Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor

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Charles Alfred Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor KCVO , QC , PC (October 3, 1852 – June 30, 1941) was a British politician who crossed the floor from the Conservative to the Labour Party and was a strong supporter of the League of Nations and of Church of England causes.

Contents 1 Family and early career 2 Parliament 3 Great War 4 Labour Party

[edit] Family and early career

Cripps was the third son of Henry William Cripps, a wealthy Barrister and Queen's Counsel from Berkshire. He attended Winchester College and New College, Oxford, both on scholarships, and won four first classes at Oxford. At the end of his undergraduate years he was awarded a Fellowship at St John's College, Oxford, which he held for six years.

He was called to the Bar (Middle Temple) in 1877 and went into practice as a Barrister. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1890 and a Bencher of the Middle Temple in 1893. He was appointed as Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales in 1895, a job he retained through two changes of Prince until 1914; his personal service to the Royal family was rewarded in 1908 with the KCVO.

[edit] Parliament

Cripps later claimed to have been a supporter of the Liberal Party, but in deference to his die-hard Conservative father, he declined to get involved in politics. However he sided with the Unionists over the issue of home rule for Ireland and was elected as a Unionist to Parliament for Stroud in 1895, where he was a member of the South Africa Commission (investigating the Jameson Raid). He lost his seat in 1900, but soon returned in a byelection as MP for Stretford.

As a devout Anglican of the High church tradition, Cripps was very active in Church affairs and was appointed Vicar-General of York in 1900 and of Canterbury in 1902. He again lost his seat in the Liberal landslide victory of 1906, but was elected for Wycombe (a constituency that included the family home) in 1910. He received a Peerage from the Liberal government in 1914 and took the title Baron Parmoor from the family estate. Although not a Judge, he was specially appointed to the Privy Council and to its Judicial Committee, and during the Great War he headed a committee determining damages from German raids.

[edit] Great War

Parmoor considered that his elevation to the peerage in a semi-judicial role had removed any previous political affiliations. The war had a profound effect on Parmoor's political views, as he considered the decision to go to war a disaster. He opposed conscription and sympathised with Conscientious objectors, whom he thought were subject to excessive punishment. In the aftermath of war, he became very active in international causes, setting up the 'Fight the Famine Council' which had as its secondary objective the establishment of a League of Nations. The organisation was non-partisan but several trade unions and senior members of the Labour Party took part. When the National Church Assembly was established in 1920 to govern the Church of England, Parmoor was elected to the House of Laity and became its first Chairman.

[edit] Labour Party

Parmoor approved of the statement on peace in the Labour Party's 1923 election manifesto. After the election, with a Labour government in prospect, he received a letter from Ramsay Macdonald inviting him to join it. Parmoor wrote that he "should rejoice in the formation of a Labour Government under your leadership". He was made Lord President of the Council and joint Leader of the House of Lords with Viscount Haldane, with the difficult job of piloting government legislation through a House in which it had minimal support. Although the government lost practically every vote, Parmoor was able to persuade the opposition that they would lose support by wrecking the whole legislative programme. Macdonald, who was serving as his own Foreign Secretary, also chose Parmoor as British representative to the Council of the League of Nations, and to its Assembly in September 1924.

After the end of the Labour government, Parmoor remained active in the House of Lords, and when Haldane died in 1928, was elected Leader of the Labour Peers. He served again as Lord President of the Council with special responsibility for League of Nations affairs in the second Labour government of 1929–1931, despite his advanced age. He remained with the Labour Party when MacDonald formed the National Government in August 1931, disapproving of MacDonald's actions on constitutional grounds, but stepped down as Leader of the Labour Peers at the dissolution of Parliament in September.

One of Cripps' sons, Stafford, became a distinguished Labour politician who served with him in the second Labour government and later became Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by David Brynmor Jones	Member of Parliament for Stroud 1895–1900	Succeeded by Charles Peter Allen
Preceded by Sir John Maclure, Bt	Member of Parliament for Stretford 1901–1906	Succeeded by Harry Nuttall
Preceded by Thomas Arnold Herbert	Member of Parliament for Wycombe 1910–1914	Succeeded by William Baring du Pré
Political offices
Preceded by The Marquess of Salisbury	Lord President of the Council 1924	Succeeded by The Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
Preceded by The Viscount Haldane	Leader of the Labour Peers 1928–1931	Succeeded by The Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede
Preceded by The Earl of Balfour	Lord President of the Council 1929–1931	Succeeded by Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by The Marquess of Salisbury	Leader of the House of Lords 1929–1931	Succeeded by The Marquess of Reading
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by New Creation	Baron Parmoor 1914–1941	Succeeded by Alfred Cripps