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Articles
Charles Stephenson Examines WSC as Home Secretary
- By WILLIAM J. SHEPHERD
- | August 7, 2023
- Category: Books
Charles Stephenson. Churchill as Home Secretary: Suffragettes, Strikes and Social Reform 1910-1911. Yorkshire and Philadelphia: Pen and Sword History, 2023, 296 p. $49.95, Amazon $29.97, Kindle $29.99.
Charles Stephenson…
…is a Welsh military and political writer whose previous books focus on the world wars in the Far East. Here he goes in a new direction, with good reason: There are many works on Churchill’s political career, yet little is devoted to his time as Home Secretary. This was the first of the three great offices of state he occupied, followed by chancellor (1924-29) and prime minister (1940-45, 1951-55). His year-and-a-half at the Home Office is lightly covered, save for controversies such as the Tonypandy myth and the so called “Battle of Sydney Street.” (As the many links in this article suggest, however, the Home Office period is well covered by the Churchill Project.)
The lacuna is explained because the Home Office was his least favorite job, during a period of social and industrial strife. It was also of shorter tenure than any position other than Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (six months). Despite extensive endnotes and a detailed bibliography, Stephenson believes his book is for general readers and not academics. Amazon helpfully offers a good discount on the academic-like list price.
Admittedly, the chronology is broken up by several thematic chapters—labor disputes, eugenics, suffragettes, prison reform, spy mania. Stephenson also addresses what he calls the “misremembering if not “abdication” (ix) of contemporaries like Churchill’s doctor Lord Moran and friend Violet Asquith. (Their published accounts often do not match their original archived diaries and letters.)
“The Blenheim Rat”
Stephenson begins with a review of Churchill’s early political career, from his victory as a Tory in the 1900 “Khaki Election” to his appointment to the Home Office in February 1910. The emphasis is on Churchill as “The Blenheim Rat,” the class traitor who crossed party lines in 1904. As a Liberal, he became Under-Secretary for Colonies (1905-08) and President of the Board of Trade (1908-10). In the latter position (akin to U.S. Commerce Secretary), he became the junior of the notorious “Terrible Twins,” along with his political mentor, the brilliant but unscrupulous David Lloyd George. Together they faced down bitter Tory assaults to create the modern British welfare state.
Three chapters study labor disputes and civil unrest in Wales and Scotland, involving transportation workers and the coal industry. At Tonypandy, South Wales, Churchill mythically ordered British troops to shoot striking miners. Here Stephenson deftly unravels layers of misunderstanding and inaccurate history. It was the employers and local officials who constantly requested troops. The government prudently sent arbitrators, then police, with soldiers as a last resort.
Major-General Sir Nevil Macready, the unofficial “Home Office Commissioner,” used Metropolitan Police armed with clubs (or rolled-up macintoshes), keeping the army in reserve. One miner died in a tussle with police in Tonypandy. Soldiers killed from two to four strikers the following year in Llanelli, Wales—ironically after the strike had ended. Nevertheless, “Tonypandy” became a one-word albatross hung on Churchill. Later it was superseded by “Dardanelles,” the colossal First World War disaster for which he was also blamed.
Eugenics and prison reform
Other chapters cover eugenics, prison reform, and spy mania. Like most educated people of the era, Stephenson admits, Churchill briefly favored eugenics to prevent moral and physical degeneration. Churchill studied eugenicist proposals for criminal convicted of crimes like bestiality and rape. Apparently, though, he lost interest in the theory soon after leaving office. After the horrors of Nazi Germany decades later, no one would admit ever being in favor of eugenics, which oddly reminds me of the aftermath of the 1970s disco music craze.
Prison reform was more of a bright spot. Churchill introduced reduced sentences, less time in solitary confinement, concerts and libraries. He made liberal use of death sentence pardons (remissions). The growing threat of Imperial Germany and sensational stories of spies and invasion—epitomized by Erskine Childers’ The Riddle of the Sands (1903)—led to the creation of a Secret Service Bureau. This included the now-famous MI5 for counterintelligence and MI6 for foreign intelligence. Influenced by Sir Henry Wilson, Churchill wrote a prescient strategic document predicting the course of a German attack in 1914. He opposed interring aliens in peacetime, but expanded mail screening as a key covert operations.
