Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft
George VI | |
---|---|
Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
Preceded by | The Lord Cobham |
Succeeded by | The Lord Nathan |
Member of Parliament for Bournemouth Christchurch (1910–1918) | |
In office 15 January 1910 – 28 May 1940 | |
Preceded by | Arthur Acland Allen |
Succeeded by | Leonard Lyle |
Personal details | |
Born | Fanhams Hall, Ware, Hertfordshire | 22 June 1881
Died | London, England | 7 December 1947 (age 66)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Conservative, National Party (1917) |
Alma mater | Eton College, Shrewsbury School, Trinity Hall, Cambridge |
Profession | Politician, soldier |
Awards | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | ![]() |
Branch/service | ![]() |
Years of service | 1900–1924 |
Rank | Brigadier |
Unit | Hertfordshire Regiment |
Commands | 68th Brigade |
Battles/wars |
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/CroftArms.png/220px-CroftArms.png)
Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft
Early life and family
He was born at Fanhams Hall in Ware, Hertfordshire, England. He was the son of Richard Benyon Croft (1843 – 1912) a naval officer and a major benefactor of the Richard Hale School, and Anne Elizabeth (1843 – 1921).[2] His father held the office of High Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1892. He held the office of Deputy Lieutenant (D.L.) of Hertfordshire and held the office of Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for Hertfordshire.
He was the grandson of Reverend Richard Croft, rector at
His mother was the daughter of Henry Page of Ware, Hertfordshire, England. He was an astute businessman and had built up a very prosperous grain trade and a maltster business. Henry Page left his considerable fortune including Fanhams Hall, a large country house and estate located in Ware, to his daughter Anne and her husband, Richard.
Education
He was educated first at Eton, until the death of his housemaster, then at Shrewsbury and finally at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was a Volunteer and an oarsman.[3] Upon leaving Cambridge, Croft joined the family business.
Member of Parliament
He became an active participant of the '
In the
In co-operation with Sir Richard Cooper, because of what they perceived as the "discrediting of the old party system", they founded the National Party in September 1917. They were also angered at the bestowal of honours on those they believed did not deserve them and that hundreds of enemy aliens should be at liberty in Britain when they were possibly endangering British soldiers' lives by passing information to the enemy.[5] The National Party aimed for: "Complete victory in the war and after the war"; robust diplomacy along with increased armaments; the "eradication of German influence"; ending the sale of honours; maximum production along with fair wages and fair profit; safeguarding of industry and agriculture; Empire unity through mutual and reciprocal aid in development of the natural resources of the Empire; a social policy that will ensure a "patriotic race"; and demobilization and reconstruction.[6]
At the 1918 election Croft was elected as the National candidate for Bournemouth, a seat he would hold until 1940. In his autobiography Croft claimed that
We emerged from the world war in 1918 stronger than at any time in our history. On the sea our fleet was supreme and unchallengeable; we had a mighty army such as we had never possessed before; in the air our power had reached its zenith and was probably the largest, best manned and most finely equipped fighting force in that sphere. ... Great Britain ... proceeded to go "international" and our great country, which had been saved by the valour and patriotism of our people, was deliberately encouraged to rely for its safety upon a hotch-potch collection of small states embodied in what was never a world League of Nations but a League of some nations based not on defensive force but on pious resolutions which were endorsed by ceaseless chatter at many conferences.[7]
In February 1919 Croft denounced
Along with Cooper, Croft was prominent in the campaign against the
Croft wrote articles for the
In 1936, Croft's independently minded daughter Diana married the German lawyer and painter Fred Uhlman, a clear misalliance in the eyes of Croft.[16]
Under-Secretary of State for War
In 1940 Croft was ennobled, and appointed by Winston Churchill as Under-Secretary of State for War, a post he would hold until July 1945. Croft in his memoirs said of The Blitz: "Every class of Londoner responded defiantly to the long, long period of attack and from the Royal Family to the Coster or Dustman all vied in showing their contempt of danger and sustained each other through bomb raids, "doodles" and rockets to the end ... London is a grand city with a big heart".[17]
Croft recognised the need to improve morale in the Army and wrote on 12 August 1940 of the need for education and entertainment to be provided to servicemen on a big scale:
On 4 February 1942 Croft said in the Lords:
There seems to be a feeling abroad that the rifle is essential as a weapon for all the Home Guard, and I should like to remind your Lordships that in the event of invasion in a great part of this country we shall be engaged in fighting of a close character. For instance, in the actual cities, towns and villages the opportunities for using hand grenades against enemy motor cyclists and infantry, and incendiary and high explosive grenades against vehicles of all descriptions will be immense. If every platoon had its trained sections of grenade throwers or bombers there is no doubt that operating from trenches or from windows or doorways, or suddenly emerging round houses and cottages, they would he able to inflict great casualties upon an advancing enemy. If I were organizing an attack—I am afraid this sounds rather absurd from one so aged as myself, but my noble friend Lord Mottistone, who I always feel is so much younger than many of us, would probably bear me out in this—I would rather have trained bombers for fighting in urban areas, and if a bombing attack could be swiftly followed up by cold steel, it would be most effective. If I were a bomber in such a formation—and I think I have thrown most types of bombs that have been used in the Army—I should like to have a pike in order to follow up my bombing attack, especially at night. It is a most effective and silent weapon.[19]
The reporting of this in the press attracted ridicule and accusations that Croft was issuing pikes to the Home Guard and that he was "pike-minded".[20] The Liberal Nationalist MP Sir Henry Fildes said in the Commons on 11 March:
Here lies a man who fought the Hun;
He had a pike, the Hun a gun;
When his time came to go aloft,
Whom must he blame? The Hun or Croft?[21]
To which Leo Amery wrote in reply:
Why blame poor Croft who through long years
Preached lack of guns to unwilling ears?
