The Viscount Samuel | |
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![]() Samuel c. 1916 | |
Leader of the Liberal Party | |
In office 4 November 1931 – 26 November 1935 | |
Deputy | Archibald Sinclair |
Preceded by | David Lloyd George |
Succeeded by | Archibald Sinclair |
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party | |
In office 30 May 1929 – 4 November 1931 | |
Preceded by | Position created |
Succeeded by | Archibald Sinclair |
1st High Commissioner for Palestine | |
In office 1 July 1920 – 30 June 1925 | |
Preceded by | Position created |
Succeeded by | Sir Herbert Plumer |
Home Secretary | |
In office 26 August 1931 – 1 October 1932 | |
Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
Preceded by | John Robert Clynes |
Succeeded by | Sir John Gilmour, Bt |
In office 12 January – 7 December 1916 | |
Prime Minister | H. H. Asquith |
Preceded by | Sir John Simon |
Succeeded by | Sir George Cave |
Postmaster-General | |
In office 26 May 1915 – 18 January 1916 | |
Prime Minister | H. H. Asquith |
Preceded by | Sir Charles Hobhouse |
Succeeded by | Joseph A. Pease |
In office 14 February 1910 – 11 February 1914 | |
Prime Minister | H. H. Asquith |
Preceded by | Sydney Buxton |
Succeeded by | Sir Charles Hobhouse |
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
In office 25 November 1915 – 11 February 1916 | |
Prime Minister | H. H. Asquith |
Preceded by | Winston Churchill |
Succeeded by | Edwin Montagu |
In office 25 June 1909 – 14 February 1910 | |
Prime Minister | H. H. Asquith |
Preceded by | The Lord Fitzmaurice |
Succeeded by | Joseph A. Pease |
President of the Local Government Board | |
In office 11 February 1914 – 25 November 1915 | |
Prime Minister | H. H. Asquith |
Preceded by | John Burns |
Succeeded by | Walter Long |
Member of Parliament for Darwen | |
In office 30 May 1929 – 25 October 1935 | |
Preceded by | Frank Sanderson |
Succeeded by | Stuart Russell |
Member of Parliament for Cleveland | |
In office 5 November 1902 – 25 November 1918 | |
Preceded by | Alfred Pease |
Succeeded by | Park Goff |
Personal details | |
Born | Herbert Louis Samuel 6 November 1870 Toxteth, Liverpool, Lancashire, England |
Died | 5 February 1963 London, England | (aged 92)
Political party | Liberal |
Spouse | Beatrice Franklin |
Children | Edwin Philip Godfrey Nancy |
Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, GCB, OM, GBE, PC (6 November 1870 – 5 February 1963) was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931 to 1935.
He was the first nominally-practising Jew to serve as a Cabinet minister and to become the leader of a major British political party. Samuel had promoted Zionism within the British Cabinet, beginning with his 1915 memorandum entitled The Future of Palestine. In 1920 he was appointed as the first High Commissioner for Palestine, in charge of the administration of the territory.
Samuel was the last member of the Liberal Party to hold one of the four Great Offices of State (as Home Secretary from 1931 to 1932 in the National Government of Ramsay MacDonald).[1][2] One of the adherents of "New Liberalism",[3] Samuel helped to draft and present social reform legislation while he was serving as a Liberal cabinet member.[4] Samuel led the party in both the 1931 general election and the 1935 general election, during which period the party's number of seats in parliament fell from 59 to 21.