Charles Masterman

Charles Masterman around 1906

Charles Frederick Gurney Masterman PC (born October 24, 1873 in Spencer Hill, Wimbledon , † November 17, 1927 in Harrow ) was a British journalist, author, liberal politician and propagandist during the First World War . He headed the British War Propaganda Bureau from 1914 to 1917 .

Life

Origin and education

Masterman was the fourth of five sons in an urban family who had moved to rural London because of a father's chronic illness. One of his brothers, Howard, became the first Anglican bishop of Plymouth in 1923. Charles was educated at Weymouth College in Dorset and won a scholarship to Christ's College at Cambridge University , where he studied literature, politics and religion until 1896. Among other things, he was chairman of the Cambridge Union Society and secretary of the Cambridge University Liberal Club . During his studies he approached New Liberalism , a current of left-wing liberalism , and Christian Socialism . In 1900 he became a fellow at Christ's College.

Journalistic and political career before the war

After graduating, Masterman worked as a journalist for various liberal newspapers and lived in South London from 1900 to 1908 to better understand the everyday life and needs of the working class. In 1901 he was co-editor of the essay collection The Heart of the Empire: a Discussion of Problems of Modern City Life in England. In 1902 his From the Abyss and in 1905 In Peril of Change appeared . In 1903 he became literary editor of The Daily News and in the same year ran in a by-election for the London borough of Dulwich as a candidate for the Liberal Party for the first time for a seat in the House of Commons . Three years later, in the general election in 1906 , he succeeded in entering the constituency of West Ham North . From 1908 he was co-editor of the newly founded literary magazine The English Review . In the same year he married Lucy Lyttelton, daughter of General Neville Lyttelton . With her he had a son and two daughters, including the linguist and philosopher Margaret Masterman and the historian Neville Masterman.

After Herbert Henry Asquith took office as Prime Minister in 1908, Masterman initially received a post on the Local Government Board and in 1909 moved to the Ministry of the Interior as Undersecretary, where Winston Churchill was his superior from 1910 . In 1909 his best known work The Condition of England appeared . In recognition of his achievements, Masterman was transferred to the post of Treasury Secretary of the Treasury under David Lloyd George , Chancellor of the Exchequer , and sworn into the Privy Council in 1912 . He was involved in a number of far-reaching reforms before the war, including the National Insurance Act of 1911. In February 1914, he received the cabinet post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster , but he never succeeded in ascending to the inner circles of the Liberal Party. Re-elected in January and December 1910 and in a by-election in 1911 in Bethnal Green South West , he lost his House of Commons in 1914 and had to run because of his government post in several by-elections, all of which he lost. As a consequence, he resigned from office in May 1915.

Head of propaganda in the First World War

After the United Kingdom entered the First World War in early August 1914, it was soon decided to put government propaganda activities under centralized management. Asquith Charles Masterman was chosen by the government to head the War Propaganda Bureau (WPB; also known as Wellington House after its seat ). Masterman used his often friendly relationships with important British writers of the time to build a comprehensive organization. He recruited HG Wells , Thomas Hardy , GK Chesterton , Arthur Conan Doyle , John Masefield , Ford Madox Ford , Henry Newbolt and John Galsworthy , among others, who were present at an initial meeting on September 2, 1914. Big names like Rudyard Kipling and John Buchan later joined the organization. Among the publications launched was an official, in the end 24-volume history of the ongoing war ( Nelson's History of the War ) alongside hundreds of pamphlets and propaganda pamphlets. Its main aim was to influence public opinion in neutral states, especially the USA.

Masterman's department was also responsible for selecting the licensed war photographers as well as the documentary filmmakers who shot the monumental film The Battle of the Somme in 1916 , as well as official war painters such as Francis Dodd , William Orpen and Paul Nash .

After David Lloyd George took office as Prime Minister, the Department of Information was created in March 1917 under John Buchan, to which Masterman's department was subordinate. Masterman also remained in the Ministry of Information created in 1918 under Lord Beaverbrook Director of Publications .

After the war

Plaque in Saint Giles Church, Camberwell

In the “ coupon elections ” of December 1918, Masterman could not win a seat in parliament as a non-supporter of Lloyd George's coalition course with the Tories . In the 1923 elections he was re-elected to parliament for the Manchester Rusholme constituency, but lost his seat in the next election a year later.

During this period, drug and alcohol abuse contributed to a rapid deterioration in his health. Masterman died in a nursing home in November 1927.

literature

• Eric Hopkins: Charles Masterman (1873-1927), Politician and Journalist: The Splendid Failure. Edwin Mellen Press, 1999, ISBN 0-7734-7986-4 .
• Gary S. Messinger: British Propaganda and the State in the First World War. Manchester University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-7190-3014-5 .

Web links

• Newspaper article about Charles Masterman in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .