Thomas Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2022) |
The Viscount Halifax
| |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||
Bristol Central | |||||||||||||||
| In office 14 December 1918 – 30 May 1929 | |||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | constituency established | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Joseph Alpass | ||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||
| Born | Thomas Walker Hobart Inskip 5 March 1876 Clifton, Bristol, England | ||||||||||||||
| Died | 11 October 1947 (aged 71) Godalming, Surrey, England | ||||||||||||||
| Political party | Conservative | ||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Lady Augusta Boyle | ||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge | ||||||||||||||
Thomas Walker Hobart Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote, Minister for Coordination of Defence from 1936 until 1939.
Background and education
Inskip was the son of James Inskip, a solicitor, by his second wife Constance Sophia Louisa, daughter of John Hampden. The Right Reverend
called to the Bar by the Inner Temple.[citation needed
]
Political and legal career
Inskip became a
Bristol Central.[5] He was first appointed Solicitor General in 1922 and would hold this post for the next six years, with one short interruption for the Labour government of 1924.[citation needed] In 1922 he was knighted.[6]
A staunch
Church Assembly then declared an emergency, and used this as a pretext to use the new Prayer Book for many decades afterwards.[citation needed
]
In 1928 Inskip was promoted to
Despite an exclusively legal track record, on 13 March 1936 Inskip became the first
Minister for Coordination of Defence.[10] His appointment to this particular office was highly controversial. Winston Churchill (who said he "had the advantage of being little known and knowing nothing about military subjects") had long campaigned for such an office and when its creation was announced, most expected Churchill to be appointed. When Inskip was named, one famous reaction was that "This is the most cynical appointment since Caligula made his horse a consul".[11] John Gunther, who described Inskip in 1940 as "the sixty-three-year-old man of mystery", reported the "cruel story" that Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin wanted to appoint someone "'even less brilliant than himself'".[12] Collin Brooks castigated Inskip in his diary as "a second-rate Attorney General."[13]
His appointment is now regarded as a sign of caution by Baldwin who did not wish to appoint someone like Churchill, because it would have been interpreted by foreign powers as a sign of the United Kingdom preparing for war. Baldwin anyway wished to avoid taking onboard such a controversial and radical minister as Churchill.
Inskip's tenure as Minister for Coordination of Defence remains controversial, with some arguing that he did much to push
Lord Chief Justice of England from 1940 until 1946.[citation needed
] As of 19 April 2025, he remains the last Lord Chief Justice to have held a ministerial office before his appointment.
Inskip was referred to in the book Guilty Men by Michael Foot, Frank Owen and Peter Howard (writing under the pseudonym 'Cato'), published in 1940 as an attack on public figures for their failure to re-arm and their appeasement of Nazi Germany.[17]
Family
Lord Caldecote married Lady Augusta Helen Elizabeth, daughter of
viscountcy. Lady Caldecote died in May 1967, aged 90.[citation needed
]
Arms
|
|
References
- ^ "Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. ref no 3603: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948
- ^ "Inskip, Thomas Walker Hobart (INSP894TW)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ "No. 28935". The London Gazette. 13 October 1914. p. 8125.
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34107. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Bristol to Buteshire and Caithness[usurped]
- ^ "No. 32781". The London Gazette. 29 December 1922. p. 9162.
- ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Fairfield to Fylde South[usurped]
- ^ "No. 33798". The London Gazette. 12 February 1932. p. 941.
- ISBN 978-1-55753-940-3.
- Frederick Lindemann.
- Harper & Brothers. p. 348.
- OCLC 1042099346.
- ISBN 978-1-55753-940-3..
- ^ "No. 34674". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 September 1939. p. 6126.
- ^ Roy Jenkins, Baldwin (London: Collins, 1987), p. 178.
- OCLC 301463537.
- ^ Burke's Peerage. 1949.
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Caldecote
- Newspaper clippings about Thomas Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
- The Diaries of 1st Lord Caldecote held at Churchill Archives Centre
|  | |
| Ministers for co-ordination of defence | .svg) | |
|---|---|---|
| Ministers for defence | ||
| Secretaries of state for defence |
| |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
