Prime Ministers · 20th century

Stanley Baldwin

1867–1947 · British

Conservative

In office: 1923–1924; 1924–1929; 1935–1937

Stanley Baldwin, a Worcestershire ironmaster, was Conservative prime minister three times between 1923 and 1937 and dominated interwar politics. He faced down the General Strike of 1926, extended equal voting rights to women in 1928 and steered the country through the abdication crisis of 1936. Admired for his reassuring, homely style, his reputation later suffered over the slow pace of rearmament against Nazi Germany.

How to spot them

▸General Strike (1926) and the abdication of Edward VIII (1936)
▸Pipe-smoking Worcestershire ironmaster; MP for Bewdley
▸Cousin of Rudyard Kipling; nephew of Burne-Jones and Poynter
▸'The bomber will always get through'; 'power without responsibility'
▸'Safety First' (1929); PM under three monarchs

In office

Defeat of the General Strike (1926)

Nine-day national strike in support of the miners, called off by the TUC

Electricity (Supply) Act creating the Central Electricity Board and the National Grid (1926)

Standardised and connected Britain's electricity supply

Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927 (1927)

Outlawed general strikes after 1926

Equal Franchise Act (the 'flapper vote') (1928)

Gave women the vote on the same terms as men, from age 21

'Safety First' election campaign (1929)

Conservative slogan; the party lost office to Labour

Government of India Act 1935 (1935)

Limited self-government, bitterly opposed by Churchill

The Hoare–Laval Pact over Abyssinia (1935)

Secret plan to concede Abyssinian territory to Italy; public outcry forced Hoare to resign

The abdication crisis of Edward VIII (1936)

Baldwin insisted the King could not marry Wallis Simpson and remain on the throne

Key ideas

Consensual 'One Nation' style conservatism aimed at calming class conflict
Pioneer of radio broadcasting and cinema newsreels as tools of political communication

Quick-fire facts

•Born in Bewdley, Worcestershire; educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge
•His mother was one of the Macdonald sisters, making Rudyard Kipling his first cousin
•In 1919, as Financial Secretary to the Treasury, he anonymously gave a fifth of his fortune towards the war debt, signing a letter to The Times 'F.S.T.'
•In 1931 he attacked the press barons Beaverbrook and Rothermere for exercising 'power without responsibility, the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages'
•Told the Commons in 1932 that 'the bomber will always get through'
•Served under George V, Edward VIII and George VI
•Created Earl Baldwin of Bewdley in 1937

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Sources

GOV.UK — Stanley Baldwin (Past Prime Ministers)
Philip Williamson — Stanley Baldwin: Conservative Leadership and National Values