Arthur Steel-Maitland

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Sir Arthur Herbert Drummond Ramsay Steel-Maitland, 1st Baronet, PC (5 July 1876-30 March 1935) was a British Conservative politician.

The second son of Colonel E. H. Steel and Emmeline, daughter of General Henry Drummond, he was educated at Rugby and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a classical Scholar and Eldon Scholar in 1899. He gained first class honours in classics and law, and became a Fellow of All Souls College in 1900. He was Secretary, Junior Treasurer and President of the Oxford Union Society, and rowed against Cambridge in 1899.

In 1901 he married Mary, daughter of Sir James Ramsay-Gibson Maitland, 4th Baronet, of Barnton and Sauchie.

He unsuccessfully contested Rugby in 1906, and was a Special Commissioner to the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, 1906-1907. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Birmingham East from 1910-1918, for Birmingham Erdington from 1918-1929 and for Tamworth from 1929 until 1935.

He served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1915-1917; Joint Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Secretary for Overseas Trade in his capacity as Head of the Department of Overseas Trade (Development and Intelligence) from 1917-1919. He was Minister of Labour from November 1924-June 1929. He was Chairman of the Unionist Party in 1911.

He was created a Baronet in 1917 and appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1924. He was awarded honorary degrees of LLD by Edinburgh University and St Andrews University. He was succeeded to the baronetcy by his son Arthur James Drummond.

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Who Was Who

This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir John Benjamin Stone	Member of Parliament for Birmingham East January 1910–1918	Succeeded by constituency abolished
Preceded by new constituency	Member of Parliament for Birmingham Erdington 1918–1929	Succeeded by Charles James Simmons
Preceded by Sir Edward Maugar Iliffe	Member of Parliament for Tamworth 1929–1935	Succeeded by Sir John Mellor
Party Political Offices
Preceded by -	Chairman of the Conservative Party 1911-16	Succeeded by George Younger
Political offices
Preceded by Thomas Shaw	Minister of Labour 1924-29	Succeeded by Margaret Bondfield