Blame rather in this hour of need
The foolish ears that would not heed.[22]
In a speech at
Last years
Croft died in 1947 at the Middlesex Hospital, London.[2]
Legacy
The Times said of Croft after he died:
By his unflagging zeal and faith in the British imperial heritage, he won for himself a distinctive place in political life. Staunch Conservative as he was, he placed service to the imperial ideal at least as high as party loyalty. This enthusiasm and a personality that was attractive as well as forcible made their influence felt in the House of Commons and on the platform. At every opportunity he advocated greater settlement by the British race in the
National Service was instituted in 1938–39 was that citizens should require the State for guaranteeing the rights of private ownership by engaging in some form of public activity. ... He was popular at the War Office and still much in request on the public platform, from which he could always put over a point effectively, though party politics suited his style and temperament better than the advocacy of the policy of a coalition. But he continued to sound the patriotic note convincingly, all the more so because he was a completely sincere patriot.[25]
Writings
- H. P. Croft, 'A citizen army', in Lord Malmesbury (ed.), The New Order: Studies in Unionist Policy (Francis Griffiths, 1908), pp. 255–268.
- H. P. Croft, The Path of Empire (John Murray, 1912).
- H. P. Croft, Twenty-Two Months Under Fire (John Murray, 1916).
- H. P. Croft, The Crisis: How to Restore Prosperity (1931).
- H. P. Croft, The Salvation of India (1933).
- Sir Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft, My Life of Strife (Hutchinson, 1948).
Notes
- ^ Kidd, Charles, Debrett's peerage & Baronetage 2015 Edition, London, 2015, p.P306
- ^ a b c d Andrew S. Thompson, ‘Croft, Henry Page, first Baron Croft (1881–1947)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 12 May 2010.
- ^ "Croft, Henry Page (CRFT899HP)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Sir Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft, My Life of Strife (Hutchinson, 1948), pp. 53–55.
- ^ Sir Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft, My Life of Strife (Hutchinson, 1948), pp. 129–130.
- ^ Croft, p. 131.
- ^ Croft, p. 254.
- ^ If they were not defeated at the election and still MPs Croft would have had to call them 'The Right Hon. Member', etc.
- ^ a b R. B. McCallum, Public Opinion and the Last Peace (London: Oxford University Press, 1944), p. 30.
- ^ McCallum, p. 41.
- ^ "No. 32906". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 February 1924. p. 1262.
- ^ Croft, p. 285.
- ^ Croft, p. 277.
- OCLC 1042099346
- ^ Croft, pp. 287–289.
- required.)
- ^ Croft, p. 349.
- ^ Paul Addison, The Road to 1945 (London: Pimlico, 1994), p. 146.
- ^ The Home Guard HL Deb 4 February 1942 vol 121 cc680–710.
- ^ Croft, p. 334.
- ^ The Times (12 March 1942), p. 2.
- ^ Croft, p. 336.
- ^ The Times (19 June 1945), p. 2.
- ^ Addison, p. 266.
- ^ The Times (9 December 1947), p. 7.
References
- Paul Addison, The Road to 1945 (London: Pimlico, 1994).
- Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Labour. 1920 – 1924 (Cambridge University Press, 1971).
- Sir Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft, My Life of Strife (Hutchinson, 1948).
- R. B. McCallum, Public Opinion and the Last Peace (London: Oxford University Press, 1944).
- Andrew S. Thompson, ‘Croft, Henry Page, first Baron Croft (1881–1947)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 12 May 2010.
Further reading
- W. D. Rubinstein, 'Henry Page Croft and the National Party, 1917–22', Journal of Contemporary History, 9/1 (1974), pp. 129–48.
- Larry Witherell, Rebel on the Right: Henry Page Croft and the Crisis of British Conservatism, 1903–1914 (University of Delaware Press, 1998).
External links
- Works by or about Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft at Internet Archive
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Henry Page Croft
- The Papers of Sir Henry Page Croft held at Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge
- Newspaper clippings about Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW