Ramsay MacDonald

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office
22 January – 3 November 1924
Preceded byThe Marquess Curzon
Succeeded byAusten Chamberlain
Parliamentary offices
Jack Edwards
Succeeded byWilliam Cove
Member of Parliament
for Leicester
In office
8 February 1906 – 25 November 1918
Serving with
Preceded by
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born
James McDonald Ramsay

(1866-10-12)12 October 1866
North Atlantic Ocean
Resting placeHoly Trinity Church, Spynie
Political party (from 1931)
Spouse
Margaret Gladstone
(m. 1896; died 1911)
Children6, including Malcolm and Ishbel
Alma materBirkbeck, University of London
ProfessionPolitician
SignatureCursive signature in ink

James Ramsay MacDonald

né James McDonald Ramsay; 12 October 1866 – 9 November 1937) was a British statesman[1] and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first who belonged to the Labour Party, leading minority Labour governments for nine months in 1924 and again between 1929 and 1931. From 1931 to 1935, he headed a National Government dominated by the Conservative Party
and supported by only a few Labour members. MacDonald was expelled from the Labour Party as a result.

MacDonald, along with Keir Hardie and Arthur Henderson, was one of the three principal founders of the Labour Party in 1900. He was chairman of the Labour MPs before 1914 and, after an eclipse in his career caused by his opposition to the First World War, he was Leader of the Labour Party from 1922. The second Labour Government (1929–1931) was dominated by the Great Depression. He formed the National Government to carry out spending cuts to defend the gold standard, but it had to be abandoned after the Invergordon Mutiny, and he called a general election in 1931 seeking a "doctor's mandate" to fix the economy.

The National coalition won an overwhelming landslide and the Labour Party was reduced to a rump of around 50 seats in the House of Commons. His health deteriorated and he stood down as Prime Minister in 1935, remaining as Lord President of the Council until retiring in 1937. He died later that year.

MacDonald's speeches, pamphlets and books made him an important theoretician. Historian John Shepherd states that "MacDonald's natural gifts of an imposing presence, handsome features and a persuasive oratory delivered with an arresting Highlands accent made him the iconic Labour leader". After 1931, MacDonald was repeatedly and bitterly denounced by the Labour movement as a traitor to its cause. Since the 1960s, some historians have defended his reputation, emphasising his earlier role in building up the Labour Party, dealing with the Great Depression, and as a forerunner of the political realignments of the 1990s and 2000s.[2]

Early life

Lossiemouth

MacDonald was born at Gregory Place,

Presbyterian Scotland, but in the north and northeast farming communities this was less of a problem; in 1868, a report of the Royal Commission on the Employment of Children, Young Persons and Women in Agriculture noted that the illegitimacy rate was around 15%—nearly every sixth person was born out of wedlock.[4] MacDonald's mother had worked as a domestic servant at Claydale farm, near Alves, where his father was also employed. They were to have been married, but the wedding never took place, either because the couple quarrelled and chose not to marry, or because Anne's mother, Isabella Ramsay, stepped in to prevent her daughter from marrying a man she deemed unsuitable.[5]

Bloody Sunday.

Ramsay MacDonald received an elementary education at the

pupil teacher at Drainie parish school.[6] In 1885, he moved to Bristol to take up a position as an assistant to Mordaunt Crofton, a clergyman who was attempting to establish a Boys' and Young Men's Guild at St Stephen's Church.[7] In Bristol Ramsay MacDonald joined the Democratic Federation, a Radical organisation, which changed its name a few months later to the Social Democratic Federation (SDF).[8][9] He remained in the group when it left the SDF to become the Bristol Socialist Society. In early 1886 he moved to London.[10]

Discovering socialism in London

Following a short period of work addressing envelopes at the

Pall Mall Gazette, titled Remember Trafalgar Square: Tory Terrorism in 1887.[13]

MacDonald retained an interest in

first Irish Home Rule Bill inspired the setting-up of a Scottish Home Rule Association in Edinburgh. On 6 March 1888, MacDonald took part in a meeting of London-based Scots, who, upon his motion, formed the London General Committee of the Scottish Home Rule Association.[14] For a while he supported home rule for Scotland, but found little support among London's Scots.[15] However, MacDonald never lost his interest in Scottish politics and home rule, and in Socialism: critical and constructive, published in 1921, he wrote: "The Anglification of Scotland has been proceeding apace to the damage of its education, its music, its literature, its genius, and the generation that is growing up under this influence is uprooted from its past."[16]

Politics in the 1880s was still of less importance to MacDonald than furthering his education. In 1886–87, MacDonald studied

Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution (now Birkbeck, University of London) but his health suddenly failed him due to exhaustion one week before his examinations, which put an end to any thought of a scientific career.[17] He would however, later be appointed a Governor of the institution in 1895, and continued to have a great fondness for the mission of Birkbeck into his later years.[18]

