Leopold Stennett Amery
Encyclopedia
Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery CH (22 November 1873 – 16 September 1955), usually known as Leo Amery or L. S. Amery, was a British Conservative Party
politician and journalist, noted for his interest in military preparedness, India
, and the British Empire
.
, India
to an English father and a Hungarian
Jewish mother. His father was Charles Frederick Amery (1833 – 1901), of Lustleigh
, Devon
, an officer in the Indian Forestry Commission. His mother Elisabeth Johanna Saphir (c. 1841–1908), who was the sister of the orientalist
Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner
, had come to India from England, where her parents had settled and converted to Protestantism. In 1877 his mother moved back to England from India and in 1885 divorced Charles.
, where he was a contemporary of Winston Churchill
. Amery represented Harrow at gymnastics and held the top position in examinations for a number of years, also winning prizes and scholarships.
After Harrow Amery went to Balliol College
, Oxford
, where he performed well: he gained a First at in classical moderations in 1894; in literae humaniores in 1896; he was proxime accessit to the Craven scholar in 1894 and Ouseley scholar in Turkish in 1896, also winning a half-blue in cross-country running.
He was elected a fellow of All Souls College. Undoubtedly bright, he could speak Hindi
at the age of three - Amery was born in India and he would naturally have acquired the language of his ayah (nanny) - and could converse in French
, German
, Italian
, Bulgarian
, Turkish
, Serbian
and Hungarian
.
Amery was a correspondent for The Times
. In 1901, in his articles on the conduct of the war, he attacked the British commander, Sir Redvers Henry Buller, which contributed to Buller's sacking. Amery was the only correspondent to visit Boer forces and was nearly captured with Winston Churchill. Amery later edited and largely wrote The Times History of the South African War (seven volumes; 1899-1909).
The Boer War had exposed deficiencies in the British Army and in 1903 Amery wrote The Problem of the Army in which he advocated its reorganisation. In the The Times he penned articles attacking free trade
using the pseudonym "Tariff Reformer" and in 1906 he wrote The Fundamental Fallacies of Free Trade. Amery described this as "a theoretical blast of economic heresy" because he argued that the total volume of British trade was less important than the question of whether British trade was making up for the nation's lack of raw materials and food through exporting surplus manufactured goods, shipping and financial acumen.
He was a member of the Coefficients dining club
of social reformers set up in 1902 by the Fabian
campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb
.
(MP) for Birmingham South
, a seat he would hold until 1945. One reason why Amery agreed to stand there under the Liberal Unionist label (they were to fully merge with the Conservatives the following year) was that he had been a long time political admirer of Joseph Chamberlain
and was an ardent supporter of Tariff Reform and imperial federation.
his language skills led to his employment as an Intelligence Officer in the Balkans. Later, as an under-secretary in Lloyd George
's national government, he helped draft the Balfour Declaration
(1917). He also encouraged Ze'ev Jabotinsky in the formation of the Jewish Legion
for the British Army in Palestine
.
Amery was an opponent of the idea of a League of Nations
that was canvassed during the war as he believed that the world was not equal and therefore a League of Nations that treated all states as equals with equal voting rights was absurd. Amery instead believed that the world was tending to larger and larger states, with the outcome resulting in a balanced world of inherently stable units. He contrasted this idea favourably to President Woodrow Wilson
's "facile slogan of self-determination
".
. The Washington Naval Conference
of 1921-1922 resulted in the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty
, which reduced the strength of the Royal Navy and the naval Estimates from over £83,000,000 to £58,000,000. Amery defended the financing of the Singapore
naval base against Liberal and Labour attacks.
in Baldwin's government from 1924 to 1929. Amery expanded the role of the Commercial Adviser into the Economic and Financial Advisership under Sir George Schuster
. He also created the post of Chief Medical Adviser under Sir Thomas Stanton
and a range of advisers on education (Sir Hanns Visscher for Tropical Africa), agriculture (Sir Frank Stockdale), a Veterinary Adviser, and a Fisheries Adviser. He also set up the Empire Marketing Board
.
formed in 1931. He remained in Parliament, but joined the boards of several prominent corporations. This was necessary as he had no independent means and had depleted his savings during World War I and when he was a cabinet minister during the 1920s. Among his directorships were the boards of several German metal fabrication companies (representing British capital invested in the companies), of the British Southern Railway
, the Gloucester Wagon Company
, Marks and Spencer, the famous shipbuilding firm Cammell Laird
, and the Trust and Loan of Canada. He was also chairman of the Iraq Currency Board.
