Stephen Walsh (politician)

The Right Honourable Stephen Walsh


Secretary of State for War
In office 22 January 1924 – 3 November 1924
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Ramsay Macdonald
Preceded by	The Earl of Derby
Succeeded by	Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, Bt
Personal details
Born	26 August 1859 (1859-08-26)
Died	16 March 1929 (1929-03-17) (aged 69)
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour

Stephen Walsh PC (26 August 1859 – 16 March 1929) was a British miner, trade unionist and Labour Party politician.^[1]

Background

Born in Liverpool, Walsh became an orphan at a very young age. He was educated at an industrial school in the Kirkdale area of the city, leaving school aged 13 to work in a coalmine in Ashton in Makerfield.^[1]

Political career

Walsh was an official of the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Federation before he was elected to parliament for Ince in the 1906 general election. Later that year he attacked the idea that an MP needed an Oxbridge education further adding that: "To use an arithmetical metaphor, the Labour party had reduced the points of difference among the working classes to the lowest common denominator, and had promoted and developed the greatest common measure of united action".^[2]

Walsh was a member of David Lloyd George's Coalition Government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of National Service in 1917 and as Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board from 1917 to 1919.

Walsh stood in the 1918 election as a Coalition Labour candidate opposed by the official Labour Party. He was Vice-President of National Union of Mineworkers from 1922 to 1924 until he was appointed Secretary of State for War by Ramsay MacDonald in January 1924, a post he held until the government fell in November of the same year. He was sworn of the Privy Council in January 1924.

Family

One of Walsh's sons died in World War I. Walsh himself died in March 1929, aged 69.

References

1 2 "Obituary: Mr. Stephen Walsh. Labour War Minister". The Times. 18 March 1929. p. 19.
↑ The Manchester Guardian, "The Fear Of The Socialist", 17 October 1906

External links

Stephen Walsh at Spartacus Educational

Trade union offices
Preceded by Herbert Smith	Vice-President of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain 1922–1924	Succeeded by Thomas Richards
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Henry Blundell-Hollinshead-Blundell	Member of Parliament for Ince 1906–1929	Succeeded by Gordon MacDonald
Political offices
Preceded by New office	Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of National Service 1917	Succeeded by Cecil Beck
Preceded by William Hayes Fisher	Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board 1917–1919	Succeeded by Hon. Waldorf Astor
Preceded by The Earl of Derby	Secretary of State for War 1924	Succeeded by Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, Bt

Cabinet of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald (1924)

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Leader of the House of Commons Foreign Secretary	Ramsay MacDonald

Lord Chancellor Leader of the House of Lords	The Viscount Haldane

Lord President of the Council	The Lord Parmoor

Chancellor of the Exchequer	Philip Snowden

Home Secretary	Arthur Henderson

First Lord of the Admiralty	The Viscount Chelmsford

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries	Noel Buxton

Secretary of State for Air	The Lord Thomson

Secretary of State for the Colonies	James Henry Thomas

Lord Privy Seal Deputy Leader of the House of Commons	J. R. Clynes

President of the Board of Education	Charles Trevelyan

Secretary of State for India	Sydney Olivier

Secretary of State for War	Stephen Walsh

Minister of Health	John Wheatley

Secretary for Scotland	William Adamson

Minister of Labour	Tom Shaw

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster	Josiah Wedgwood

Postmaster General	Vernon Hartshorn

President of the Board of Trade	Sidney Webb

First Commissioner of Works	Frederick William Jowett

Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)

Presidents	1889 Pickard 1904 Enoch Edwards 1912 Smillie 1922 Smith 1929 Richards 1931 Ebby Edwards 1932 Lee 1934 J. Jones 1939 Lawther 1954 Ernest Jones 1960 Machen 1960 Ford 1971 Gormley 1982 Scargill 2002 Lavery 2012 Wilson

Vice-Presidents	1889 Woods 1909 Smillie 1912 Harvey 1914 House 1917 Smith 1922 Walsh 1924 Richards 1929 Ebby Edwards 1931 Lee 1932 J. Jones 1933 Davies 1934 Lawther 1939 Bowman 1950 Ernest Jones 1954 Edward Jones 1960 Collindridge 1963 Bullough 1969 Schofield 1973 McGahey 1987 Thompson 1989 Vacant 1992 Cave 2002 Stanley 2010 Wilson 2012 Thomas

General Secretaries	1889 Ashton 1919 Hodges 1924 Cook 1932 Ebby Edwards 1946 Horner 1959 Paynter 1968 Daly 1984 Heathfield 1992 Scargill 1992 Vacant? 2002 Kemp 2007 Kitchen

Treasurers	1889 Enoch Edwards 1904 Abraham 1918 Robson 1921 Richardson

MFGB affiliates	Bristol Cleveland Cokemen Cumberland Derbyshire Durham Forest of Dean Kent Lancashire and Cheshire Leicestershire Midland Counties Northumberland North Wales Nottinghamshire Scotland (Ayrshire Fife and Kinross Lanarkshire Mid and East Lothian Mid and West Lothian Stirling) Somerset South Derbyshire South Wales Yorkshire

Strikes	1893 1912 1926 1969 1972 1974 1984–1985

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