In 1888, MacDonald took employment as private secretary to

Radical politician.[19] Lough was elected as the Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for West Islington, in 1892. Many doors now opened to MacDonald: he had access to the National Liberal Club as well as the editorial offices of Liberal and Radical newspapers; he made himself known to various London Radical clubs among Radical and labour politicians; and he gained valuable experience in the workings of electioneering. At the same time he left Lough's employment to branch out as a freelance journalist. Elsewhere, as a member of the Fabian Society for some time, MacDonald toured and lectured on its behalf at the London School of Economics and elsewhere.[20]

Active politics

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) had created the Labour Electoral Association (LEA) and entered into an unsatisfactory alliance with the Liberal Party in 1886.[21] In 1892, MacDonald was in Dover to give support to the candidate for the LEA in the general election, who was well beaten. MacDonald impressed the local press[22][pages needed] and the Association and was adopted as its candidate, announcing that his candidature would be under a Labour Party banner.[23][page needed] He denied the Labour Party was a wing of the Liberal Party but saw merit in a working political relationship. In May 1894, the local Southampton Liberal Association was trying to find a labour-minded candidate for the constituency. Two others joined MacDonald to address the Liberal Council: one was offered but turned down the invitation, while MacDonald failed to secure the nomination despite strong support among Liberals.[24]

In 1893,

Marxist organisation it was more rigorously socialist than the Labour Party would prove to be, and ILP members would operate as a "ginger group" within the Labour Party for many years.[28]

As Party Secretary, MacDonald negotiated

Margaret Ethel Gladstone, who was unrelated to the Gladstones of the Liberal Party, in 1896. Although not wealthy, Margaret MacDonald was comfortably well off,[30] and this allowed them to indulge in foreign travel, visiting Canada and the United States in 1897, South Africa in 1902, Australia and New Zealand
in 1906 and India several times.

Macdonald (third from left) in 1906, with other leading figures in the party

It was during this period that MacDonald and his wife began a long friendship with the social investigator and reforming civil servant

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]

In 1906, the LRC changed its name to the "

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]

Party Leadership

Ramsay MacDonald by Solomon Joseph Solomon, 1911
Hoist with his own petard.
Mr. Ramsay MacDonald (Champion of Independent Labour). "Of course I'm all for peaceful picketing—on principle. But it must be applied to the proper parties."
Cartoon from Punch 20 June 1917

In 1911 MacDonald became "Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party", the leader of the party. He was the chief intellectual leader of the party, paying little attention to class warfare and much more to the emergence of a powerful state as it exemplified the Darwinian evolution of an ever more complex society. He was an Orthodox Edwardian progressive, keen on intellectual discussion, and averse to agitation.[37]

Within a short period, his wife became ill with blood poisoning and died. This deeply and permanently affected MacDonald.[38]

MacDonald had always taken a keen interest in foreign affairs and knew from his visit to South Africa, just after the

Boer War had ended, what the effects of modern conflict would be. Although the Parliamentary Labour Party generally held an anti-war opinion, when war was declared in August 1914, patriotism came to the fore.[39] After the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, warned the House of Commons on 3 August that war with Germany was likely, MacDonald responded by declaring that "this country ought to have remained neutral".[40][41] In the Labour Leader he claimed that the real cause of the war was the "policy of the balance of power through alliance".[42]

The Party supported the government in its request for £100,000,000 of war credits and, as MacDonald could not, he resigned from the party Chairmanship. Arthur Henderson became the new leader, while MacDonald took the party Treasurer's post.[43] Despite his opposition to the war, MacDonald visited the Western Front in December 1914 with the approval of Lord Kitchener. MacDonald and General Seely set off for the front at Ypres and soon found themselves in the thick of an action in which both behaved with the utmost coolness. Later, MacDonald was received by the Commander-in-Chief at St Omer and made an extensive tour of the front. Returning home, he paid a public tribute to the courage of the French troops, but said nothing then or later of having been under fire himself.[44]

During the early part of the war, he was extremely unpopular and was accused of treason and cowardice. Former Liberal Party MP and publisher Horatio Bottomley attacked him through his magazine John Bull in September 1915, by publishing an article carrying details of MacDonald's birth and his so-called deceit in not disclosing his real name.[45][46] His illegitimacy was no secret and he had not seemed to have suffered by it, but, according to the journal he had, by using a false name, gained access to parliament falsely and should suffer heavy penalties and have his election declared void. MacDonald received much internal support, but how the disclosures were made public had affected him.[47] He wrote in his diary:

...I spent hours of terrible mental pain. Letters of sympathy began to pour in upon me. ... Never before did I know that I had been registered under the name of Ramsay, and cannot understand it now. From my earliest years, my name has been entered in lists, like the school register, etc. as MacDonald.

Election poster produced for the 1923 election

In August 1916 the Moray Golf Club passed a resolution declaring that MacDonald's anti-war activities "had endangered the character and interests of the club" and that he had forfeited his right to membership.[48] In January 1917 MacDonald published National Defence, in which he argued that open diplomacy and disarmament were necessary to prevent future wars.[49]

As the war dragged on, his reputation recovered but he still lost his seat in the 1918 "

Leicester West focused on MacDonald's opposition to the war, with MacDonald writing after his defeat: "I have become a kind of mythological demon in the minds of the people".[50]

MacDonald denounced the Treaty of Versailles: "We are beholding an act of madness unparalleled in history".[51]

In Opposition

1920–1923

MacDonald stood for Parliament in the 1921 Woolwich East by-election and lost. His opponent, Captain Robert Gee, had been awarded the Victoria Cross at Cambrai; MacDonald tried to counter this by having ex-soldiers appear on his platforms. MacDonald also promised to pressure the government into converting the Woolwich Arsenal to civilian use.[52] Horatio Bottomley intervened in the by-election, opposing MacDonald's election because of his anti-war record.[53] Bottomley's influence may have been decisive in MacDonald's failure to be elected as there were under 700 votes difference between Gee and MacDonald.[54]

In 1922, MacDonald was returned to the House as MP for Aberavon in Wales, with a vote of 14,318 against 11,111 and 5,328 for his main opponents. His rehabilitation was complete; the Labour New Leader magazine opined that his election was, "enough in itself to transform our position in the House. We have once more a voice which must be heard".[55] By now, the party was reunited and MacDonald was re-elected as Leader. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan examines his newfound stature:

as dissolution set in with the Lloyd George coalition in 1921–22, and unemployment mounted, MacDonald stood out as the leader of a new kind of broad-based left. His opposition to the war had given him a new charisma. More than anyone else in public life, he symbolised peace and internationalism, decency and social change.... [He] had become The voice of conscience.[56]

At the

Russian Revolution of 1917 and became a determined enemy of Communism. Unlike the French Section of the Workers' International and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Labour Party did not split and the Communist Party of Great Britain
remained small and isolated.

In 1922, MacDonald visited

Zionist pioneers with 'the rich plutocratic Jew'.[57] MacDonald believed the latter "was the true economic materialist. He is the person whose views upon life make one anti-Semitic. He has no country, no kindred. Whether as a sweater or a financier, he is an exploiter of everything he can squeeze. He is behind every evil that Governments do, and his political authority, always exercised in the dark, is greater than that of Parliamentary majorities. He is the keenest of brains and the bluntest of consciences. He detests Zionism because it revives the idealism of his race, and has political implications which threaten his economic interests"[57]

MacDonald became noted for "woolly" rhetoric such as the occasion at the Labour Party Conference of 1930 at Llandudno when he appeared to imply unemployment could be solved by encouraging the jobless to return to the fields "where they till and they grow and they sow and they harvest". Equally, there were times when it was unclear what his policies were. There was already some unease in the party about what he would do if Labour was able to form a government.[58]

Election of 1923

At the

very few without a university education.[61]

Prime Minister (1924)

First term: January–October 1924

MacDonald with ministers of his first government, January 1924
Time cover, 18 August 1924

MacDonald had never held office but demonstrated energy, executive ability, and political astuteness. He consulted widely within his party, making the Liberal

Philip Snowden Chancellor of the Exchequer. He took the foreign office himself.[59] Besides himself, ten other cabinet members came from working-class origins, a dramatic breakthrough in British history.[62] His first priority was to undo the perceived damage caused by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, by settling the reparations issue and coming to terms with Germany. King George V noted in his diary, "He wishes to do the right thing.... Today, 23 years ago, dear Grandmama [Queen Victoria] died. I wonder what she would have thought of a Labour Government!"[63]

While there were no major labour strikes during his term, MacDonald acted swiftly to end those that did erupt. When the Labour Party executive criticised the government, he replied that "public doles,

municipal housing for low-paid workers.[65]

Foreign affairs

MacDonald had long been a leading spokesman for internationalism in the Labour movement; at first, he verged on pacifism. He founded the Union of Democratic Control in early 1914 to promote international socialist aims, but it was overwhelmed by the war. His 1917 book, National Defence, revealed his own long-term vision for peace. Although disappointed at the harsh terms of the Versailles Treaty, he supported the League of Nations – but, by 1930, he felt that the internal cohesion of the British Empire and a strong, independent British defence programme might turn out to be the wisest British government policy.[66]

MacDonald moved in March 1924 to end construction work on the Singapore military base, despite strong opposition from the

Aden and could mean the security of the British Empire in the Far East being dependent on the goodwill of Japan.[67]

In June 1924, MacDonald convened a conference in London of the wartime Allies and achieved an agreement on a new plan for settling the reparations issue and French-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr. German delegates joined the meeting, and the London Settlement was signed. It was followed by an Anglo-German commercial treaty. Another major triumph for MacDonald was the conference held in London in July and August 1924 to deal with the implementation of the Dawes Plan.[68] MacDonald, who accepted the popular view of the economist John Maynard Keynes of German reparations as impossible to pay, pressured French Premier Édouard Herriot until many concessions were made to Germany, including the evacuation of the Ruhr.[68][69]

Ramsay MacDonald and Christian Rakovsky, Head of the Soviet diplomatic delegation. Feb 1924.

A British onlooker commented, "The London Conference was for the French 'man in the street' one long Calvary ... as he saw M. Herriot abandoning one by one the cherished possessions of French preponderance on the Reparations Commission, the right of sanctions in the event of German default, the economic occupation of the Ruhr, the French-Belgian railroad Régie, and finally, the military occupation of the Ruhr within a year."[70] MacDonald was proud of what had been achieved, which was the pinnacle of his short-lived administration's achievements.[71] In September, he made a speech to the League of Nations Assembly in Geneva, the main thrust of which was for general European disarmament, which was received with great acclaim.[72]

MacDonald recognised the Soviet Union and MacDonald informed Parliament in February 1924 that negotiations would begin to negotiate a treaty with the Soviet Union.[73] The treaty was to cover Anglo-Soviet trade and the repayment of the British bondholders, who had lent billions to the pre-revolutionary Russian government and been rejected by the Bolsheviks. There were, in fact, two proposed treaties: one would cover commercial matters, and the other would cover a fairly vague future discussion on the problem of the bondholders. If the treaties were signed, the British government would conclude a further treaty and guarantee a loan to the Bolsheviks. The treaties were popular neither with the Conservatives nor with the Liberals, who, in September, criticised the loan so vehemently that negotiation with them seemed impossible.[74]

However, the government's fate was determined by the "

matters of confidence. The Liberal amendment was carried, and the King granted MacDonald a dissolution of Parliament the following day. The issues that dominated the election campaign were the Campbell Case and the Russian treaties, which soon combined into the single issue of the Bolshevik threat.[75]

Zinoviev letter

On 25 October 1924, just four days before the election, the Daily Mail reported that a letter had come into its possession which purported to be a letter sent from Grigory Zinoviev, the President of the Communist International, to the British representative on the Comintern Executive. The letter was dated 15 September and so before the dissolution of parliament: it stated that it was imperative for the agreed treaties between Britain and the Bolsheviks to be ratified urgently. The letter said that those Labour members who could apply pressure on the government should do so. It went on to say that a resolution of the relationship between the two countries would "assist in the revolutionising of the international and British proletariat ... make it possible for us to extend and develop the ideas of Leninism in England and the Colonies".

The government had received the letter before its publication in the newspapers. It had protested to the Bolsheviks' London chargé d'affaires and had already decided to make public the contents of the letter with details of the official protest but it had not been swift-footed enough.[76] Historians mostly agree the Zinoviev letter was a forgery, but it closely reflected attitudes current in the Comintern.

In Opposition (1924–1929)

On 29 October 1924, the 1924 United Kingdom general election was held and the Conservative Party under Stanley Baldwin was returned decisively, gaining 155 seats for a total of 413 members of parliament. This was a landslide victory against the Liberals, who lost 118 seats (leaving them with only 40); their vote fell by over a million.

For Labour the result was a defeat not a disaster, holding on to 151 seats and losing 40. The real significance of the election was that the Liberal Party, which Labour had displaced as the second-largest political party in 1922, was now clearly the third party. Labour had put up more candidates than in 1923, and its total vote increased, suggesting that the Zinoviev letter had little effect. But for years many Labourites blamed their defeat on the Letter, through misunderstanding the political forces at work.[77][78]

Prime Minister (1929–1935)

Second term (1929–1931)

The strong majority held by the Conservatives gave Baldwin a full term during which the government had to deal with the

South Wales Mineworkers' Federation. He moved to Seaham Harbour in County Durham, a safer seat, to avoid a highly embarrassing defeat.[80][81]

MacDonald at Tomb of Unknown Soldier, Washington, DC, 9 October 1929

Baldwin resigned and MacDonald again formed a minority government, with intermittent Liberal support. This time, MacDonald knew he had to concentrate on domestic matters.

JH Thomas became Lord Privy Seal with a mandate to tackle unemployment, assisted by the young radical Oswald Mosley. Margaret Bondfield was appointed as Minister of Labour, becoming the first-ever woman cabinet minister.[82][83]

MacDonald's second government was in a stronger parliamentary position than his first, and in 1930 he was able to raise

Roman Catholic Labour MPs, who feared that the costs would lead to increasing local authority control over faith schools.[65]

In international affairs, he also convened the Round Table conferences in London with the political leaders of India, at which he offered them responsible government, but not independence or even Dominion status. In April 1930 he negotiated the London Naval Treaty, limiting naval armaments, with France, Italy, Japan, and the United States.[65]

MacDonald c. 1929

Great Depression

MacDonald's government had no effective response to the economic crisis which followed the

Philip Snowden was a rigid exponent of orthodox finance and would not permit any deficit spending to stimulate the economy, despite the urgings of Oswald Mosley, David Lloyd George and the economist John Maynard Keynes. Mosley put forward a memorandum in January 1930, calling for the public control of imports and banking as well as an increase in pensions to boost spending power. When this was repeatedly turned down, Mosley resigned from the government in February 1931 and formed the New Party. He later converted to Fascism
.