In the course of his duties as a director of German metal fabrication companies, visiting factories, Amery gained a good understanding of German military potential. Adolf Hitler
became alarmed at this situation and ordered a halt to non-German directors. Amery spent a lot of time in Germany during the 1930s in connection with his work. He was not allowed to send his director's fees out of the country, so he took his family on holiday in the Bavarian Alps. He had a lengthy meeting with Hitler on at least one occasion. He also met at length with the Czech leader, Benes
, the Austrian leaders Dollfuss
and Schuschnigg and Benito Mussolini
of Italy.
was, until his death, a member of this group as well. While there was no question that Churchill was the most prominent and effective, Amery's work was not insignificant. He was a driving force behind the creation of the Army League, a pressure group designed to keep the needs of the British Army
before the public.
In the 1930s, Amery, along with Winston Churchill, was a bitter critic of the appeasement
of Nazi Germany, often openly attacking his own party. Being a former Colonial and Dominions Secretary, he was very aware of the views of the dominions and strongly opposed giving Germany back her colonies, a proposal seriously considered by Neville Chamberlain.
On the rearmament question, Amery was consistent. He advocated a higher level of expenditure, but also a reappraisal of priorities through the creation of a top level cabinet position to develop overall defence strategy, so that the increased expenditures could be spent wisely. He thought that either he or Churchill should be given the post. When a ministry for the coordination of defence was finally created under a political lightweight, Sir Thomas Inskip, he regarded it as a joke.
When the war came, Amery was one of the few anti-appeasers who was opposed to co-operation with the Soviet Union
in order to defeat Nazi Germany
. This came from a life-long fear of Communism
.
It is commonly believed that, when Neville Chamberlain
announced his flight to Munich to the cheers of the House, Amery was one of only four members who remained seated (the others were Churchill, Anthony Eden
and Harold Nicolson
).
Amery differed from Churchill in hoping throughout the 1930s to foster an alliance with Italy to counter the rising strength of Nazi Germany. A united front of Britain, France and Italy would, he felt, have prevented a Nazi takeover of Austria, especially if supported by Czechoslovakia
. For this reason he was in favour of appeasing Italy, by tacitly conceding her claims to Ethiopia
. A start in this direction was made in the so-called Stresa Front
of 1935, but the move by Britain to impose economic sanctions on Italy, after the Italian invasion of Ethiopia
in 1936, drove Italy, he felt, into the arms of Germany.
Another feature of Amery's outlook was a significant distrust of the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This stemmed from the thrust of the American Secretary of State
, Cordell Hull
, to use all his influence to pressure Canada to oppose Empire Free Trade, perhaps Amery's most cherished project. While the pressure was unsuccessful with Canadian Conservative
Prime Minister, Richard Bedford Bennett, his Liberal
successor, William Lyon Mackenzie King
, adopted a more pro-American stance.
immediately for having invaded Poland
. This greatly angered Amery and was felt by many present to be out of touch with the temper of the British people. As Labour Party
leader Clement Attlee
was absent, Arthur Greenwood
stood up in his place and announced that he was speaking for Labour. Amery called out to him across the floor, "Speak for England!"—which carried the undeniable implication that Chamberlain was not.
The second incident occurred during the notorious Norway Debate
in 1940. After a string of military and naval disasters were announced, Amery famously attacked Chamberlain's government, quoting Oliver Cromwell
:
Lloyd George afterwards told Amery that in fifty years he had heard few speeches that matched his in sustained power and none with so dramatic a climax. This debate led to 42 Conservative MPs voting against Chamberlain and 36 abstaining, leading to the downfall of the Conservative government and the formation of a national government under Churchill's premiership. Amery himself noted in his diary that he believed that his speech was one of his best received in the House, and that he had made a difference to the outcome of the debate.
, despite the fact that the fate of India had been a keen issue of dispute between Churchill and Amery for many years. Amery was disappointed not to be given a post in the War Cabinet, but he was determined to do all he could in the position he was offered. He was continually frustrated by Churchill's intransigence, and in his memoirs records that Churchill knew "as much of the Indian problem as George III did of the American colonies."