Votes for women
The volatile issue of women’s suffrage gets a full chapter. Churchill as a Liberal MP was never against women voting, but felt no obligation to support them after years of being targeted by their activists. This was a reflection of the staunch opposition of his political chief, Asquith. Churchill was initially in favor of a bill providing limited suffrage for unmarried women, before changing his mind. (Akin to U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry’s renowned 2004 statement that he was for funding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars before he was against it.)
In September 1910, suffragette militancy resulted in two major street battles: “Black Friday” outside Parliament, and “The Battle of Downing Street” four days later. There police beat and arrested several women. A male activist with a whip was restrained from attacking Churchill. Contrary to popular belief, Churchill did not begin the force-feeding of women prisoners on hunger strikes, but he did permit the practice. In both elections of 1910, where he represented the Scottish city of Dundee, he was dogged at speaking events by a persistent suffragette. This “Scotch virago” loudly rang a bell to drown him out (121). “These women,” he declared, “will be the death of me” (126).
Sidney Street
The most sensational real event of Churchill’s tenure at the Home Office was the “The Battle of Sidney Street” on 3 January 1911. This occurred when a band of thieves and terrorists, who had previously murdered three police officers, were cornered in a house in London’s East End. Police, supported by a unit of the Scots Guards from the Tower of London, rushed to the scene. So did the Home Secretary.
Photographs and newsreels showed him in the line of fire. Critics claimed he was seeking the limelight, and perhaps interfering with security operations. In fact, the only tactical decision he made was to preserve the lives of firefighters by permitting the building to burn down with some culprits apparently inside. Churchill’s actions at Sidney Street were added to the list of his alleged follies.
Moving up
The constitutional crisis ended in August 1911 with passage of the Parliament Act. This limited the power of the House of Lords and reduced Parliamentary terms from seven to five years. With war clouds darkening, and prompted by Lloyd George, Asquith decided that Churchill’s martial energy would be better utilized as First Lord of the Admiralty. Thus Churchill, not yet 37, exchanged offices with a reluctant Reginald McKenna. He headed the Admiralty, one of his favorite offices, for four years, until the Dardanelles and Gallipoli debacles temporarily brought him down.
Stephenson emphasizes Churchill’s contributions. The Home Office is considered one of the toughest cabinet jobs. McKenna ruefully said: “If you want to ruin a man, send him to the Home Office” (201). Margaret Thatcher wrote in her memoirs: “Home Secretaries never do have an easy time” with their “unique combination of responsibility without power” (201). That is the opposite of a sound bite often attributed to Churchill or Spiderman, but most likely from Voltaire: “With great power comes great responsibility.”
Churchill was the youngest Home Secretary since Sir Robert Peel in 1822. His, accomplishments, the greatest being prison reform, did not rank among the highest. Still, he proved himself administratively and political competent for high office. A strange mix of radical and traditionalist with a “mercurial approach to politics,” Churchill was “a political Lazarus” (210). He also disproved McKenna’s maxim. Taking the job was not a career-ending move.
The author
William John Shepherd, archivist and historian, is a long-time contributor to The Churchill Project, several academic journals, and popular history magazines.
A fine review which, alas, contains a minor typo: the author of ‘Churchill as Home Secretary: Suffragettes, Strikes and Social Reform 1910-1911’ is CHARLES Stephenson not, as you have it, CHRISTOPHER Stephenson.
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Fixed, with our apologies. RML
Thank you, and no apologies necessary: Those who’ve never made a mistake, never made anything.
I apologize for what was my mistake, and not the editor’s. I am glad you appreciated the review as I certainly enjoying doing it. Congrats on a great addition to the canon.
No apologies necessary I assure you; typos are akin to death and taxes. Incidentally, one Facebook commentator reckons your review to be ‘An excellent and illuminating read’. Nice one.