Wilfrid William Ashley, 1st Baron Mount Temple
Encyclopedia
Wilfrid William Ashley, 1st Baron Mount Temple PC
(13 September 1867 – 3 July 1939), was a British soldier and Conservative
politician. He served as Minister of Transport
between 1924 and 1929 under Stanley Baldwin
.
, second son of the social reformer Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
. His mother was Sybella Charlotte Farquhar, daughter of Sir Walter Farquhar, 3rd Baronet. William Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple
, was his great-uncle. He was educated at Harrow
and Magdalen College, Oxford
.
in the British Army
, was well-known as an activist in various pressure groups before commencing his party political career. He was a leading figure in the Navy League and also set up the anti-state intervention No More Waste Committee during the First World War. He was subsequently involved in the foundation of the Comrades of the Great War
in 1917 and as President of the group helped to ensure that the ex-servicemen's movement was closely linked to the Conservative Party at its foundation.
Ashley was elected to parliament in 1906 to represent Blackpool
, holding the seat until 1918 before subsequently sitting as member for Fylde
until 1922 and New Forest
from 1922 to 1932. He served under Andrew Bonar Law
and Stanley Baldwin
as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport
and Parliamentary Secretary to the Office of Works from October 1922 until October 1923, when he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War
, which he remained until January 1924. Ashley was sworn of the Privy Council
in February 1924 and when the Conservatives returned to power under Baldwin in November of that year he was made Minister for Transport
, an office he retained until the fall of the Baldwin administration in 1929. He left the House of Commons in 1932 and was raised to the peerage as Baron Mount Temple, of Lee in the County of Southampton, a revival of the title held by his great-uncle.
Lord Mount Temple remained active within the House of Lords
and was a vocal supporter of the policy of appeasement
towards Nazi Germany
. He admire Adolf Hitler
for his anti-communism
, although much of his conviction rested on the belief that the Treaty of Versailles
had been unjust to begin with and that it should be revised regardless of who was in government in Germany. In order to underline his support for the Germans Ashley was instrumental in establishing the Anglo-German Fellowship
in 1935. He served as chairman of both this group and Anti-Socialist Union
simultaneously in the later 1930s.
As AGF chairman Ashley visited Germany in mid 1937 and held a meeting with Hitler. However unlike some of his contemporaries in the Fellowship the laissez-faire
capitalist Ashley did not support ideological Nazism
and he resigned in protest from the chairmanship in the aftermath of Kristallnacht
, although his membership of the group continued.
, in 1901. Amongst the wedding guests was Crown Prince Albert Edward
(the wedding taking place on 4 January, only eighteen days before Edward became king), who was a friend of Cassel. The couple had two daughters, Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma
and Ruth Mary Clarisse, wife of Alec Cunningham-Reid
, later Gardner, later Lady Delamere
). After his first wife's early death he married as his second wife Muriel Emily ("Molly") Forbes-Sempill, the former wife of Rear-Admiral the Honourable A. L. O. Forbes-Sempill and daughter of Reverend Walter Spencer. Lord Mount Temple died in July 1939, aged 71, when the barony became extinct.
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...
(13 September 1867 – 3 July 1939), was a British soldier and Conservative
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. He served as Minister of Transport
Secretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport is the member of the cabinet responsible for the British Department for Transport. The role has had a high turnover as new appointments are blamed for the failures of decades of their predecessors...
between 1924 and 1929 under Stanley Baldwin
Stanley 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...
.
Background and education
Ashley was the son of Evelyn AshleyEvelyn Ashley
Evelyn Melbourne Ashley PC , was British barrister and Liberal politician. He was private secretary to Lord Palmerston and later published a biography of him...
, second son of the social reformer Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury KG , styled Lord Ashley from 1811 to 1851, was an English politician and philanthropist, one of the best-known of the Victorian era and one of the main proponents of Christian Zionism.-Youth:He was born in London and known informally as Lord Ashley...
. His mother was Sybella Charlotte Farquhar, daughter of Sir Walter Farquhar, 3rd Baronet. William Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple
William Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple
William Francis Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple PC , known as William Cowper before 1869 and as William Cowper-Temple between 1869 and 1880, was a British Liberal Party politician and statesman....
, was his great-uncle. He was educated at Harrow
Harrow 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...
and Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
.
Political career
Ashley, who held the rank of ColonelColonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
in 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...
, was well-known as an activist in various pressure groups before commencing his party political career. He was a leading figure in the Navy League and also set up the anti-state intervention No More Waste Committee during the First World War. He was subsequently involved in the foundation of the Comrades of the Great War
Comrades of the Great War
The Comrades of The Great War were formed in 1917 as a non-political association to represent the rights of ex-service men and women who had served or had been discharged from service during World War I. Comrades of The Great War was one of the original four ex-service associations that amalgamated...
in 1917 and as President of the group helped to ensure that the ex-servicemen's movement was closely linked to the Conservative Party at its foundation.