, he lost his seat to Labour
's Percy Shurmer
, a Post Office worker. He was offered but refused a peerage
because this might, when he died, have cut short his son Julian's political career in the House of Commons. However, he was made a Companion of Honour. In retirement, Amery published his three volume autobiography, My Political Life (1953-5).
, but also in Bavaria, Austria, Yugoslavia and Italy as well as in the Canadian Rockies where Mt. Amery is named after him. He enjoyed skiing as well. He was a member of the Alpine Club
(serving as its President, 1943–1945) and also of the Athenaeum
and Carlton
clubs. He was a Senior Knight Vice President of the Knights of The Round Table Club
.
Leo Amery's elder son, John Amery
(1912–1945), had a troubled early life, and became an open Nazi
sympathizer. During the Second World War, he made propaganda broadcasts from Germany and induced a few British prisoners of war to join the German-controlled "British Free Corps
". After the war he was hanged for treason
. Leo Amery amended his entry in Who's Who
to read "one s[on]". The playwright Ronald Harwood
, who explores the relationship between Leo and John Amery in his play An English Tragedy (2008), considers it significant to John Amery's story that Leo Amery had apparently concealed his partly Jewish ancestry.
Amery's younger son, Julian Amery (1919–1996), became a Conservative politician; he served in the cabinets of Harold Macmillan
and Sir Alec Douglas-Home
as Minister for Aviation (1962–64), and held junior ministerial office under Edward Heath
.
Amery was very active in imperial affairs during the 1920s and 1930s. He was in charge of colonial affairs and relations with the dominions from 1924 to 1929. In the 1930s he was a member of the Empire Industries Association and a chief organizer of the huge rally celebrating the Empire at the Royal Albert Hall
in 1936 marking the centenary of Joseph Chamberlain
's birth. Amery maintained a very busy speaking schedule, with almost 200 engagements between 1936 and 1938, many of them devoted to imperial topics, especially Imperial Preference
.
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician and journalist, noted for his interest in military preparedness, India
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
, and the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
.
Early life
Leopold Amery was born in GorakhpurGorakhpur
Gorakhpur is a city in the eastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, near the border with Nepal. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur District and Gorakhpur Division. Gorakhpur is one of the proposed capitals of the Purvanchal state which is yet to be formed...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to an English father and a Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
Jewish mother. His father was Charles Frederick Amery (1833 – 1901), of Lustleigh
Lustleigh
Lustleigh is a small village nestled in the Wrey Valley, inside the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England. It sits between the towns of Bovey Tracey and Moretonhampstead....
, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, an officer in the Indian Forestry Commission. His mother Elisabeth Johanna Saphir (c. 1841–1908), who was the sister of the orientalist
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...
Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner
Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner
Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner or Gottlieb William Leitner M.A.,Ph.D.,L.L.D.,D.O.L. was an Anglo-Hungarian orientalist.-Early life and education:...
, had come to India from England, where her parents had settled and converted to Protestantism. In 1877 his mother moved back to England from India and in 1885 divorced Charles.
Education
In 1887 Amery went to HarrowHarrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
, where he was a contemporary of Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
. Amery represented Harrow at gymnastics and held the top position in examinations for a number of years, also winning prizes and scholarships.
After Harrow Amery went to Balliol College
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, where he performed well: he gained a First at in classical moderations in 1894; in literae humaniores in 1896; he was proxime accessit to the Craven scholar in 1894 and Ouseley scholar in Turkish in 1896, also winning a half-blue in cross-country running.
He was elected a fellow of All Souls College. Undoubtedly bright, he could speak Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
at the age of three - Amery was born in India and he would naturally have acquired the language of his ayah (nanny) - and could converse in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
, Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
and Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
.
Journalism
During the Second Boer WarSecond Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
Amery was a correspondent for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. In 1901, in his articles on the conduct of the war, he attacked the British commander, Sir Redvers Henry Buller, which contributed to Buller's sacking. Amery was the only correspondent to visit Boer forces and was nearly captured with Winston Churchill. Amery later edited and largely wrote The Times History of the South African War (seven volumes; 1899-1909).
