Charles Key
Encyclopedia
Charles William Key, PC
(8 August 1883 – 6 December 1964) was a British
schoolmaster and politician. Coming from a very working-class background, the generosity of a family friend made it possible for him to get a start in life and train as a teacher; he entered politics through Poplar Borough Council
, and was elected to Parliament to replace George Lansbury
. Serving in junior posts during the Attlee government, he remained in Parliament until the age of 81.
, Buckinghamshire
, where his father worked in the brickfields. At the age of six, his father died and he was brought up by his mother alone; the family were very poor and not only did his mother have to work as a charlady
, Key himself was needed to work on deliveries for a local draper. The family were largely dependent on poor relief under the Poor Law
: in later life Key often remembered collecting 1s
. 6d. and two quartern loaves of bread, being two-fifths of a pound. He claimed to have promised his mother at the age of nine that he would get into Parliament and repeal the Poor Law.
.
as a Corporal. After the war, he became Headmaster of schools in Hoxton
and Poplar
. While working in Poplar in 1919, Key (who had joined the Labour Party
in 1906) was elected to Poplar Borough Council
from Bromley North West ward, part of a Labour majority on the council.
Poplar was a very left-wing Labour council. Key was not among the most left-wing (he professed himself as a loyal subject of the King), but he was fully supportive of the campaign to improve the lives of the poor of the borough: in 1925 he was to write that most of the population "live on the verge of destitution". He saw the effects that poverty had on the children at his school. Poplar's high spending to help the poor led to ever-rising rates
, which became an extra burden on local householders.
and other Metropolitan bodies. Key himself, as Chairman of the Public Health Committee, moved a resolution to refer the estimates back to delete the contribution to the LCC. Poplar had a legal duty to collect the rates, and the LCC obtained a judgment requiring payment. Key argued to continue the protest, because the LCC and government had failed to fund promised schemes in the borough.
To enforce payment, the LCC and Metropolitan Asylums Board issued writ
s against 30 Poplar councillors and Aldermen
; however, somewhat inexplicably, Key was not among those proceeded against. The 30 were committed to prison, while Key was made Deputy Mayor to act in the absence of the Mayor (Sam March) who was to go to jail. He was a key organiser of the successful campaign to get the councillors released, and subsequently wrote pamphlets telling the history of the campaign. The rates strike secured a more effective system of easing the burden of LCC rates on poorer boroughs and making borough rates produce the same revenue for councils.
4 per week; this policy was ruled unlawful by the House of Lords
in 1925. Key moved a resolution to reluctantly comply, under protest, with the Lords' judgment. In the municipal years 1923-24, 1926-27 and 1932-33 he served as the Borough's Mayor, and he was also elected as a Poor Law Guardian in 1925, serving until the Guardians were abolished in 1931.
worker in London and deputy controller of civil defence in Poplar. When George Lansbury
(Labour Member of Parliament
(MP) for the Bow and Bromley division of Poplar
) died in 1940, Key was elected at the Bow and Bromley by-election
to follow him; he was opposed only by a Communist candidate in the byelection. From 1941 until the end of the war, Key was Regional Commissioner for the London Civil Defence region, with special responsibility for shelters
.
's post-war government, Key was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health
. He shared responsibility for passing the National Health Service
Act with Aneurin Bevan
; the contrast in their styles, with Bevan's exuberant manner of speech differing markedly from Key's homespun wisdom, was noted. Unfortunately it was Key's successor, John Edwards, who had the honour of finally abolishing the Poor Law.
and settling the layout of the Festival of Britain
. He was appointed to the Privy Council
in 1947, which entitled him to be referred to as "The Right Honourable
Charles Key".
One of Key's responsibilities was to ensure a steady supply of building material for the building of public housing. In 1948 he made the acquaintance of fraudster Sidney Stanley
and was consequently summoned to appear before the Lynskey Tribunal
investigating corruption among Ministers. No accusation against him was substantiated. When the two Poplar constituencies were combined into one at the 1950 general election
, Key was selected there and comfortably elected; however, he left the government immediately afterwards on grounds of age.
for not having spoken at all in the Chamber since the 1959 general election
. Key had announced his retirement in December 1961. He acted as a scrutineer in the ballot for the Labour Party leadership
in 1963.
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
(8 August 1883 – 6 December 1964) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
schoolmaster and politician. Coming from a very working-class background, the generosity of a family friend made it possible for him to get a start in life and train as a teacher; he entered politics through Poplar Borough Council
Metropolitan Borough of Poplar
Poplar was a local government district in the metropolitan area of London, England. It was formed as a district of the Metropolis in 1855 and became a metropolitan borough in the County of London in 1900. It comprised the civil parishes of Bow, Bromley and Poplar until 1907, when it also became a...
