Attlee, Clement Richard, 1st Earl Attlee (b. 3 Jan. 1883, d. 8 Oct. 1967). British Prime Minister 1945–51 Born in London, he was educated at Haileybury and read history at Oxford. After leaving university, he went to London to study law and qualify as a barrister. During this time, voluntary work at
Toynbee Hall in the poor East End of London encouraged him to become a socialist. He joined the
Fabian Society in 1907, and the
Independent Labour Party in 1908. He also worked as a lecturer at the London School of Economics. In 1914, on the outbreak of war, he joined the army. He served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, and rose to the rank of major. On his discharge from the army in 1919, he returned to London, became Mayor of Stepney, and was endorsed as the
Labour Party candidate for Limehouse. He was elected to Parliament in 1922, and became Ramsay
MacDonald's Private Secretary. As Under-Secretary at the War Office in the first Labour government (1924), he became noted for his diligence and attention to detail. In 1927, he was appointed to the
Simon Commission of Inquiry examining British rule in India. Owing to his involvement in this, he was not immediately made a minister when Labour returned to power in 1929, although he became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1930, and Postmaster-General in 1931.
He opposed MacDonald's formation of the
National Government of 1931, and became
Lansbury's deputy in a severely shrunken parliamentary party. In 1935, on the retirement of Lansbury, he was elected Labour leader. From May 1940 he held high office in the coalition government of Winston
Churchill as Lord Privy Seal, Deputy Prime Minister (from 1942), and Dominions Secretary. He chaired many crucial Cabinet committees, and gained a reputation as a skilful manager of disagreements and disputes among colleagues. This experience became vital after 1945, when Labour won the general election, as he had to lead a Cabinet of diverse talents and conflicting opinions.
In foreign policy,
decolonization began with the granting of independence to India, Pakistan, and Burma in 1947. British withdrawal from
Palestine allowed the creation of Israel in 1948. At the same time, Attlee's attempts to maintain friendly relations with the Soviet Union were increasingly unsuccessful.
Yet it is the achievement of his government in domestic affairs for which he is best remembered. Despite a war debt of $20,000 million, the government implemented the proposals of the
Beveridge Report, and pursued the economic policies advocated by
Keynes. It passed the National Insurance Act of 1946, and introduced a
National Health Service. Nationalization was expanded to include the Bank of England, along with key industries such as gas, coal, electricity, and railways. Full employment was rigorously pursued, whilst the government relocated industries and planned new towns. His generous policies of public spending at a time of record public debt could only succeed through maintaining tight control over public consumption. The maintenance of wartime rationing, and the perceived slowness of his government's policies of house-building, resulted in his government's increasing unpopularity. At the 1950 general election Labour gained a majority of only five seats, and the government soon faced fierce opposition over its austerity programme, while entry into the
Korean War necessitated the diversion of financial resources to rearmament. In October 1951, Labour lost the election to the
Conservative Party. Attlee was suffering from poor health by this time, but he remained leader of the opposition until 1955, when he went to the House of Lords.
An unassuming, uncharismatic, and deeply uninspiring figure, he was described as a ‘sheep in sheep's clothing’ (Churchill). However, his prominence within the Labour Party arose from his very efficiency and modesty; during the 1930s, in a party deeply divided, he was seen by neither faction as a threat and could communicate with all of them. In this sense, the success of his governments resulted from his ability to coordinate his ministers, many of whom were as diverse as they were brilliant. He resigned as leader of the Labour Party in 1955, having transformed it into a stable pillar of the British political system.
Bevan, Aneurin;
Bevin, Ernest;
Morrison, Herbert