The Boer War had exposed deficiencies in the British Army and in 1903 Amery wrote The Problem of the Army in which he advocated its reorganisation. In the The Times he penned articles attacking free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
using the pseudonym "Tariff Reformer" and in 1906 he wrote The Fundamental Fallacies of Free Trade. Amery described this as "a theoretical blast of economic heresy" because he argued that the total volume of British trade was less important than the question of whether British trade was making up for the nation's lack of raw materials and food through exporting surplus manufactured goods, shipping and financial acumen.
He was a member of the Coefficients dining club
Coefficients (dining club)
The Coefficients was a dining club founded in 1902 at a dinner given by the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb. It was a forum for the meeting of British socialist reformers and imperialists of the Edwardian era...
of social reformers set up in 1902 by the Fabian
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...
campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb
Beatrice Webb
Martha Beatrice Webb, Lady Passfield was an English sociologist, economist, socialist and social reformer. Although her husband became Baron Passfield in 1929, she refused to be known as Lady Passfield...
.
Early political career
Amery turned down the chance to be editor of The Observer in 1908 and The Times in 1912in order to concentrate on politics. In May 1911 he was elected unopposed as a Liberal Unionist Member of ParliamentMember 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 Birmingham South
Birmingham South (UK Parliament constituency)
Birmingham South was a parliamentary constituency in Birmingham which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 until it was abolished for the 1918 general election....
, a seat he would hold until 1945. One reason why Amery agreed to stand there under the Liberal Unionist label (they were to fully merge with the Conservatives the following year) was that he had been a long time political admirer of Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain was an influential British politician and statesman. Unlike most major politicians of the time, he was a self-made businessman and had not attended Oxford or Cambridge University....
and was an ardent supporter of Tariff Reform and imperial federation.
First World War
During the First World WarWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
his language skills led to his employment as an Intelligence Officer in the Balkans. Later, as an under-secretary in Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
's national government, he helped draft the Balfour Declaration
Balfour Declaration, 1917
The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was a letter from the British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Baron Rothschild , a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.The statement was issued through the efforts of Chaim...
(1917). He also encouraged Ze'ev Jabotinsky in the formation of the Jewish Legion
Jewish Legion
The Jewish Legion was the name for five battalions of Jewish volunteers established as the British Army's 38th through 42nd Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers...
for the British Army in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
.
Amery was an opponent of the idea of a League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
that was canvassed during the war as he believed that the world was not equal and therefore a League of Nations that treated all states as equals with equal voting rights was absurd. Amery instead believed that the world was tending to larger and larger states, with the outcome resulting in a balanced world of inherently stable units. He contrasted this idea favourably to President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
's "facile slogan of self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
".
First Lord of the Admiralty
He was First Lord of the Admiralty (1922–1924) under Andrew Bonar Law and Stanley BaldwinStanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars...
. The Washington Naval Conference
Washington Naval Conference
The Washington Naval Conference also called the Washington Arms Conference, was a military conference called by President Warren G. Harding and held in Washington from 12 November 1921 to 6 February 1922. Conducted outside the auspices of the League of Nations, it was attended by nine nations...
of 1921-1922 resulted in the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty
Washington Naval Treaty
The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was an attempt to cap and limit, and "prevent 'further' costly escalation" of the naval arms race that had begun after World War I between various International powers, each of which had significant naval fleets. The treaty was...
, which reduced the strength of the Royal Navy and the naval Estimates from over £83,000,000 to £58,000,000. Amery defended the financing of the Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
naval base against Liberal and Labour attacks.
Colonial Secretary
Amery was Colonial SecretarySecretary of State for the Colonies
The Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies....
in Baldwin's government from 1924 to 1929. Amery expanded the role of the Commercial Adviser into the Economic and Financial Advisership under Sir George Schuster
George Schuster
George N. Schuster was the driver of the American built Thomas Flyer and winner of the 1908 New York to Paris Race The “Great Race” was an International competition among teams representing Germany , Italy , France and the United States...
. He also created the post of Chief Medical Adviser under Sir Thomas Stanton
Thomas Stanton
Thomas Stanton was a trader and an accomplished Indian interpreter and negotiator in the colony of Connecticut. One of the original settlers of Hartford, he was also one of four founders of Stonington, Connecticut, along with William Chesebrough, Thomas Miner, and Walter Palmer.He first appears...
and a range of advisers on education (Sir Hanns Visscher for Tropical Africa), agriculture (Sir Frank Stockdale), a Veterinary Adviser, and a Fisheries Adviser. He also set up the Empire Marketing Board
Empire Marketing Board
The Empire Marketing Board was formed in May 1926 by the Colonial Secretary Leo Amery to promote inter-Empire trade and to persuade consumers to 'Buy Empire'...
.
Wilderness years
Amery was not invited to join the National GovernmentUK National Government
In the United Kingdom the term National Government is an abstract concept referring to a coalition of some or all major political parties. In a historical sense it usually refers primarily to the governments of Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain which held office from 1931...
formed in 1931. He remained in Parliament, but joined the boards of several prominent corporations. This was necessary as he had no independent means and had depleted his savings during World War I and when he was a cabinet minister during the 1920s. Among his directorships were the boards of several German metal fabrication companies (representing British capital invested in the companies), of the British Southern Railway
Southern Railway (Great Britain)
The Southern Railway was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent...
, the Gloucester Wagon Company
Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company
Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company was a railway rolling stock manufacturer based at Gloucester, England; from 1860 until 1986....
, Marks and Spencer, the famous shipbuilding firm Cammell Laird
Cammell Laird
Cammell Laird, one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came about following the merger of Laird, Son & Co. of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co. of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century.- Founding of the business :The Company...
, and the Trust and Loan of Canada. He was also chairman of the Iraq Currency Board.
In the course of his duties as a director of German metal fabrication companies, visiting factories, Amery gained a good understanding of German military potential. Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
became alarmed at this situation and ordered a halt to non-German directors. Amery spent a lot of time in Germany during the 1930s in connection with his work. He was not allowed to send his director's fees out of the country, so he took his family on holiday in the Bavarian Alps. He had a lengthy meeting with Hitler on at least one occasion. He also met at length with the Czech leader, Benes
Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš was a leader of the Czechoslovak independence movement, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the second President of Czechoslovakia. He was known to be a skilled diplomat.- Youth :...
, the Austrian leaders Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian Christian Social and Patriotic Front statesman. Serving previously as Minister for Forest and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government...
and Schuschnigg and Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
of Italy.
Rearmament and appeasement
In the debates on the need for an increased effort to rearm British forces, Amery tended to focus on army affairs, with Churchill speaking more about air defence and Roger Keyes talking about naval affairs. Austen ChamberlainAusten Chamberlain
Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain, KG was a British statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and half-brother of Neville Chamberlain.- Early life and career :...
was, until his death, a member of this group as well. While there was no question that Churchill was the most prominent and effective, Amery's work was not insignificant. He was a driving force behind the creation of the Army League, a pressure group designed to keep the needs of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
before the public.
In the 1930s, Amery, along with Winston Churchill, was a bitter critic of the appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
of Nazi Germany, often openly attacking his own party. Being a former Colonial and Dominions Secretary, he was very aware of the views of the dominions and strongly opposed giving Germany back her colonies, a proposal seriously considered by Neville Chamberlain.
On the rearmament question, Amery was consistent. He advocated a higher level of expenditure, but also a reappraisal of priorities through the creation of a top level cabinet position to develop overall defence strategy, so that the increased expenditures could be spent wisely. He thought that either he or Churchill should be given the post. When a ministry for the coordination of defence was finally created under a political lightweight, Sir Thomas Inskip, he regarded it as a joke.
When the war came, Amery was one of the few anti-appeasers who was opposed to co-operation with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in order to defeat Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. This came from a life-long fear of Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
.
It is commonly believed that, when Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
announced his flight to Munich to the cheers of the House, Amery was one of only four members who remained seated (the others were Churchill, Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
and Harold Nicolson
Harold Nicolson
Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG was an English diplomat, author, diarist and politician. He was the husband of writer Vita Sackville-West, their unusual relationship being described in their son's book, Portrait of a Marriage.-Early life:Nicolson was born in Tehran, Persia, the younger son of...
).
Amery differed from Churchill in hoping throughout the 1930s to foster an alliance with Italy to counter the rising strength of Nazi Germany. A united front of Britain, France and Italy would, he felt, have prevented a Nazi takeover of Austria, especially if supported by Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. For this reason he was in favour of appeasing Italy, by tacitly conceding her claims to Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
. A start in this direction was made in the so-called Stresa Front
Stresa Front
The Stresa Front was an agreement made in Stresa, a town on the banks of Lake Maggiore in Italy, between French foreign minister Pierre Laval, British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, and Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini on April 14, 1935...
of 1935, but the move by Britain to impose economic sanctions on Italy, after the Italian invasion of Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
in 1936, drove Italy, he felt, into the arms of Germany.