By the end of 1930, unemployment had doubled to over two and a half million.[84] The government struggled to cope with the crisis and found itself attempting to reconcile two contradictory aims: achieving a balanced budget to maintain sterling on the gold standard, and maintaining assistance to the poor and unemployed, at a time when tax revenues were falling. During 1931, the economic situation deteriorated, and pressure from orthodox economists for sharp cuts in government spending increased. Under pressure from its Liberal allies, as well as the Conservative opposition who feared that the budget was unbalanced, Snowden appointed a committee headed by Sir George May to review the state of public finances. The May Report of July 1931, urged large public-sector wage cuts and large cuts in public spending, notably in payments to the unemployed, to avoid a budget deficit.[85]

National government (1931–1935)

Formation of the National Government

Although there was a narrow majority in the Cabinet for drastic reductions in spending, the minority included senior ministers such as Arthur Henderson who made it clear they would resign rather than acquiesce in the cuts. With this unworkable split, on 24 August 1931, MacDonald submitted his resignation and then agreed, on the urging of King George V, to form a National Government with the Conservatives and Liberals. With Henderson taking the lead, MacDonald, Snowden, and Thomas were quickly expelled from the Labour Party.[86] They responded by forming a new National Labour Organisation, which provided a nominal party base for the expelled MPs, but received little support in the country or the unions. Great anger in the labour movement greeted MacDonald's move. Riots took place in protest in Glasgow and Manchester. Many in the Labour Party viewed this as a cynical move by MacDonald to rescue his career, and accused him of 'betrayal'. MacDonald, however, argued that the sacrifice was for the common good.[87][88]

1931 general election

In the 1931 general election, the National Government won 554 seats, comprising 473 Conservatives, 13 National Labour, 68 Liberals (Liberal National and Liberal) and various others, while Labour, now led by Arthur Henderson won only 52 and the Lloyd George Liberals four. Henderson and his deputy J. R. Clynes both lost their seats in Labour's worst-ever rout. Labour's disastrous performance at the 1931 election greatly increased the bitterness felt by MacDonald's former colleagues towards him. MacDonald was genuinely upset to see the Labour Party so badly defeated at the election. He had regarded the National Government as a temporary measure, and had hoped to return to the Labour Party.[84]

Premiership of the National Government (1931–1935)

The National Government's huge majority left MacDonald with the largest mandate ever won by a British Prime Minister at a democratic election, but MacDonald had only a small following of National Labour men in Parliament. He was ageing rapidly, and was increasingly a figurehead. In control of domestic policy were Conservatives Stanley Baldwin as Lord President and Neville Chamberlain the chancellor of the exchequer, together with National Liberal Walter Runciman at the Board of Trade.[89] MacDonald, Chamberlain and Runciman devised a compromise tariff policy, which stopped short of protectionism while ending free trade and, at the 1932 Ottawa Conference, cementing commercial relations within the Commonwealth.[90]

Besides his preference for a cohesive British Empire and a

World Economic Conference in London in June 1933. Nearly every nation was represented, but no agreement was possible. The American president torpedoed the conference with a bombshell message that the US would not stabilise the depreciating dollar. The failure marked the end of international economic cooperation for another decade.[94]

MacDonald was deeply affected by the anger and bitterness caused by the fall of the Labour government. He continued to regard himself as a true Labour man, but the rupturing of virtually all his old friendships left him an isolated figure. One of the only other leading Labour figures to join the government, Philip Snowden, was a firm believer in

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Retirement

By 1933 MacDonald's health was so poor that his doctor had to personally supervise his trip to Geneva. By 1934 MacDonald's mental and physical health declined further, and he became an increasingly ineffective leader as the international situation grew more threatening. His speeches in the House of Commons and at international meetings became incoherent. One observer noted how "Things ... got to the stage where nobody knew what the Prime Minister was going to say in the House of Commons, and, when he did say it, nobody understood it". Newspapers did not report MacDonald denying to reporters that he was seriously ill because he only had "loss of memory".[65][27] His pacifism, which had been widely admired in the 1920s, led Winston Churchill and others to accuse him of failure to stand up to the threat of Adolf Hitler. His government began the negotiations for the Anglo-German Naval Agreement.

