Jack Pease, 1st Baron Gainford

The Right Honourable
The Lord Gainford
PC DL JP
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
In office
3 June 1908  14 February 1910
Monarch Edward VII
Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
Preceded by George Whiteley
Succeeded by The Master of Elibank
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office
14 February 1910  23 October 1911
Monarch Edward VII
George V
Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
Preceded by Herbert Samuel
Succeeded by Charles Hobhouse
President of the Board of Education
In office
23 October 1911  25 May 1915
Monarch George V
Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
Preceded by Walter Runciman
Succeeded by Arthur Henderson
Postmaster General
In office
18 January 1916  5 December 1916
Monarch George V
Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
Preceded by Herbert Samuel
Succeeded by Albert Illingworth
Personal details
Born (1860-01-17)17 January 1860
Darlington, County Durham
Died 15 February 1943(1943-02-15) (aged 83)
Headlam Hall, Gainford, County Durham
Nationality British
Political party Liberal
Spouse(s) Ethel Havelock-Allen
(d. 1941)
Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge

Joseph Albert "Jack" Pease, 1st Baron Gainford PC, DL, JP (17 January 1860 – 15 February 1943), known as Jack Pease before 1917, was a British businessman and conservative[1] Liberal politician. He was a member of H. H. Asquith's Liberal cabinet between 1910 and 1916 and also served as Chairman of the BBC between 1922 and 1926.

Background and education

Pease was born in Darlington, County Durham (a member of the Darlington Peases), the second and youngest son of Sir Joseph Pease, 1st Baronet, of Hutton Hall, Guisborough, and Mary, daughter of Alfred Fox. He was the younger brother of Sir Alfred Pease, 2nd Baronet, the nephew of Arthur Pease and the first cousin of Sir Arthur Pease, 1st Baronet, and Herbert Pease, 1st Baron Daryngton.[2] He was educated at Grove House, Tottenham, a Quaker school, and at Trinity College, Cambridge.[3]

Political career

Pease in 1895

Pease served as Mayor of Darlington from 1889 to 1890.[2] He was elected Member of Parliament for Tyneside in 1892, a seat he held until 1900[2][4] He contested and won a by-election for Saffron Walden in May 1901,[5] and represented that constituency until 1910,[2][6] and Rotherham between 1910 and 1916.[2][7] He was private secretary (unpaid) to John Morley, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, between 1893 and 1895 and a junior opposition whip between 1897 and 1905.

When the Liberals came to power in 1905 under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Pease was appointed a Junior Lord of the Treasury (government whip). After H. H. Asquith became Prime Minister in 1908 he was promoted to Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip)[2] and sworn of the Privy Council.[8] In 1910 he entered Asquith's cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a post he held until 1911, and then served under Asquith as President of the Board of Education between 1911 and 1915 and as Postmaster-General in 1916.[2] In 1917 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Gainford, of Headlam in the County of Durham.[9]

He served on the Claims Commission in France in 1915 and between 1917 and 1920 and in Italy between 1918 and 1919 and was also a Deputy Lieutenant of County Durham and a Justice of the Peace for County Durham and the North Riding of Yorkshire.[2]

Business career

Apart from his political career Pease was Deputy Chairman of the Durham Coal Owners Association and Vice-Chairman of the Durham District Board (under the Coal Mines Act 1930), a director of Pease and Partners Ltd and other colliery companies, Chairman of Durham Coke Owners, director of the County of London Electric Supply Company Ltd, Chairman of South London Electric Supply Company, of the Tees Fishery Board, and of the Trustees of the Bowes Museum.

In 1922 he was appointed Chairman of the British Broadcasting Company Ltd, a post he held until 1926, and was then its vice-chairman until 1932.[2] From 1927 to 1928 he was President of Federation of British Industry.

Papers

Lord Gainford's papers are deposited in Nuffield College, Oxford and consist of diaries, scrap books, press cuttings, correspondence, domestic papers, political papers, official papers, claims commission papers and BBC papers. The main part of the Pease diaries cover the years 1908–1915 and a volume dealing with the years 1908–1910 have been published by Cameron Hazlehurst and Christine Woodland as A Liberal Chronicle: Journals and Papers of J A Pease, 1908–1910; The Historians Press, London, 1994.

Family

Lord Gainford married Ethel, daughter of Sir Henry Havelock-Allan, 1st Baronet, in 1886. They had one son, Joseph, and two daughters, Miriam and Faith (who married Michael Wentworth Beaumont and was the mother of Lord Beaumont of Whitley). Lady Gainford died in October 1941. Lord Gainford survived her by two years and died in February 1943, aged 83. He was succeeded in the barony by his son, Joseph.[2] The family seat was Headlam Hall, Co Durham.

See also

References

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Wentworth Beaumont
Member of Parliament for Tyneside
18921900
Succeeded by
Hugh Crawford Smith
Preceded by
Hon. Armine Wodehouse
Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden
1901January 1910
Succeeded by
Douglas Proby
Preceded by
William Holland
Member of Parliament for Rotherham
March 19101917
Succeeded by
Arthur Richardson
Political offices
Preceded by
Henry Forster
Lord Balniel
Lord Edmund Talbot
Lord of the Treasury
1905–1908
With: Herbert Lewis 1905–1908
Freeman Freeman-Thomas 1905–1906
Cecil Norton 1905–1908
John Fuller 1906–1907
John Henry Whitley 1907–1908
Succeeded by
Herbert Lewis
Cecil Norton
John Henry Whitley
Preceded by
George Whiteley
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
1908–1910
Succeeded by
The Master of Elibank
Preceded by
Herbert Samuel
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1910–1911
Succeeded by
Charles Hobhouse
Preceded by
Walter Runciman
President of the Board of Education
1911–1915
Succeeded by
Arthur Henderson
Preceded by
Herbert Samuel
Postmaster-General
1916
Succeeded by
Albert Illingworth
Honorary titles
New office Chairman of the British Broadcasting Company
1922–1926
Succeeded by
The Earl of Clarendon
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Gainford
1917–1943
Succeeded by
Joseph Pease
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.