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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2009
Friday 22 September 1944 The Govt.'s demobilization plans have been published and seem to be devised as fairly as possible, but there are certain to be plenty of hard cases which will cause the likes of me a lot of trouble later on! Men, who are retained in the forces after the war in Europe, are to be given higher pay which is right and proper — it is estimated that this increase will cost £100 million a year — a lot of money and where it is to come from goodness only knows, and yet I gather that some of [the] press consider that it is a niggardly business. All sense of proportion about the spending of money is gone nowadays — millions mean nothing — ‘nothing is too good for our bairns’, as the Labour people used to say in the Durham C[ounty] C[ouncil]. The idea that we can afford anything and everything after peace is restored is based on the assertion that, if we can spend so much in the war, we can spend just as much in peace. No one seems to realize that because we have to spend so much in war, we must have less to spend when it is over.
1 A popular radio programme, in which questions were put to an expert panel.
2 Gollancz was well known as the publisher of the successful ‘Left Book Club’ series and other left-wing pamphlets and books.
3 There was also a Communist representative.
4 George Edward Peter Thorneycroft (1909–1994), Con. M.P. Stafford 1938–45, Monmouth 1945–66; P.S. War Transport May–July 1945; Pres. Bd. of Trade 1951–57; Chanc. of the Exchequer 1957–58; Min. of Aviation 1960–62; Min. of Defence 1962–64 (Sec. of State, Apr.–Oct. 1964); Chairman, British Overseas Trade Bd. 1972–75; Con. Party Chairman 1975–81; cr. Baron Thorneycroft 1967.
5 Hogg and Dunglass were the heirs of peerages (Viscount Hailsham and the Earl of Home) which they were likely to inherit in the course of the next few years.
6 The slaves who worked as servants of the Spartans in ancient Greece.
7 The ‘Tory Reform Committee’, of which Hogg was a founder and leading member.
8 Benjamin Disraeli, leader of the Conservative Party 1868–81 and author of romantic Tory novels.
9 Alexander Victor Edward Faulet Montagu (1906–1995), private Sec. to S. Baldwin 1932–34; Treasuer, Junior Imperial League 1934–35; Con. M.P. Dorset S. 1941–62; Chairman, Tory Reform Ctte. 1943–44; Pres., Anti-Common Market League 1962-; styled Viscount Hinchingbrooke 1916–62, sue. 10th Earl of Sandwich 1962, renounced peerage 1964.
10 (Arthur) Hugh Elsdale Molson (1903–1991), Con. M.P. Doncaster 1931–35, High Peak 1939–61; P.S. Works 1951–53; P.S. Transport & Civil Aviation 1953–57; Min. of Works 1957–59; cr. Baron Molson 1961.
11 Jasper Nicholas Ridley (1887–1951), Con. cand. Morpeth Jan. 1910, Newcastle Dec. 1910; Chairman, Coutts & Co., Nat. Provincial Bank; Fellow of Eton College; kt. 1946; second son of 1st Viscount Ridley.
12 The honour was normally given to the holder of a great aristocratic title.
13 Walter Edward Guinness (1880–1944), Con. M.P. Bury St. Edmunds 1907–31; U.S. War Office 1922–23; F.S.T. 1923–24, 1924–25; Min. of Agric. 1925–29; P.S. Agric. 1940–41; Colonial Sec. 1941–42; Dep. Min. Res. Middle East 1942–44, Min. Res. 1944; cr. Baron Moyne 1932; assassinated in Cairo by the Stern Gang 1944.
14 The Round Table was the journal of the imperial federation movement; it was non-party and came to be identified with compromise and conciliation in imperial affairs, and later with support for ‘appeasement’.
15 The successor to the VI ‘flying bomb’, the V2 was a chemical-fuelled rocket which had a longer range and could reach London from sites in northern Germany; it travelled faster than the speed of sound and thus gave no warning of its approach.
16 Wyndham Raymond Portal (1885–1949), businessman; P.S. Supply 1940–42; Min. of Works & Buildings 1942–44; presided over 14th Olympics 1948; suc. 3rd Bart. 1931, cr. Baron Potal 1935, Viscount 1945.
17 Rupert Arnold Brabner (1911–1945), Con. M.P. Hythe 1939–45; joined Fleet Air Arm 1939, served at sea; Technical Ass. to 5th Sea Lord 1943–44; Ass. Whip July–Nov. 1944; U.S. Air 1944–45; his aircraft was lost near the Azores 27 Mar. 1945.
18 John Charles Wilmot (1895–1964), Lab. M.P. Fulham E. 1933–35, Kennington 1939–45, Deptford 1945–50; P.P.S. to H. Dalton 1940–44; jt. P.S. Supply 1944–45; Min. of Supply 1945–47, & Aircraft Production 1945–46; Alderman, London County Council 1937–45; cr. Baron Wilmot of Selmeston 1950.
19 The East Fulham by-election, Oct. 1933; Baldwin later cited its result as having influenced him to be cautious about public willingness to accept rearmament.
20 Somerset Struben de Chair (1911–1995), Con. M.P. Norfolk S.W. 1935–45, Paddington S. 1950–51; P.P.S. to O. Lyttelton 1942–44; author and historian.
