Graham White (politician)

Graham White in 1930

Henry Graham White (26 August 1880 – 19 February 1965), known as Graham White was a radical British Liberal Party politician.

Background

He was the son of John Arnold White and Annie Sinclair Graham of Birkenhead. He was educated at Birkenhead School from 1891 and Liverpool University.^[1] Jointly with his brother, Arnold, he endowed the Malcolm White Scholarship at Birkenhead School in memory of their younger brother who was killed in World War I. He also bought and gave a house known as Overdale with its grounds to the school.^[2]

Family

He married, in 1910, Mary Irene Heath of Nether Stowey, Somerset. They had two sons and one daughter. Mary died in 1962.^[3] His son, John Graham-White (1913-2008), was a founder of the profession of clinical psychology.^[4]

Political career

In 1917 he was elected a Member of Birkenhead Town Council. In 1918 he was Liberal candidate for the Birkenhead East Division of Cheshire at the General Election. He was critical of the Coalition Government for calling an election while many of those in the armed forces were still abroad and unable to take part in the election. Apart from this criticism, he was happy to call himself a supporter of David Lloyd George and the Coalition Government.^[5] However the Coalition Government endorsed his Unionist opponent and White came third, losing his deposit;

General Election 1918: Birkenhead East^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Alfred Bigland	13,012	64.5	n/a
	Labour	John Finigan	5,399	26.7	n/a
	Liberal	Henry Graham White	1,787	8.8	n/a
Majority			7,613	37.8	n/a
Turnout				60.7	n/a
	Unionist win

In 1920 he was re-elected to Birkenhead Council. In 1921 he was appointed the town council's Chairman of the Higher Education Committee, serving until 1922. In 1922 he stood for the second time as Liberal candidate for Birkenhead East and managed to turn third place with a lost deposit into victory;

General Election 1922: Birkenhead East^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Henry Graham White	14,690	57.8	+49.0
	Unionist	Alfred Bigland	10,745	42.2	-22.3
Majority			3,945	15.6	53.4
Turnout				77.5
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+35.7

He stood down from Birkenhead Town Council in 1923. He was a passionate internationalist and in 1923 he was elected a Member of the Executive Committee, of the League of Nations Union, serving until 1924. In 1923 he was re-elected to parliament with an increased majority;

General Election 1923: Birkenhead East^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Henry Graham White	15,845	63.5	+5.7
	Unionist	Luke Lees	9,091	36.5	-5.7
Majority			6,754	27.0	+11.4
Turnout				74.1	-3.4
	Liberal hold		Swing	+5.7

In 1924 at the General election, the Labour party chose to field a candidate against him with disastrous effects, causing his defeat;

General Election 1924: Birkenhead East^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	William Henry Stott	11,328	40.3	+3.8
	Liberal	Henry Graham White	9,275	33.0	-30.5
	Labour	James Coulthard	7,496	26.7	n/a
Majority			2,053	7.3	34.3
Turnout				81.0	+6.9
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	+17.1

In 1929 he re-gained his Birkenhead East seat and returned to parliament after an absence of five years;

General Election 1929: Birkenhead East^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Henry Graham White	13,157	35.9	+2.9
	Unionist	Clement Edmund Royds Brocklebank	11,860	32.3	-8.0
	Labour	James Coulthard	11,654	31.8	+5.1
Majority			1,297	3.6	10.9
Turnout				78.8
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+5.5

In 1930 he served a second term as a Member of the Executive Committee, of the League of Nations Union. In 1930 he was appointed a Member of the parliamentary Select Committee on Private Schools. In 1930 he was appointed a Member of Indian Round Table Conference in London to discuss constitutional reforms. Upon the formation of the National Government in 1931 he was appointed Assistant Postmaster General. In 1931 at the General Election, the Conservatives chose not to field a candidate against him as the parties were partners in the National Government, as a result, White was comfortably re-elected;

General Election 1931: Birkenhead East^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Henry Graham White	26,938	73.2	+37.3
	Labour	C McVey	9,868	26.8	-5.0
Majority			17,070	46.4	+36.5
Turnout				79.1	+0.3
	Liberal hold		Swing	+21.2

In 1932 he resigned from National Government office along with all the other Liberal party Ministers who followed Sir Herbert Samuel.^[12] In 1933 along with the rest of the Liberal parliamentary party he went into opposition to the National government.^[13] In 1935 he was appointed a Member of the parliamentary Broadcasting Committee. In 1935 given that the Liberals were now in opposition, the Conservatives chose to oppose him once again. however, he still managed to top the poll;

General Election 1935: Birkenhead East^[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Henry Graham White	16,548	48.1	-25.1
	Conservative	S J Hill	9,854	28.6	n/a
	Labour	Mrs M A Mercer	8,028	23.3	-3.5
Majority			6,694	19.5	-17.0
Turnout				74.2	-4.9
	Liberal hold		Swing	n/a

