| Leopold Stennett Amery |
Article Index for Leopold |
Shopping Amery |
Website Links For Leopold |
Information AboutLeopold Stennett Amery |
|
He was born in Gorakhpur , India to an English father and a Hungarian Jewish mother who had come to India from England. Her parents had settled in England and converted to Protestant ism. Leo Amery was educated at Harrow and gained a First at Balliol College, Oxford . He was elected a fellow of All Souls. Undoubtedly bright, he could speak Hindi at age 3 and could converse in French, German, Italian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Serbian and Hungarian. During the Second Boer War he was a correspondent for '' The Times ''. In 1901, his articles in the Times on the reform of the army in southern Africa and specifically attacking the British General Sir Redvers Henry Buller contributed to the sacking of the latter. He later edited the ''Times History of the South African War''. In 1911 he was elected as a Conservative MP for Sparkbrook , Birmingham . As an under-secretary in Lloyd George 's national government he helped draft the Balfour Declaration ( 1917 ). He also encouraged Jabotinsky in the formation of the Jewish Legion of the British Army . He was First Lord Of The Admiralty ( 1922 - 1924 ) under Andrew Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin then later Colonial Secretary ( 1924 - 1929 ). In the 1930's Amery, along with Winston Churchill , was a bitter critic of Appeasement , often openly attacking his own party. In 1938, when Neville Chamberlain announced his flight to Munich to the cheers of the House, Amery was one of only four members who remained seated (the others were Churchill, Anthony Eden and Harold Nicolson ). On 2nd September 1939 , after Neville Chamberlain had spoken in a Commons debate and said he would not declare war on Germany immediately for invading Poland , Arthur Greenwood stood up to speak for Labour . Amery, angered by Chamberlain's speech and fearing a purely partisan speech by Greenwood, called out to him across the floor, 'Speak for England' (which in Alan Bennett 's Forty Years On became 'Speak for England, Arthur!'). During the notorious Norway Debate in 1940 , he famously attacked Chamberlain's government, quoting Oliver Cromwell at the end: You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go. This debate led to 42 Conservative MPs voting against Chamberlian and 36 abstaining, leading to Churchill's premiership. During World War II he was Secretary Of State For India . At the 1945 General Election , he lost his seat to Labour 's P Shurmer , a Post Office worker. He was offered but refused a Peerage because this might when he died cut short his son Julian's political career in the House Of Commons . However, he was made a Companion Of Honour . In retirement, Amery published his autobiography, ''My Political Life'' ( 1955 ). Amery distanced himself from his Jewish origins, probably due to Anti-Semitism among the British establishment which he sought to join. It is quite likely he never informed his children of their Jewish heritage. His son, John Amery ( 1912 - 1945 ), had a troubled early life and between 1942 and 1945 made pro- Nazi broadcasts from Berlin. After the war he was tried and executed for Treason . Another son, Julian Amery ( 1919 - 1996 ) was a Conservative politician who served in the cabinets of Harold Macmillan and Edward Heath . REFERENCES Faber, David ''Speaking for England Leo, Julian and John Amery: The Tragedy of a Political Family'', Free Press, 2005, ISBN 0 7432 5688 3 |
|
|