21 Godfrey Nicholson (1901–1991), Con. M.P. Morpeth 1931–35, Farnham 1937–66; P.P.S. to R. Assheton 1943–44; Chairman, Estimates Ctte. 1961–64; cr. Bart. 1958.
22 (Sarah) Marjorie Algeria Maxse (1891–1975), Dep. Principal Agent (Women's Organisation) 1921–30; Chief Organisation Officer 1930–39; Vice-Chairman, W.V.S. 1940–44; Con. Party Vice-Chairman 1944–51; cr. Dame 1952.
23 (Henry) Victor Alpin MacKinnon Raikes (1901–1986), Con. M.P. Essex S.E. 1931–45, Liverpool Wavertree 1945–50, Liverpool Garston 1950–57 (whip with-drawn May 1957, resigned seat Nov. 1957); Chairman, Monday Club 1975–78; kt. 1953.
24 This was the start of the ‘Battle of the Bulge’, the last major German offensive in the west, intended by Hitler to repeat the success of 1940 and drive a wedge between the Allied forces and reach the Channel ports.
25 Gerd von Rundstedt (1875–1953), German army career; C. in C. Army Group South, Polish campaign 1939, Army Group A, invasion of France & Low Countries 1940, Army Group South, invasion of Russia 1941 (relieved of command after retreating from Rostov contrary to Hitler's order, Nov. 1941); C. in C. Western theatre 1942–45.
26 Mark Hodgson (1880–1967), member of Exec., United Soc. of Boilermakers, and Iron & Steel Shipbuilders 1913–36, Gen. Sec 1936–48; Pres., Confederation of Shipbuilding & Engineering Unions 1943–45, 1947–48; Chairman, Northern Regional Bd. for Industry 1949–65; kt. 1945.
27 Robert Chapman (1880–1963), Con. M.P. Houghton-le-Spring 1931–35; Chairman, Northern Counties Area 1954–58; member of S. Shields council 1921–52, Mayor 1931–32; Army Welfare Officer, Co. Durham 1939–52; High Sheriff, Co. Durham 1940–41; Chairman, North Eastern Trading Estates Ltd. 1940–48; kt. 1950, cr. Bart. 1958.
28 After his first wife died in 1941, Lloyd George had married his former secretary and mistress of many years, Frances Stevenson, on 23 Oct. 1943.
29 In fact Gwilym Lloyd George (q.v.) was the younger son; he did not inherit the Earldom when his father died on 26 Mar. 1945, and remained in the Commons.
30 The honorary title of the M.P. who has sat for the longest continuous period; this does not need to be for the same seat, but it cannot be counted across an interval out of the House. For this reason Lloyd George (an M.P. since 1890) was succeeded by Winterton (who had sat since 1904) rather than Churchill (who was first elected in 1900, but was out of the Commons in 1922–24).
31 The Speaker of the House of Commons.
32 Headlam listed Scott twice, the wording in the original being ‘Denville, Scott, Irene Ward, Storey and Donald Scott’; this is probably a simple error, but there may have been a further unidentifiable M.P. present in addition to the named four.
33 Robert Hamilton Bernays (1902–1945), Lib. M.P. Bristol N. 1931–45 (stayed on govt. benches in 1933, joined Lib. Nat. Party 1936); P.S. Health 1937–39; P.S. Transport 1939–40; Dep. Regional Comm. for Civil Defence, S. England 1940–42; the aircraft he was travelling in was lost on 23 Jan. 1945.
34 John Dermot Campbell (1898–1945), Con. M.P. Antrim 1943–45; member of N. Ireland parliament for Carrick 1943–45; Dep. Flax Controller, N. Ireland 1940–45.
35 The last major inter-allied conference of the war, attended by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, was held at Yalta on the Crimean peninsula on 4–11 Feb. 1945.
36 The settlement of the Russo-Polish border proposed in July 1920, named after the British Foreign Secretary at that time, Lord Curzon; it excluded from Poland territory mainly inhabited by Ukranian, Lithuanian and Russian population.
37 An evening social function.
38 Harcourt Johnstone (1895–1945), Lib. M.P. Willesden E. 1923–24, S. Shields 1931–35, Middlesborough W. 1940–45; Whip 1931–32; Sec. for Overseas Trade 1940–45.
39 (Helen) Violet Asquith (1887–1969), daughter of H.H. Asquith, Lib. P.M. 1908–16, styled Lady Violet after father cr. Earl of Oxford & Asquith 1925; married 1915 Maurice Bonham-Carter; Pres., Women's Lib. Fed. 1923–25, 1939–45; Pres., Lib. Party Organisation 1945–47; Lib. cand. Wells 1945, Colne Valley 1951; a leading figure on the Asquithian wing of the Liberal Party, prominent in the 1950s; cr. Dame 1953, Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury 1964.
40 A nineteenth-century term for a candidate who has had no previous connection with a constituency before appearing to contest it in an election.
41 John (‘Jack’) Bowman, District Sec., Amalgamated Engineering Union; see entry for 14 Sep. 1941.
42 Robert William Aske (1872–1954), Lib. M.P. Newcastle E. 1923–24, 1929–45 (Lib. Nat. from 1931); kt. 1911, cr. Bart. 1922.
43 James Edward Glanville (1891–1958), coalminer, member of Exec, of Durham Miners' Assoc.; Lab. M.P. Consett 1943–55.