, and was elected to Parliament to replace George Lansbury
George Lansbury
George Lansbury was a British politician, socialist, Christian pacifist and newspaper editor. He was a Member of Parliament from 1910 to 1912 and from 1922 to 1940, and leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935....
. Serving in junior posts during the Attlee government, he remained in Parliament until the age of 81.
Poverty of upbringing
Key was born in Chalfont St GilesChalfont St Giles
Chalfont St Giles is a village and civil parish within Chiltern district in south east Buckinghamshire, England, on the edge of the Chilterns, 25 miles from London, and near Seer Green, Jordans, Chalfont St Peter, Little Chalfont and Amersham....
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, where his father worked in the brickfields. At the age of six, his father died and he was brought up by his mother alone; the family were very poor and not only did his mother have to work as a charlady
Charlady
A charlady, char or charwoman was an English house cleaner. The term has the same roots as "chore woman," one hired to do odd chores around the house. A char or chare was a turn in the sixteenth century, and which gave rise to prefix being used to denote people that worked in domestic situations...
, Key himself was needed to work on deliveries for a local draper. The family were largely dependent on poor relief under the Poor Law
Poor Law
The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws before being codified in 1587–98...
: in later life Key often remembered collecting 1s
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
. 6d. and two quartern loaves of bread, being two-fifths of a pound. He claimed to have promised his mother at the age of nine that he would get into Parliament and repeal the Poor Law.
Teaching profession
While Key was attending the village school, and doing well, his mother took in lodgers to help make ends meet. One of the lodgers was a young chemist, who decided to take responsibility for helping him develop his talent, and provided enough funds for Key to continue his education at the Mile End Pupil Teachers' Centre and to get practical training at a school in South Hackney. Key then won a Queen's Scholarship to go to the Borough Road Teacher Training College. There he qualified as a teacher and went into work in a school in Mile EndMile End
Mile End is an area within the East End of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross...
.
Municipal affairs
During the First World War, Key served in the Royal Garrison ArtilleryRoyal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
as a Corporal. After the war, he became Headmaster of schools in Hoxton
Hoxton
Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, immediately north of the financial district of the City of London. The area of Hoxton is bordered by Regent's Canal on the north side, Wharf Road and City Road on the west, Old Street on the south, and Kingsland Road on the east.Hoxton is also a...
and Poplar
Poplar, London
Poplar is a historic, mainly residential area of the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is about east of Charing Cross. Historically a hamlet in the parish of Stepney, Middlesex, in 1817 Poplar became a civil parish. In 1855 the Poplar District of the Metropolis was...
. While working in Poplar in 1919, Key (who had joined the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
in 1906) was elected to Poplar Borough Council
Metropolitan Borough of Poplar
Poplar was a local government district in the metropolitan area of London, England. It was formed as a district of the Metropolis in 1855 and became a metropolitan borough in the County of London in 1900. It comprised the civil parishes of Bow, Bromley and Poplar until 1907, when it also became a...
from Bromley North West ward, part of a Labour majority on the council.
Poplar was a very left-wing Labour council. Key was not among the most left-wing (he professed himself as a loyal subject of the King), but he was fully supportive of the campaign to improve the lives of the poor of the borough: in 1925 he was to write that most of the population "live on the verge of destitution". He saw the effects that poverty had on the children at his school. Poplar's high spending to help the poor led to ever-rising rates
Rates (tax)
Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government...
, which became an extra burden on local householders.
Rates strike
In this situation, in 1921, the Poplar Labour councillors decided to act to relieve the burden and to make a political protest by refusing to collect the rates on behalf of the London County CouncilLondon County Council
London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...
and other Metropolitan bodies. Key himself, as Chairman of the Public Health Committee, moved a resolution to refer the estimates back to delete the contribution to the LCC. Poplar had a legal duty to collect the rates, and the LCC obtained a judgment requiring payment. Key argued to continue the protest, because the LCC and government had failed to fund promised schemes in the borough.
To enforce payment, the LCC and Metropolitan Asylums Board issued writ
Writ
In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court...
s against 30 Poplar councillors and Aldermen
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
; however, somewhat inexplicably, Key was not among those proceeded against. The 30 were committed to prison, while Key was made Deputy Mayor to act in the absence of the Mayor (Sam March) who was to go to jail. He was a key organiser of the successful campaign to get the councillors released, and subsequently wrote pamphlets telling the history of the campaign. The rates strike secured a more effective system of easing the burden of LCC rates on poorer boroughs and making borough rates produce the same revenue for councils.
