which had been reduced to one member), he moved to the new Don Valley constituency but lost to a Coalition-supported

National Democratic and Labour Party The National Democratic and Labour Party, usually abbreviated to National Democratic Party (NDP), was a short-lived political party in the United Kingdom. History The party's origins lay in a split by the right wing of the British Socialist Party ...

candidate. Indicating his estrangement from the Liberal Party, he fought as an "Independent Radical", even though he had been adopted by the local Liberal association. He was the member of Parliament who, in July 1917, read Siegfried Sassoon's declaration that the First World War had continued too long and should be ended.

Labour Party

In 1919, Lees-Smith joined the Labour Party. He was picked as Labour candidate for

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west of ...

and won the seat in the 1922 general election, profiting from a divided opposition. He was a noted speaker on banking and on reform of 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 ...

, about which he wrote several books including ''Second Chambers in Theory and Practice'' (1923). Unfortunately for Lees-Smith, the Conservatives did not stand a candidate in the 1923 general election and he was defeated by the Liberal candidate. That defeat prevented him from being appointed as a Minister in the first Labour government.

Ministerial office

The collapse of the Liberal Party in the 1924 general election meant that Lees-Smith won his seat back, and he was swiftly appointed to a frontbench role. When Labour returned to office in 1929, he was made

Postmaster-General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsible ...

. In that role, he defended the nationalised Post Office and tried to smarten up Post Office counters. In a reshuffle in March 1931, he was promoted to

and sworn of the Privy Council. In that capacity, in June he gave the opening address at the Second International Congress of the History of Science. He had only a brief time in office before the government fell, and Lees-Smith refused to follow Ramsay MacDonald into the National Government. Defeated again in

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

, Lees-Smith again won his seat back in 1935. He served on the front bench but was not invited by

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

to join the Coalition government in 1940. As one of the most senior Labour figures not in office, the responsibilities of running the party were given to him. In his partisan role he strongly supported Churchill's conduct as war leader even if the war was not always running in the Allies' favour.

References

* Obituary, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'', 19 December 1941

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lees-Smith, Hastings 1878 births 1941 deaths Academics of the London School of Economics Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford British Secretaries of State for Education Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at Aldenham School UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1935–1945 United Kingdom Postmasters General