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James Ramsay MacDonald (October 12, 1866 - November 9, 1937)
was Britain's first Labour Prime Minister (January-November
1924 and June 1929-August 1931) and subsequently Prime Minister of the "National" Government of August 1931-June 1935.
Biography
Born at Lossiemouth in Scotland, he was from very humble beginnings and had no
secondary education, but was a rousing speaker. A member of the Independent Labour Party from 1893 and subsequently of the
broader Labour Party, he entered Parliament in 1906, and became leader of the Labour Party in 1911. In
August 1914 he resigned the party leadership in opposition to World War I, subsequently losing his parliamentary seat.
Returned to Parliament at the November 1922 general election, he was re-elected Party
leader. On January 22, 1924, after the
failure of the Conservative government under Stanley Baldwin to win a
majority of parliamentary seats at the previous month's election, MacDonald formed a minority Labour government with Liberal Party support. He served as both Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary However the
government only lasted until November 4 of the same year, when Baldwin returned
to office following an election marked by controversy over the Zinoviev
Letter.
MacDonald took office as prime minister again on June 7, 1929,this time as leader of the largest party in Parliament, but still without an overall majority and dependent on
Liberal support. The economic and financial crisis of 1931 split
the government between advocates and opponents of stringent government spending cuts, MacDonald and senior colleagues joining
with the Conservatives and Liberals in a "National Government" (August 24). Most of the Labour
rank-and-file went into opposition, denouncing MacDonald as a "rat" and a traitor to the Labour Party. His position was further
weakened in 1932 and 1933 when the Liberals slowly
detached their support for the government and came to a position of complete opposition, even though part of the Liberal Party
remained as the Liberal Nationals.
However to many MacDonald appeared the mere puppet leader of a Conservative administration in disguise. He was deeply wounded by
these attacks and the difficulties of governing over such a disastrous period and his health, both physical and mental, suffered
over the next few years as a result. MacDonald surrendered the premiership of an increasingly Conservative-dominated government
to Baldwin on June 7, 1935. He remained in the
government as Lord President of the
Council but proved increasingly ineffecitve over the next two years. In the 1935 general election he lost his parliamentary seat by over 21,000 votes to Emanuel Shinwell. MacDonald returned to the House of Commons for the Scottish Universities seat, though he had previously called for its abolition, and finally left
office in May 1937. He declined all honours and sought a peaceful retirement. In November
1937, whilst travelling to South America for a long rest he was taken ill and died.
MacDonald's legacy is a mixed one, with few willing to praise his achievements. More than anyone else he transformed the
Labour Party from the representatives of a section of British society into one of the two major political parties competing for
office. His moderate course of politics has been followed by every subsequent successful Labour Prime Minister. However for many
he remains the villain of the 1931 crisis who disrupted the steady rise of the Labour Party
by forming a coalition against it. To this day he remains probably the most internally villified figure in the history of the
Labour Party.
Ramsay MacDonald's first Labour government, January - November 1924
Ramsay MacDonald's second Labour government, June 1929 - August 1931
Changes
- 1930 - J.H. Thomas succeeds Lord Passfield as Dominions Secretary. Passfield remains
Colonial Secretary. Vernon Hartshorn succeeds Thomas as Lord Privy Seal. Lord Amulree succeeds Lord Thomson as Secretary for Air.
Christopher Addison succeeds N. Buxton as Minister of Agriculture.
- 1931 - H.B. Lees-Smith succeeds Sir C.P. Trevelyan at the Board of Education. H.S.
Morrison enters the cabinet as Minister of Transport.
Ramsay MacDonald's first national government, August - November 1931
- Ramsay MacDonald - Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons
- Lord Sankey - Lord Chancellor
- Stanley Baldwin - Lord President
- Philip Snowden - Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Sir Herbert Samuel - Home Secretary
- Lord Reading - Foreign
Secretary
- Sir Samuel Hoare - Secretary for India
- J.H. Thomas - Dominions Secretary and Colonial
Secretary
- Sir Philip
Cunliffe-Lister - President of the Board of Trade
- Neville Chamberlain - Minister of Health
Ramsay MacDonald's second national government, November 1931 - May 1935
- Ramsay MacDonald - Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons
- Lord Sankey - Lord Chancellor
- Stanley Baldwin - Lord President
- Lord Snowden - Lord Privy Seal
- Neville Chamberlain - Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Sir Herbert Samuel - Home Secretary
- Sir John Simon - Foreign Secretary
- Sir Philip
Cunliffe-Lister - Colonial Secretary
- J.H. Thomas - Dominions Secretary
- Lord Hailsham - Secretary for War
- Sir Samuel Hoare - Secretary for India
- Lord Londonderry - Secretary for Air
- Sir Archibald Sinclair - Secretary of State for Scotland
- Sir B. Eyres-Monsell - First Lord of the Admiralty
- Walter Runciman -
President of the Board of Trade
- Sir John Gilmour - Minister of Agriculture
- Sir D. Maclean - President of the Board of Education
- Sir H. Betterton - Minister of Labour
- Sir E. Hilton-Young - Minister of Health
- W. Ormsby-Gore - First Commissioner of Works
Changes
- 1932 - Stanley Baldwin succeeds Lord Snowden as Lord Privy Seal. Sir John Gilmour
succeeds Sir Herbert Samuel as Home Secretary. Sir G. Collins succeeds Sir A. Sinclair as Scottish Secretary. W. Elliott succeeds
Sir John Gilmour as Minister of Agriculture. Lord Irwin succeeds Sir D. Maclean as President of the Board of Education.
- 1933 - Stanley Baldwin ceases to be Lord Privy Seal, and his successor in that office
is not in the cabinet. He continues as Lord President. Kingsley Wood enters the cabinet as Postmaster-General
- 1934 - Oliver Stanley succeeds Sir H. Betterton as Minister of Labour.
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