Jack Lawson, 1st Baron Lawson

Jack Lawson

John James "Jack" Lawson, 1st Baron Lawson PC (* 16th October 1881 in Whitehaven , Cumbria , † 3. August 1965 ) was a British trade union functionary and politician of the Labor Party , among others 1919-1950 and Member of the lower House ( House of Commons ) and 1945-1946 war minister was. After retiring from the House, he was 1950 for the hereditary peer collected and was thus until his death a member of the upper house ( House of Lords ) .

Life

Union official and member of the House of Commons

John James "Jack" Lawson, son of the seaman and miner John Lawson, grew up with his nine siblings in poor circumstances and only attended elementary school. In 1890 the family moved to County Durham , where, after finishing school in 1893, at the age of twelve, he worked in the Boldon mine like his father and older brothers. His father and older brothers took part in the Durham miners' strike in 1892 . After working as a driver in the mine, he became a picker in 1904 and began his union involvement at the same time. In 1904 he also became a member of the Independent Labor Party (ILP) and gave speeches about socialism to miners who traditionally voted for the Liberal Party . In 1905 he was elected deputy weight checker to check the weight of the coal mined to calculate wages. His work there led to the fact that he received a scholarship at Ruskin College in Oxford in 1906 . Afterwards he worked again as a miner and was involved in the general election in January 1910 for the socialist Pete Curran , who applied for re-election in the constituency of Jarrow , albeit unsuccessfully . In 1913 he began his own political career in local politics when he was elected to the County Council of Durham, which he served until 1923. During the First World War he did his military service in the Royal Artillery .

In the election on December 14, 1918 , Jack Lawson ran for the Labor Party in the constituency of Seaham for a seat in the House of Commons, but was defeated by the Liberal Party candidate, Evan Hayward , with 8,988 votes (41.3 percent) , to 12,754 votes ( 58.7 percent). The following year he was sent to the health-related resignation of John Wilkinson Taylor on 13 November 1919 at a by-election (by-election) in the constituency Chester-le-Street with 17,838 votes (77.1 percent) for the first time as a deputy of the lower house ( House of Commons ) , of which he was a member for more than thirty years after being re-elected in the subsequent elections until his resignation on December 19, 1949.

Government offices and World War II

During the first government of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald took Jack Lawson between January 23, 1924, the November 4, 1924 his first government post, as a financial secretary in the Ministry of War (Financial Secretary to the War Office ) , and at the same time along with Clement Attlee as parliamentary private secretary from Prime Minister MacDonald. During the second government of Prime Minister MacDonald, he held the post of Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labor from June 11, 1929 to August 25, 1931 , making him the closest associate of Margaret Bondfield , the first female minister of the United Kingdom. In the general election on November 7, 1931 , he was able to defend his mandate, while eighty percent of the Labor MPs lost their seats in the House of Commons.

In 1937 Lawson was one of the leading Labor politicians in the House of Commons and at the beginning of World War II acted as deputy commissioner for civil defense in the region of North East England , which was hit by heavy bombings by the German Air Force , which also affected members of Lawson's family was. In 1944 he was also vice chairman of the British Council , a not-for-profit organization that promotes international relations.

Minister of War and Member of the House of Lords

In the cabinet of Prime Minister Clement Attlee, Jack Lawson was Secretary of War between 1945 and 1946 .

After the victory of the Labor Party in elections on July 5, 1945 Jack Lawson took over in the Cabinet of Prime Minister office as Clement Attlee on August 3, 1945 Minister of War (Secretary of State for War) . He has also since June 15, 1945 member of the Secret Privy Council ( Privy Council ) . As Minister of War, he dealt with the planning of post-war operations and was one of the Prime Minister's loyal confidants in conflicts with other MPs. However, health reasons forced him to give up his post as Minister of War on October 4, 1946, whereupon Frederick Bellenger was his successor. He himself then became Vice President of the National Parks Commission in October 1946 .

On the recommendation of Prime Minister Attlee, Lawson, who was also Knight of the Order of Saint John (KStJ), succeeded Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry, in 1949 Lord Lieutenant of the County of Durham and held this office until his replacement by Christopher Vane, 10th Baron Barnard 1958. After leaving the House of Commons on December 19, 1949, he was given the hereditary nobility by letters patent dated March 17, 1950 as Baron Lawson , of Beamish in the County of Durham the Peerage of the United Kingdom raised and was therefore up to his death a member of the upper house ( House of Lords ) . In the House of Lords, however, he no longer held a leading position, although he loyally supported the Labor Party.

His marriage to household helper Isabella Graham Scott in 1906 gave birth to three daughters, Irene Lawson, Edna Lawson and Alma Lawson. Since he died without male descendants, the title of Baron Lawson expired with his death on August 3, 1965.

Web links

• Entry on the UK Parliament's homepage
• Jack Lawson, 1st Baron Lawson at Hansard (English)
• Entry in Cracroft's Peerage
• PEERAGE in Leigh Rayment Peerage
• John James Lawson, 1st and last Baron Lawson on thepeerage.com , accessed January 9, 2019.
• Jack Lawson: A Man's Life in North East Labor History

Individual evidence

1. ^ Secretary of State for War ( Hansard )
2. ↑ PRIVY COUNSELLORS 1915 - 1968 (leighrayment.com)

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Baron Lawson 1950-1965	Title expired