JEB Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone

JEB Seely, 1909

John Edward Bernard Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone PC CMG CB DSO TD (born May 31, 1868 in Brookhill Hall , Derbyshire , † November 7, 1947 ) was a British major general and politician of the Liberal Party who served in various constituencies as MP for 24 years in the House of Commons represented, from 1912 to 1914 Secretary of war and between 1918 and his death in 1947 Lord Lieutenant of the County of Hampshire was. In 1933 he was raised as Baron Mottistone to the hereditary nobility (Hereditary Peerage) and was a member of the House of Lords until his death .

Life

Origin, lawyer and officer in the Boer War

Seely was the fourth son of Charles Seely , who was a member of the House of Commons for 14 years for the Liberal Party and, after leaving the House of Commons in 1896, 1st Baronet Seely, of Sherwood Lodge, Arnold, Nottinghamshire and Brooke House, Isle of Wight has been. His older brother Charles Seely was also a member of the lower house for the Liberal Party for six years and inherited the title of 2nd baronet after his father's death in 1915 . His second oldest brother Frank Evelyn Seely was both Deputy Lieutenant and High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire .

After attending the renowned Harrow School , he graduated from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts (BA). In 1891 he was awarded the gold medal of the government of France for a mission to save lives from distress at sea . He later completed a post-graduate degree in law and, after being admitted to the bar ( Inns of Court ) of Inner Temple in 1897, worked as a barrister .

During the Second Boer War , Seely did military service as an officer in the Imperial Yeomanry in 1900 and was mentioned for his military services in the war report ( Mentioned in Despatches ) and was appointed Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).

MP, Secretary of War and the Curragh Incident

Caricature by JEB Seely in Vanity Fair magazine by Leslie Ward , 1905

As a candidate for the Liberal Party, Seely was elected member of the House of Commons for the first time after his return from the war on May 23, 1900 and, with a brief interruption, represented the Isle of Wight constituency until January 12, 1906 and then until January 15, 1910 the constituency of Liverpool Abercromby .

In 1908 he took his first government post in the government of Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith , until 1911 as Parliamentary Undersecretary of State in the Colonial Office ( Colonial Office ) . At the same time he was appointed Privy Counselor (PC) on November 22, 1909 during this time . On March 7, 1910, Seely was re-elected to the House of Commons in the Ilkeston constituency for the Liberal Party and represented this constituency until November 15, 1922.

Having 1911-1912 Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Ministry of War ( War Office ) was Seely was Prime Minister Asquith to succeed on June 12, 1912 Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane Minister of War (Secretary of State for War) appointed. However, he had to resign from this ministerial office on March 30, 1914 because of the "Curragh Incident" , a mutiny in the Curragh army camp in Ireland. Prime Minister Asquith then personally took over the post of Minister of War.

World War I and Lord Lieutenant

Then Seely took part in the First World War as major general and commander of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and was mentioned five times again in the war report and wounded. For his services he was also awarded the Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) and the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) as well as the Territorial Decoration (TD) in 1916. He was also awarded the Order of the Crown of Belgium and the Croix de Guerre and he was also appointed a member of the Legion of Honor .

At the end of the war, Seely became Lord Lieutenant of the county of Hampshire in 1918 and held that position for almost thirty years until his death in 1947.

At the same time he took over in 1918 as Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Munitions ( Ministry of ammunition ) another government office in the government of Prime Minister David Lloyd George and was during his term then in 1919 for some time Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Aviation (Under-Secretary of State for Air) . In the general election of December 6, 1923 , he was re-elected as a member of the House of Commons and represented the Isle of Wight constituency again until the general election of October 29, 1924 .

House of Lords and Family

Seely was temporarily also an Honorary Colonel of the 95th Hampshire Yeomanry Brigade, a unit of the Royal Artillery and the 72nd Hampshire Anti-Aircraft Brigade of the Royal Artillery and Honorary Major General of the Reserves of the Territorial Army and Honorary Air Commodore of the Auxiliary Air Force . He was also between 1926 and 1943 chairman of the National Savings Committee .

By a letters patent dated June 21, 1931, Seely was raised to hereditary nobility as Baron Mottistone , of Mottistone in the County of Southampton , and was thus a member of the House of Lords until his death.

Seely was married twice, his first marriage on July 1, 1895 to Emily Florence Crichton, daughter of Colonel Sir Henry George Louis Crichton. From this marriage there were three sons and four daughters. Since the eldest son Frank Reginald Seely died at the age of 21 in April 1917 in the Battle of Arras , the second oldest son Henry John Alexander Seely inherited the title of 2nd Baron Mottistone and membership in the House of Lords after his death. Since he died unmarried and childless on January 18, 1963, his younger brother Arthur Patrick William Seely followed him as 3rd Baron Mottistone. Since he too died without heirs, after his death on December 4, 1966, his half-brother David Peter Seely inherited the title of 4th Baron Mottistone and membership in the House of Lords.

David Seely was the son of JEB Seely's second marriage to Evelyn Izmé Murray, a daughter of Montolieu Fox Oliphant Murray, 1st Viscount Elibank . He was married to this since July 31, 1917.

Publications

• Adventure , 1930
• Fear and be slain , 1931
• For Ever England , 1933

Web links

Commons : John Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• JEB Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone in the Hansard (English)
• Entry in Cracroft's Peerage
• Entry in Leigh Rayment Peerage
• John Edward Bernard Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone on thepeerage.com , accessed August 12, 2015.

predecessor	Office	successor
Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane	Secretary of State for War 1912-1914	Herbert Henry Asquith
New title created	Baron Mottistone 1933-1947	Henry John Alexander Seely