In these years he was irritated by the attacks of

Saturday Review. Lady Houston believed that MacDonald was under the control of the Soviets and amused the nation by giving MacDonald such epithets as the 'Spider of Lossiemouth,' and hanging a large sign in electric lights from the rigging of her luxury yacht, the SY Liberty. According to some versions, it read 'Down with Ramsay MacDonald,' and to others 'To Hell with Ramsay MacDonald.' Lady Houston also sent agents to disrupt his election campaigns. In 2020 new research revealed how she purchased three letters, supposedly written by Ramsay MacDonald to Soviet officials but actually the work of an American forger. In 1935 Lady Houston stated that she intended to publish them but eventually handed them over to Special Branch, and MacDonald's solicitors entered a legal battle with her.[96][page needed
]

MacDonald was aware of his fading powers, and in 1935 he agreed to a timetable with Baldwin to stand down as Prime Minister after King George V's

Silver Jubilee celebrations in May 1935. He resigned on 7 June in favour of Baldwin, and remained in the cabinet, taking the largely honorary post of Lord President vacated by Baldwin.[65]

Last years and death (1935–1937)

At

However, his health was failing. King George V died a week before voting began in the Scottish by-election, and MacDonald deeply mourned his death,[99][100] paying tribute to him in his diary as "a gracious and kingly friend whom I have served with all my heart".[99][100] There had been genuine affection between the two and the King is said to have regarded MacDonald as his favourite prime minister.[101][102] Following the King's death MacDonald's physical and mental health collapsed.

A sea voyage (with his youngest daughter Sheila) was recommended to restore MacDonald's health, but he died on board the liner

colony of Bermuda, the West Indies and the Panama Canal
, on 9 November 1937, aged 71.

MacDonald's body was transferred to the Royal Navy at Bermuda for return to

Devonshire. At the cathedral, Arthur Browne, the Bishop of Bermuda, conducted the memorial service, which was followed by a lying in state. Thousands visited to pay their respects. MacDonald's body and his daughter departed Bermuda the following day aboard Apollo, arriving at Plymouth on 25 November. His funeral was in Westminster Abbey on 26 November, followed by a private cremation service at Golders Green. After cremation, his ashes were taken to Lossiemouth, where a service commenced in his house, "The Hillocks" followed by a procession to Holy Trinity Church, Spynie where they were buried alongside his wife Margaret and their son David in his native Moray.[65][103][104]

Personal life

MacDonald c. 1900s

Ramsay MacDonald married

First World War, serving in the Friends' Ambulance Unit; he became a prominent architect who worked on promoting the planning policies of his father's government, and specialised in cinema design.[106]

MacDonald was devastated by Margaret's death from blood poisoning in 1911, and had few significant personal relationships after that time, apart from with Ishbel, who acted as his consort while he was Prime Minister and cared for him for the rest of his life. Following his wife's death, MacDonald commenced a relationship with Lady Margaret Sackville.[107]

In the 1920s and 1930s he was frequently entertained by the society hostess

incomplete short citation
]

MacDonald was born into a religious family, and was originally quite devout in his own beliefs. However as an adult, put off by "creeds or ritual"

Conway Hall).[112][113][114] He became intensely involved in the Union of Ethical Societies, and friends with its founder, Stanton Coit, writing regularly in Coit's Ethical World publication.[115] On more than one occasion he took the Chair at the annual meeting of the Union of Ethical Societies. His motives are evidenced in the manifesto of the Society of Ethical Propagandists to which Macdonald was a signatory (including Coit). The manifesto stated that Ethical societies "are founded upon a conviction that the good life is desirable for its own sake, and rests upon no supernatural sanction".[110]

MacDonald's unpopularity in the country following his stance against Britain's involvement in the

First World War spilled over into his private life. In 1916, he was expelled from Moray Golf Club in Lossiemouth for being deemed to bring the club into disrepute because of his pacifist views.[47] The manner of his expulsion was regretted by some members but an attempt to re-instate him by a vote in 1924 failed. However, a Special General Meeting held in 1929 finally voted for his reinstatement. By this time, MacDonald was Prime Minister for the second time. He felt the initial expulsion very deeply and refused to take up the final offer of membership, which he had framed and mounted.[116]

Reputation

For half a century, MacDonald was demonised by the Labour Party as a turncoat who consorted with the enemy and drove the Labour Party to its nadir. Later, however, scholarly opinion raised his status as an important founder and leader of the Labour Party, and a man who held Britain together during its darkest economic times.[117][118]

MacDonald's expulsion from Labour along with his National Labour Party's coalition with the Conservatives, combined with the decline in his physical and mental powers after 1931, left him a discredited figure. The downfall of the Labour government in 1931, his National coalition with the Conservatives and the electoral defeat were blamed on him, and few spoke on his behalf.[119] MacNeill Weir, MacDonald's former parliamentary private secretary, published the first major biography The Tragedy of Ramsay MacDonald in 1938. Weir demonised MacDonald for obnoxious careerism, class betrayal and treachery.[120] Clement Attlee in his autobiography As it Happened (1954) called MacDonald's decision to abandon the Labour government in 1931 "the greatest betrayal in the political history of the country".[121] The coming of war in 1939 led to a search for the politicians who had appeased Hitler and failed to prepare Britain; MacDonald was grouped among the "Guilty Men".[122]

