Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede
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Arthur Augustus William Harry Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede (16 February 1871 - 23 March 1946) was a British politician, writer, and social activist. He was the third son of Sir Henry Ponsonby, Private Secretary to Queen Victoria, and the great-grandson of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough. Frederick Edward Grey Ponsonby, 1st Baron Sysonby, was his elder brother.
Lord Ponsonby is probably most remembered for the statement: "When war is declared, truth is the first casualty", which he made in his book Falsehood in Wartime: Propaganda Lies of the First World War (1928). However, this line had previously been spoken in 1917 by US Republican Senator Hiram Johnson.
He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, and joined the Diplomatic Service, taking assignments in Constantinople and Copenhagen.
On 12 April 1893 he married Dorothea Parry, daughter of Hubert Parry and Elizabeth Herbert, daughter of Sidney Herbert.
At the 1906 general election he ran unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate, but was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stirling Burghs at a by-election in 1908.
He was opposed to Britain's involvement in World War I, and joined with George Cadbury, Ramsay MacDonald, E. D. Morel, Arnold Rowntree and Charles Trevelyan, to form the Union of Democratic Control (UDC), which became a very prominent anti-war organisation in Britain.
He was defeated in the 1918 general election, when he stood as an "Independent Democrat" in the new Dunfermline Burghs constituency.[1] He then joined the Labour Party and was elected at the 1922 general election as the MP for the Brightside division of Sheffield.[1]
Ramsay MacDonald appointed him to be Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1924, and Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs and later Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport in 1929. He became a Baron in 1930 and served as leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords from 1931 until 1935, resigning in opposition to the party's policy on sanctions against Italy for its invasion of Abyssinia.
In 1927-1928 he ran a significant Peace Letter campaign against increasing preparations for war, and from 1936 he became active in the Peace Pledge Union and contributed regularly to Peace News.
In 1940 Ponsonby resigned from the Labour Party, opposing its decision to join the coalition government of Winston Churchill.
He died on 23 March 1946. He was succeeded by his son Matthew Ponsonby.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- FALSEHOOD IN WAR-TIME: Propaganda Lies of the First World War by Arthur Ponsonby MP
- Review of Falsehood in Wartime
- Two pictures of Ponsonby at The National Portrait Gallery (UK)
- Brief bio at Spartacus Schoolnet
- Falsehood in Wartime online
- The Ponsonby Rule Google HTML of a PDF document.
- Arthur Ponsonby's Dream
[edit] References
- ^ a b Craig, F. W. S. [1969] (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, 3rd edition, Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
- Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
- Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