Another feature of Amery's outlook was a significant distrust of the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This stemmed from the thrust of the American Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
, Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull was an American politician from the U.S. state of Tennessee. He is best known as the longest-serving Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during much of World War II...
, to use all his influence to pressure Canada to oppose Empire Free Trade, perhaps Amery's most cherished project. While the pressure was unsuccessful with Canadian Conservative
Conservative Party of Canada (historical)
The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...
Prime Minister, Richard Bedford Bennett, his Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
successor, William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...
, adopted a more pro-American stance.
Second World War
Amery is famous for two moments of high drama in the House of Commons early in World War II. On 2 September 1939, Neville Chamberlain spoke in a Commons debate and said (in effect) that he was not declaring war on GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
immediately for having invaded Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. This greatly angered Amery and was felt by many present to be out of touch with the temper of the British people. As 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...
leader Clement Attlee
Clement 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...
was absent, Arthur Greenwood
Arthur Greenwood
Arthur Greenwood CH was a prominent member of the Labour Party from the 1920s until the late 1940s. He rose to prominence within the party as secretary of its research department from 1920 and served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health in the short-lived Labour government of 1924...
stood up in his place and announced that he was speaking for Labour. Amery called out to him across the floor, "Speak for England!"—which carried the undeniable implication that Chamberlain was not.
The second incident occurred during the notorious Norway Debate
Norway Debate
The Norway Debate, sometimes called the Narvik Debate, was a famous debate in the British House of Commons that took place in May 1940. It led to the formation of a widely-based National Government led by Winston Churchill which was to govern Britain until the end of World War II in Europe...
in 1940. After a string of military and naval disasters were announced, Amery famously attacked Chamberlain's government, quoting Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
:
You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!
Lloyd George afterwards told Amery that in fifty years he had heard few speeches that matched his in sustained power and none with so dramatic a climax. This debate led to 42 Conservative MPs voting against Chamberlain and 36 abstaining, leading to the downfall of the Conservative government and the formation of a national government under Churchill's premiership. Amery himself noted in his diary that he believed that his speech was one of his best received in the House, and that he had made a difference to the outcome of the debate.
Secretary of State for India
During the war Amery was Secretary of State for IndiaSecretary of State for India
The Secretary of State for India, or India Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister responsible for the government of India and the political head of the India Office...
, despite the fact that the fate of India had been a keen issue of dispute between Churchill and Amery for many years. Amery was disappointed not to be given a post in the War Cabinet, but he was determined to do all he could in the position he was offered. He was continually frustrated by Churchill's intransigence, and in his memoirs records that Churchill knew "as much of the Indian problem as George III did of the American colonies."
Last years
At the 1945 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
, he lost his seat to Labour
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...
's Percy Shurmer
Percy Shurmer
Percy Lionel Edward Shurmer was a British Labour Party politician and postal worker.In the 1945 general election, he won the Birmingham Sparkbrook constituency from the Conservative Member of Parliament, Leo Amery. Shurmer held the seat until death some months before the 1959 general election,...
, a Post Office worker. He was offered but refused a peerage
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
because this might, when he died, have cut short his son Julian's political career in the House of Commons. However, he was made a Companion of Honour. In retirement, Amery published his three volume autobiography, My Political Life (1953-5).
Personal life
Leo Amery was a noted outdoorsman, especially famous as a mountaineer. He continued to climb well into his sixties, especially in the Swiss AlpsSwiss Alps
The Swiss Alps are the portion of the Alps mountain range that lies within Switzerland. Because of their central position within the entire Alpine range, they are also known as the Central Alps....
, but also in Bavaria, Austria, Yugoslavia and Italy as well as in the Canadian Rockies where Mt. Amery is named after him. He enjoyed skiing as well. He was a member of the Alpine Club
Alpine Club (UK)
The Alpine Club was founded in London in 1857 and was probably the world's first mountaineering club. It is UK mountaineering's acknowledged 'senior club'.-History:...