By the 1960s, while union activists maintained their hostile attitude, scholars wrote with more appreciation of his challenges and successes.[123] Finally in 1977 he received a long scholarly biography that historians have judged to be "definitive".[124] Labour MP David Marquand, a trained historian, wrote Ramsay MacDonald with the stated intention of giving MacDonald his due for his work in founding and building the Labour Party, and in trying to preserve peace in the years between the two world wars. He argued also to place MacDonald's fateful decision in 1931 in the context of the crisis of the times and the limited choices open to him. Marquand praised the prime minister's decision to place national interests before that of party in 1931. He also emphasised MacDonald's lasting intellectual contribution to socialism and his pivotal role in transforming Labour from an outside protest group to an inside party of government.[125]

Similarly, scholarly analysis of the economic decisions taken in the inter-war period, such as the return to the Gold Standard in 1925 and MacDonald's desperate efforts to defend it in 1931, has changed. Thus Robert Skidelsky, in his classic 1967 account of the 1929–31 government, Politicians and the Slump, compared the orthodox policies advocated by leading politicians of both parties unfavourably with the more radical, proto-Keynesian measures proposed by David Lloyd George and Oswald Mosley; subsequently, in the preface to the 1994 edition Skidelsky argued that recent experience of currency crises and capital flight made it hard to be critical of politicians who wanted to achieve stability by cutting so-called "labour costs" and defending the value of the currency.[126] In 2004 Marquand advanced a similar argument:

In the harsher world of the 1980s and 1990s it was no longer obvious that Keynes was right in 1931 and the bankers wrong. Pre-Keynesian orthodoxy had come in from the cold. Politicians and the public had learned anew that confidence crises feed on themselves; that currencies can collapse; that the public credit can be exhausted; that a plummeting currency can be even more painful than deflationary expenditure cuts; and that governments which try to defy the foreign exchange markets are apt to get their—and their countries'—fingers burnt. Against that background, MacDonald's response to the 1931 crisis increasingly seemed not just honourable and consistent, but right ... he was the unacknowledged precursor of the Blairs, the Schröders, and the Clintons of the 1990s and 2000s.[127]