Ashley was elected to parliament in 1906 to represent Blackpool
Blackpool (UK Parliament constituency)
Blackpool was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Blackpool in Lancashire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
, holding the seat until 1918 before subsequently sitting as member for Fylde
Fylde (UK Parliament constituency)
Fylde is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-History:...
until 1922 and New Forest
New Forest (UK Parliament constituency)
New Forest was a county constituency in Hampshire which elected one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
from 1922 to 1932. He served under Andrew Bonar Law
Andrew Bonar Law
Andrew Bonar Law was a British Conservative Party statesman and Prime Minister. Born in the colony of New Brunswick, he is the only British Prime Minister to have been born outside the British Isles...
and Stanley Baldwin
Stanley 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...
as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport was a junior position at the British Ministry of Transport. The office was renamed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of War Transport in 1941, but resumed its former name at the end of the Second World War.-Parliamentary Secretaries to the...
and Parliamentary Secretary to the Office of Works from October 1922 until October 1923, when he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War
Under-Secretary of State for War
The position of Under-Secretary of State for War was a British government position, first applied to Evan Nepean . In 1801 the offices for War and the Colonies were merged and the post became that of Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies...
, which he remained until January 1924. Ashley was sworn of 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 February 1924 and when the Conservatives returned to power under Baldwin in November of that year he was made Minister for Transport
Secretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport is the member of the cabinet responsible for the British Department for Transport. The role has had a high turnover as new appointments are blamed for the failures of decades of their predecessors...
, an office he retained until the fall of the Baldwin administration in 1929. He left the House of Commons in 1932 and was raised to the peerage as Baron Mount Temple, of Lee in the County of Southampton, a revival of the title held by his great-uncle.
Lord Mount Temple remained active within the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
and was a vocal supporter of the policy of 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...
towards 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...
. He admire 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...
for his anti-communism
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
, although much of his conviction rested on the belief that the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
had been unjust to begin with and that it should be revised regardless of who was in government in Germany. In order to underline his support for the Germans Ashley was instrumental in establishing the Anglo-German Fellowship
Anglo-German Fellowship
The Anglo-German Fellowship was a group which existed from 1935 to 1939 and aimed to build up friendship between the United Kingdom and Germany; it was widely perceived as being allied to Nazism...
in 1935. He served as chairman of both this group and Anti-Socialist Union
Anti-Socialist Union
The Anti-Socialist Union was a British political pressure group that supported free trade economics and opposed socialism. It was active from 1908 to 1948 with its heyday occurring before the First World War.-Formation:...
simultaneously in the later 1930s.
As AGF chairman Ashley visited Germany in mid 1937 and held a meeting with Hitler. However unlike some of his contemporaries in the Fellowship the laissez-faire
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....
capitalist Ashley did not support ideological Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and he resigned in protest from the chairmanship in the aftermath of Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
, although his membership of the group continued.
Personal life
Lord Mount Temple married Amalia Mary Maud Cassel, daughter and only child of financier Sir Ernest CasselErnest Cassel
Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, PC was a German-born British merchant banker and capitalist.-Biography:...
, in 1901. Amongst the wedding guests was Crown Prince Albert Edward
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
(the wedding taking place on 4 January, only eighteen days before Edward became king), who was a friend of Cassel. The couple had two daughters, Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma
Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma
Edwina Cynthia Annette Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma,, GBE, DCVO, CI, DStJ was an English heiress, socialite, relief-worker, wife of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and last Vicereine of India.- Lineage and wealth :Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma...
and Ruth Mary Clarisse, wife of Alec Cunningham-Reid
Alec Cunningham-Reid
- Political career :At the 1922 general election, Cunningham-Reid stood as the conservative candidate in Warrington, a Conservative-held borough constituency in Lancashire where the sitting MP Sir Harold Smith was retiring. He won the seat with a comfortable majority in a two-way contest with...
, later Gardner, later Lady Delamere
Thomas Cholmondeley, 4th Baron Delamere
Thomas Pitt Hamilton Cholmondeley, 4th Baron Delamere , styled The Honourable from birth until 1931, was a British peer.-Personal:...
). After his first wife's early death he married as his second wife Muriel Emily ("Molly") Forbes-Sempill, the former wife of Rear-Admiral the Honourable A. L. O. Forbes-Sempill and daughter of Reverend Walter Spencer. Lord Mount Temple died in July 1939, aged 71, when the barony became extinct.