(serving as its President, 1943–1945) and also of the Athenaeum
Athenaeum Club, London
The Athenaeum Club, usually just referred to as the Athenaeum, is a notable London club with its Clubhouse located at 107 Pall Mall, London, England, at the corner of Waterloo Place....
and Carlton
Carlton Club
The Carlton Club is a gentlemen's club in London which describes itself as the "oldest, most elite, and most important of all Conservative clubs." Membership of the club is by nomination and election only.-History:...
clubs. He was a Senior Knight Vice President of the Knights of The Round Table Club
Society of Knights of the Round Table
The Honourable Society of Knights of the Round Table, also known as The Knights of the Round Table Club, is a British society which exists to perpetuate the name and fame of King Arthur and the ideals for which he stood...
.
Leo Amery's elder son, John Amery
John Amery
John Amery was a British fascist who proposed to the Wehrmacht the formation of a British volunteer force and made recruitment efforts and propaganda broadcasts for Nazi Germany...
(1912–1945), had a troubled early life, and became an open Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
sympathizer. During the Second World War, he made propaganda broadcasts from Germany and induced a few British prisoners of war to join the German-controlled "British Free Corps
British Free Corps
During World War II, the British Free Corps was a unit of the consisting of British and Dominion prisoners of war who had been recruited by the Nazis. The unit was originally known as The Legion of St...
". After the war he was hanged for treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
. Leo Amery amended his entry in Who's Who
Who's Who (UK)
Who's Who is an annual British publication of biographies which vary in length of about 30,000 living notable Britons.-History:...
to read "one s[on]". The playwright Ronald Harwood
Ronald Harwood
Sir Ronald Harwood CBE is an author, playwright and screenwriter. He is most noted for his plays for the British stage as well as the screenplays for The Dresser and The Pianist, for which he won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay...
, who explores the relationship between Leo and John Amery in his play An English Tragedy (2008), considers it significant to John Amery's story that Leo Amery had apparently concealed his partly Jewish ancestry.
Amery's younger son, Julian Amery (1919–1996), became a Conservative politician; he served in the cabinets of Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
and Sir Alec Douglas-Home
Alec Douglas-Home
Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel, KT, PC , known as The Earl of Home from 1951 to 1963 and as Sir Alec Douglas-Home from 1963 to 1974, was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1963 to October 1964.He is the last...
as Minister for Aviation (1962–64), and held junior ministerial office under Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
.
Legacy
Throughout his political career, Amery was an exponent of Imperial unity, as he saw the British Empire as a force for justice and progress in the world. He strongly supported the evolution of the dominions into independent nations bound to Britain by ties of kinship, trade, defence and a common pride in the Empire. He also supported the gradual evolution of other colonies, particularly India, to the same status. In this he differed from Churchill, a free trader, who was less interested in the Empire as such, and more in Britain itself as a great power. Amery felt that Britain was too weak by itself to maintain its great power position.Amery was very active in imperial affairs during the 1920s and 1930s. He was in charge of colonial affairs and relations with the dominions from 1924 to 1929. In the 1930s he was a member of the Empire Industries Association and a chief organizer of the huge rally celebrating the Empire at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
in 1936 marking the centenary of Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain was an influential British politician and statesman. Unlike most major politicians of the time, he was a self-made businessman and had not attended Oxford or Cambridge University....
's birth. Amery maintained a very busy speaking schedule, with almost 200 engagements between 1936 and 1938, many of them devoted to imperial topics, especially Imperial Preference
Imperial Preference
Imperial Preference was a proposed system of reciprocally-levelled tariffs or free trade agreements between the dominions and colonies within the British Empire...
.
Further reading
- John Barnes and David Nicolson (eds.), The Leo Amery Diaries. 1896-1929 (London: Hutchinson, 1980).
- John Barnes and David Nicolson (eds.), The Empire at Bay. The Leo Amery Diaries. 1929-1945 (London: Hutchinson, 1987).
- Stephen Constantine, The Making of British Colonial Development Policy (London: Routledge, 1984).
- David Goldsworthy, Colonial Issues in British Politics, 1945–1961 (Oxford University Press, 1971).
- W. R. Louis, In the name of God, go! Leo Amery and the British empire in the age of Churchill (W. W. Norton & Co., 1992).
- W. R. Louis, ‘Leo Amery and the post-war world, 1945–55’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 30 (2002), pp. 71–90.
- Philip Williamson, National Crisis and National Government: British Politics, the Economy and Empire, 1926–1932 (Cambridge University Press, 1992).