Cultural depictions

Honours

In 1930, MacDonald was elected a

References

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  2. ^ Shepherd 2007, pp. 31–.
  3. ^ Marquand 1977, pp. 4–5.
  4. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 6.
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  6. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 12.
  7. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 15.
  8. ^ Bryher, Samual: An Account of the Labour and Socialist Movement in Bristol, 1929
  9. ^ Elton 1939, p. 44.
  10. ^ Marquand 1977, pp. 9, 17.
  11. ^ Tracey, Herbert: J. Ramsay MacDonald, 1924, p. 29
  12. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 20.
  13. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 21.
  14. ^ Morgan, J. Ramsay MacDonald (1987) p. 17
  15. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 23.
  16. ^ MacDonald, James Ramsay (1921). Socialism: critical and constructive. Cassell's social economics series. Cassell and Company Ltd.
  17. ^ Elton 1939, pp. 56–57.
  18. ^ "Letter from Ramsay McDonald to Birkbeck College – Birkbeck, University of London". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  19. ^ Conor Cruise O' Brien, Parnell and his Party, 1957, p. 275
  20. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 22.
  21. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 31.
  22. ^ Dover Express, 17 June 1892; 12 August 1892
  23. ^ Dover Express, 7 October 1892
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  25. ^ Southampton Times, 21 July 1894
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  27. ^ a b Gunther, John (1940). Inside Europe. New York: Harper & Brothers. pp. 335, 337–340.
  28. ^ Jennings 1962, p. 457.
  29. ^ Mackintosh, John P. (Ed.): British Prime Ministers in the twentieth Century, London, 1977, p. 157
  30. ^ MacDonald Papers, P.R.O. 3/95
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  32. ^ Diary of Clara Collet: Warwick Modern Records Office
  33. ^ Morgan 1987, p. 30.
  34. ^ Clegg, H.A;, Fox, Alan; Thompson, A.F.: A History of British Trade Unions since 1889, 1964, vol I, p. 388
  35. ^ Leicester Pioneer, 20 January 1906
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  47. ^ a b Marquand 1977, pp. 190, 191.
  48. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 192.
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  50. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 236.
  51. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 250.
  52. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 273.
  53. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 274.
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  55. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 283.
  56. ^ Kenneth Morgan (1987) pp. 44–45
  57. ^ a b c David Cesarani. "Anti-Zionism in Britain, 1922–2002: Continuities and Discontinuities" The Journal of Israeli History 25.1 (2006): 141
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  60. ^ a b "Scotland Back in the Day: Remembering the first working-class PM, Ramsay MacDonald, 150 years after his birth", The National.
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  68. ^
    S2CID 144072556
    .
  69. .
  70. ^ Marks, "The Myths of Reparations", p. 249
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  72. ^ Limam: The First Labour Government, 1924, p. 173
  73. .
  74. ^ Lyman, The First Labour Government, 1924 pp. 195–204
  75. .
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  81. ^ Chris Howard, "Ramsay MacDonald and Aberavon, 1922–29," Llafur: Journal of Welsh Labour History 7#1 (1996) pp. 68–77
  82. ^ John Shepherd, The Second Labour Government: A reappraisal (2012).
  83. ^ "The New Ministry". Hartlepool Mail. 8 June 1929. Retrieved 25 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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  85. ^ C. L. Mowat, Britain between the Wars, 1918–1940 (1955) pp. 379–401
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  87. Speak for Britain!: A New History of the Labour Party
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  90. .
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  93. ^ Aage Trommer, "MacDonald in Geneva in March 1933: A study in Britain's European policy." Scandinavian Journal of History 1#1–4 (1976): 293–312.
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  95. ^ Morgan 1987, p. 213.
  96. ^ Crompton, Teresa (2020). Adventuress, the Life and Loves of Lucy, Lady Houston. The History Press.[ISBN missing]
  97. .
  98. ^ "Historic Anglo-Egyptian treaty signed in London – archive, 1936". Guardian. 27 August 2021. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  99. ^ a b Marquand 1977, p. 784 "George V's death in January 1936, had been a heavy blow to MacDonald; it is clear from his diary that he must have taken some time to recover from it."
  100. ^ a b Morgan 1987, p. 234.
  101. .
  102. ^ Watkins, Alan (2 September 1978). "History without heroes". The Spectator. Vol. 241. F.C. Westley. p. 20.
  103. ^ "Ramsay MacDonald's Last Homecoming: Bermuda to Lossiemouth". The Illustrated London News. London. 4 December 1937.
  104. ^ H.M.S. Orion 1937–1939. Flood & Son, Ltd, The Borough Press, Lowestoft: Royal Navy (HMS Orion). 1939. p. 26.
  105. required.)
  106. ^ David Goold (2008). "Alister Gladstone MacDonald (or Alistair Gladstone MacDonald)". Dictionary of Scottish Architects. Retrieved 9 May 2010.
  107. ^ Fenton, Ben (2 November 2006). "Secret love affair of Labour Prime Minister and Lady Margaret is revealed 80 years on". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 9 May 2010.
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  109. ^ a b Elton 1939, p. 38.
  110. ^ a b Elton 1939, p. 94.
  111. ^ Tom McReady (2015) Blessed is the Peacemaker: The Religious Vision of Ramsay MacDonald. Richmond and Putney Unitarian Church.
  112. ^ Marquand 1977, p. 24.
  113. ^ Turner, Jacqueline (2018). The Labour Church: Religion and Politics in Britain 1890–1914. I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd.
  114. ^ Hunt, James D. (2005). An American Looks at Gandhi: Essays in Satyagraha, Civil Rights, and Peace. Promilla & Co Publishers Ltd.
  115. ]
  116. ^ McConnachie, John. The Moray Golf Club at Lossiemouth, 1988
  117. ^ Shepherd 2007, pp. 31–33.
  118. .
  119. ^ Marquand 2004, p. 700.
  120. ^ Martin 2003, pp. 836–837.
  121. ^ Clement Attlee, As it Happened. Heinemann: 1954
  122. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  123. ^ Martin 2003, pp. 836–837; Shepherd 2007, pp. 31–33.
  124. .
  125. ^ Martin 2003, p. 837.
  126. .
  127. ^ Marquand 2004.
  128. .
  129. )

Bibliography

Historiography

Primary sources

  • Barker, Bernard (ed.) Ramsay MacDonald's Political Writings (Allen Lane, 1972).
  • Cox, Jane A Singular Marriage: A Labour Love Story in Letters and Diaries (of Ramsay and Margaret MacDonald), London: Harrap 1988;
  • MacDonald, Ramsay The Socialist Movement (1911) online; free copy
  • MacDonald, Ramsay Socialism and Society (1914) online
  • MacDonald, Ramsay. Labour and Peace, Labour Party 1912
  • MacDonald, Ramsay. Parliament and Revolution, Labour Party 1919
  • MacDonald, Ramsay. Parliament and revolution (1920) online
  • MacDonald, Ramsay. Foreign Policy of the Labour Party, Labour Party 1923
  • MacDonald, Ramsay. Margaret Ethel MacDonald (1924) online
  • MacDonald, Ramsay. Socialism: critical and constructive (1924) online

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