In 1935 after Sir Archibald Sinclair became Liberal party leader, he offered White the position of Liberal Chief Whip but White declined.^[15] In 1937 he was appointed a Member of the parliamentary Rent Restriction Acts Committee. In 1938 he was appointed a Member of the parliamentary Distress for Rent Committee. In 1939 another general election was anticipated and White was re-selected as the Liberal prospective candidate. There were calls for the Liberal and Labour parties to join together in a Popular Front to defeat the National Government. By the autumn of 1939, the Birkenhead Labour party had no candidate in the field^[16] and a straight fight with a Conservative was anticipated. However, due to the outbreak of war the election was postponed. In 1940 he was elected a Member of the Executive Committee of the British Council, a body specialising in international educational and cultural exchange. In 1940 he was appointed a Member of the Select Committee on National Expenditure. In 1943 he was Chairman of the Committee on Seamen’s Welfare in Ports. In 1945 he was appointed a member of the Privy Council, thus allowing him to use the title, The Right Honourable. In 1945 he was one of the M.P.s who visited Buchenwald concentration camp.^[17] In 1945 he finally lost his seat when the country swung to the Labour party;

General Election 1945: Birkenhead East^[18]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Frank Soskice	14,790	45.5	+22.2
	Liberal	Rt Hon. Henry Graham White	10,140	31.1	-17.0
	Conservative	Frederick Newell Bucher	7,624	23.4	-5.2
Majority			4,650	14.4	n/a
Turnout				73.6	-0.6
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing	+19.6

In 1945 he was conferred the title of Freeman of Birkenhead. In 1950 his old Birkenhead East seat was abolished with part of it going into the new Bebington constituency. White stood there as Liberal candidate but finished third;

General Election 1950: Bebington^[19]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Hendrie Dudley Oakshott	25,309	43.8	n/a
	Labour	Rt Hon. Sir Frank Soskice	22,090	38.3	n/a
	Liberal	Rt Hon. Henry Graham White	10,324	17.9	n/a
Majority			3,219	5.5	n/a
Turnout				87.2	n/a
	Conservative win

He did not stand for parliament again. He was President of the Liberal Party from 1954-55.^[20] In 1955 he was awarded a LLD by the University of Liverpool. He was Vice-President of the Liberal Party from 1958-59. White also served on a number of other bodies; the executive of the Anti-Slavery Society,^[21] Chairman of the British Association for Labour Legislation, Chairman of the Advisory Committee on War risk insurance, a Member of Council of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a Member of Council of Bedford College for Women, a Member of the Council on Aliens, Chairman of Council of the Beechcroft Settlement, a Member of the Inter-Parliamentary Association, a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, a Member of the Masterman Committee on the political activities of Civil Servants, a Member of the Curtis Committee on the Care of Children and a member of the Board of Social Sciences and Administration of Liverpool University.^[22]

His parliamentary colleague Sir Percy Harris described him as "disinterested, with a fine sense of duty and a varied knowledge of every kind of social problem, he was a mine of information and always ready to step into the breach."^[23]

Papers

A collection of White's papers were donated to Parliament by his grandson and have been deposited in the House of Lords Records Office. The papers comprise political papers and correspondence including constituency and election material, papers concerning Liberal Party organisation, draft bills, committee reports and memoranda on topics such as unemployment benefit and old age pensions. There are papers on White's interests outside Parliament, including the British Council and the Eleanor Rathbone Trust. There are also papers regarding White's campaign on behalf of German internees during the Second World War.

References

1. The English Historical Review
2. "Old Birkonian web-site 50 years ago". Retrieved 14 September 2016.
3. ‘WHITE, Rt Hon. (Henry) Graham’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 28 Jan 2014
4. "The Guardian - Obituary". 1 August 2008.
5. The Downfall of the Liberal Party by Trevor Wilson
6. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
7. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
8. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
9. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
10. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
11. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
12. Memoirs by Viscount Samuel (1945)
13. The Times House of Commons, 1935
14. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
15. Forty Years in and out of Parliament by Sir Percy Harris
16. Report of the Annual Conference, 1939
17. The Times House of Commons, 1950
18. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
19. British parliamentary election results 1950-1974, Craig, F.W.S.
20. Parliament web site
21. The Times House of Commons, 1931
22. ‘WHITE, Rt Hon. (Henry) Graham’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 28 Jan 2014
23. Forty Years in and out of Parliament by Sir Percy Harris

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Henry Graham White
• Portrait of Henry Graham White
• Photograph of White and other MPs on their way to Buchenwald: http://find.galegroup.com/iln/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=ILN&userGroupName=esusslib&tabID=T003&docPage=article&docId=HN3100337416&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0
• White at Buchenwald: http://www.britishpathe.com/video/german-atrocities/query/Buchenwald