Harcourt Johnstone | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough West | |
| In office 7 August 1940 –1 March 1945 | |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch/service |  British Army |
| Unit | Rifle Brigade |
| Battles/wars | First World War |
Harcourt Johnstone (19 May 1895 –1 March 1945), nicknamed Crinks, was a British Liberal Party politician.
Johnstone was born in London in 1895, the son of the Hon. Sir Alan Johnstone, a British diplomat, and his American wife Antoinette Pinchot. His nickname 'Crinks' is alleged to have derived from the wrinkled face he had as a baby. [1] One of his ancestors was Sir William Vernon Harcourt (1827–1904) who was Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under William Ewart Gladstone. His paternal grandfather was the first Baron Derwent. Harcourt Johnstone was educated at Eton College and at Balliol College, Oxford. In the First World War he served in the Rifle Brigade and on the staff in France and Belgium.
Drawn to politics, he unsuccessfully contested Willesden East for the Liberals at the general election of 1922. However the sitting Tory MP, Sir H M Mallaby-Deeley, resigned in 1923 causing a by-election which was held on 3 March 1923. Johnstone was again chosen to contest the seat for the Liberals and won by a majority of 5,176 votes over the Conservative George Frederick Stanley. Johnstone held the seat in the 1923 general election, only to lose it to Stanley at the 1924 general election. [2] He then tried and failed to return to the House of Commons at by-elections: first at Eastbourne in 1925 [3] and later at Westbury in 1927, [4] where he lost by just 149 votes. He fought Westbury a second time at the 1929 general election again losing narrowly. However at the 1931 general election he got in at South Shields, before losing the seat in 1935. In May 1940, even though Johnstone was outside Parliament, Winston Churchill decided to appoint him to the government as Secretary to the Department of Overseas Trade. [5] Two months later the Liberal constituency of Middlesbrough West became vacant when the sitting MP, Frank Kingsley Griffith, was made a county court judge [6] and Johnstone was returned for the seat at a by-election on 7 August 1940 unopposed under the terms of the wartime electoral truce. [7] He was made a Privy Councillor in 1943. By common consent he was an effective minister. He is to date the last MP for South Shields to have represented any party other than Labour.
Although little known today, Johnstone was the most prominent Liberal member of the wartime coalition government after Sir Archie Sinclair, who was Liberal leader from 1935 to 1945. He was a key figure in the Liberal Party Organisation between the two World Wars and was Secretary of the influential Liberal Candidates Association. He was a leading supporter of H. H. Asquith in the party split with David Lloyd George and used a lot of his own personal wealth to support the ailing Liberal party. During the National Government after 1931 he remained a faithful member of the Samuelite Liberals, always supporting the traditional policy of Free Trade against protectionism. After 1935, again out of Parliament, he gave close support to Sinclair and, despite the animosities of earlier years, endorsed Sinclair's attempts to reunite the Liberal party with the Lloyd George family group of MPs. Despite temptations to defect from the party during these years – and plenty did – he remained a constant Liberal.
Johnstone's unexpected return to government and Parliament in 1940 came about mainly as a result of his closeness to Sinclair and his friendship with Churchill. Johnstone had been a member and one-time co-secretary with Brendan Bracken of the Other Club since the early 1930s. The Other Club was a political dining club founded by Churchill and F. E. Smith in 1911. This fitted with Johnstone's reputation for enjoying the good life. In his diaries, "Chips", Sir Henry Channon said that Harcourt "dug his own grave with his teeth". He was known as a lover of books, furniture and pictures, being good fun and good company and not being a great exponent of taking exercise. [8]
Aged only 49, Johnstone died suddenly in March 1945 at Westminster Hospital of a cerebral stroke. [9] A memorial service was held for him at the Church of St. Margaret, Westminster on 13 March attended by the prime minister and Clementine Churchill, Clement Attlee (deputy prime minister) and Anthony Eden amongst prominent government mourners. [10]
Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso,, known as Sir Archibald Sinclair between 1912 and 1952, and often as Archie Sinclair, was a British politician and leader of the Liberal Party.
The 1935 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 14 November, and resulted in a large, albeit reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Stanley Baldwin of the Conservative Party. The greatest number of members, as before, were Conservatives, while the National Liberal vote held steady. The much smaller National Labour vote also held steady but the resurgence in the main Labour vote caused over a third of their MPs, including National Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald, to lose their seats. It was the last election in which the largest party won a majority of votes cast.
Alfred Ernest Brown was a British politician who served as leader of the Liberal Nationals from 1940 until 1945. He was a member of Parliament and also held many other political offices throughout the Second World War.
Walter Elliot was a British politician of Scotland's Unionist Party prominent in the interwar period. He was elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in 1918, and besides an interval of months in 1923–24 and 1945–46, remained in parliament until his death. His Cabinet roles were as the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in the National Government (1931–1935) of Ramsay MacDonald; as the Secretary of State for Scotland in the National Government (1935–1937) of Stanley Baldwin; and as Minister of Health in Neville Chamberlain's National Government (1937–1939) and the short-lived Chamberlain war ministry.
Isle of Ely was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, centred on the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire. Until its abolition in 1983, it elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Henry Graham White, known as Graham White, was a radical British Liberal Party politician.
The 1925 Eastbourne by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Eastbourne, Sussex on 17 June 1925.
Robert Hamilton Bernays was a Liberal Party and later Liberal National politician in the United Kingdom who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1931 to 1945.
Sir Austin Uvedale Morgan Hudson, 1st Baronet was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.
Sir Percy Alfred Harris, 1st Baronet, PC was a British Liberal Party politician. He was Liberal Chief Whip and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Parliamentary Party.
The 1945 Middlesbrough West by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 14 May 1945 for the House of Commons constituency of Middlesbrough West.
The 1940 Middlesbrough West by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 7 August 1940 for the British House of Commons constituency of Middlesbrough West.
Frank Kingsley Griffith was a British Liberal Party politician, barrister and County Court judge.
Sir John Hobbis Harris was an English missionary, campaigner against slavery and Liberal Party politician.
The 1923 Willesden East by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Willesden East held on 3 March 1923. The constituency was a large one extending from Kilburn in the south to the Welsh Harp and on to Neasden.
Stephen Noel Furness, was a British barrister and Liberal National politician. He was Member of Parliament for Sunderland from 1935 to 1945. From 1938 to 1940 he was made a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury.
The 1927 Westbury by-election was a by-election held on 16 June 1927 for the British House of Commons constituency of Westbury.
The 1943 Eddisbury by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Eddisbury on 7 April 1943.
The 1937 Combined English Universities by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons dual member constituency of the Combined English Universities held on 22 March 1937.
The Popular Front in the United Kingdom attempted an alliance between political parties and individuals of the left and centre-left in the late 1930s to come together to challenge the appeasement policies of the National Government led by Neville Chamberlain.