Ernest Simon, 1st Baron Simon of Wythenshawe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ernest Emil Darwin Simon, 1st Baron Simon of Wythenshawe (9 October 1879 – 3 October 1960) was an industrialist and politician in the United Kingdom.

Born in Didsbury, Manchester, Simon was educated at Rugby School and at Pembroke College, Cambridge before entering the family's engineering business on the death of his father Henry Gustav Simon. He successfully expanded the company into building grain silos, and the wealth generated by the business allowed him both to enter politics and to become a generous philanthropist.

He served as a member of the Manchester City Council from 1912 to 1925, and as Lord Mayor of Manchester in 1921-1922. He is chiefly remembered for the slum clearances and housing projects he initiated in the city, notably the Wythenshawe estate.

Simon also sat as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Manchester Withington from 1923-24 and from 1929-1931, and was knighted in 1932. He joined the Labour Party in 1946, and in 1947 he was made a peer and appointed chairman of the BBC Board of governors.

In 1912 he married Shena Dorothy Potter (1883–1972), herself a noted social reformer. They had two sons and a daughter who died in childhood. Their elder son was Roger Simon, a solicitor and one of the founders of CND, while their younger son was the educationist and historian Brian Simon.

[edit] References

• Dictionary of National Biography: Simon, Ernest Emil Darwin
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Thomas Watts	Member of Parliament for Manchester Withington 1923–1924	Succeeded by Thomas Watts
Preceded by Thomas Watts	Member of Parliament for Manchester Withington 1929–1931	Succeeded by Edward Fleming
Political offices
Preceded by Philip Inman	Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors 1947 - 1952	Succeeded by Alexander Cadogan
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by New Creation	Baron Simon of Wythenshawe 1947–1960	Succeeded by Roger Simon