Municipal service
Poplar held out on other causes, including a minimum wage for its workers of £Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
4 per week; this policy was ruled unlawful by the House of Lords
Judicial functions of the House of Lords
The House of Lords, in addition to having a legislative function, historically also had a judicial function. It functioned as a court of first instance for the trials of peers, for impeachment cases, and as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. In the latter case the House's...
in 1925. Key moved a resolution to reluctantly comply, under protest, with the Lords' judgment. In the municipal years 1923-24, 1926-27 and 1932-33 he served as the Borough's Mayor, and he was also elected as a Poor Law Guardian in 1925, serving until the Guardians were abolished in 1931.
Parliament
On the outbreak of war in 1939, Key left teaching to become a civil defenceCivil defense
Civil defense, civil defence or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from military attack. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation, and recovery...
worker in London and deputy controller of civil defence in Poplar. When George Lansbury
George Lansbury
George Lansbury was a British politician, socialist, Christian pacifist and newspaper editor. He was a Member of Parliament from 1910 to 1912 and from 1922 to 1940, and leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935....
(Labour Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for the Bow and Bromley division of Poplar
Bow and Bromley (UK Parliament constituency)
Bow and Bromley was a constituency in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Located in the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in London, it was created by the Redistribution of Seats Act for the 1885 general election and returned one Member of Parliament until it was abolished by the 1950 general...
) died in 1940, Key was elected at the Bow and Bromley by-election
Bow and Bromley by-election, 1940
The Bow and Bromley by-election, 1940 was a parliamentary by-election held on 12 June 1940 for the British House of Commons constituency of Bow and Bromley in the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in the East End of London....
to follow him; he was opposed only by a Communist candidate in the byelection. From 1941 until the end of the war, Key was Regional Commissioner for the London Civil Defence region, with special responsibility for shelters
Air-raid shelter
Air-raid shelters, also known as bomb shelters, are structures for the protection of the civil population as well as military personnel against enemy attacks from the air...
.
Government minister
In Clement AttleeClement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
's post-war government, Key was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health was a junior ministerial office in the United Kingdom Government.The Ministry of Health was created in 1919 as a reconstruction of the Local Government Board...
. He shared responsibility for passing the National Health Service
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
Act with Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin "Nye" Bevan was a British Labour Party politician who was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1959 until his death in 1960. The son of a coal miner, Bevan was a lifelong champion of social justice and the rights of working people...
; the contrast in their styles, with Bevan's exuberant manner of speech differing markedly from Key's homespun wisdom, was noted. Unfortunately it was Key's successor, John Edwards, who had the honour of finally abolishing the Poor Law.
Minister of Works
In February 1947, Key was promoted to be Minister of Works, where he had to deal with the rebuilding of the House of Commons chamberBritish House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
and settling the layout of the Festival of Britain
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
. He was appointed to the Privy Council
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
in 1947, which entitled him to be referred to as "The Right Honourable
The Right Honourable
The Right Honourable is an honorific prefix that is traditionally applied to certain people in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Anglophone Caribbean and other Commonwealth Realms, and occasionally elsewhere...
Charles Key".
One of Key's responsibilities was to ensure a steady supply of building material for the building of public housing. In 1948 he made the acquaintance of fraudster Sidney Stanley
Sidney Stanley
Sidney Stanley was a Jewish Polish émigré to the UK who became a businessman of precarious ethics before claiming to be a contact man, able to influence politicians and civil servants in return for cash bribes, claims that led to a...
and was consequently summoned to appear before the Lynskey Tribunal
Lynskey tribunal
The Lynskey tribunal was a tribunal of inquiry into allegations of corruption among British government ministers and civil servants. The allegations raised public alarm and disgust in the economic climate of austerity that prevailed in contemporary Britain...
investigating corruption among Ministers. No accusation against him was substantiated. When the two Poplar constituencies were combined into one at the 1950 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1950
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...
, Key was selected there and comfortably elected; however, he left the government immediately afterwards on grounds of age.
Later career
In 1953 Key was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Poplar, an award which made him very proud. He remained a backbench MP although his attendance and frequency of speeches declined; in 1963 he was one of the MPs highlighted by the television programme That Was The Week That WasThat Was The Week That Was
That Was The Week That Was, also known as TW3, is a satirical television comedy programme that was shown on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced and directed by Ned Sherrin and presented by David Frost...
for not having spoken at all in the Chamber since the 1959 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1959
This United Kingdom general election was held on 8 October 1959. It marked a third successive victory for the ruling Conservative Party, led by Harold Macmillan...
. Key had announced his retirement in December 1961. He acted as a scrutineer in the ballot for the Labour Party leadership
Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 1963
The British Labour Party leadership election of 1963 was held following the death of Hugh Gaitskell, the party leader since 1955. He had died on 18 January 1963 and was succeeded by the deputy leader George Brown....
in 1963.