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{{short description|British Labour politician (1865–1944)}}
{{for|the Swedish Olympic cyclist|Harry Snell (cyclist)}}
{{for|the Swedish Olympic cyclist|Harry Snell (cyclist)}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = <!-- include middle initial, if not specified in birth_name -->
| image = The Lord Snell.jpg
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = The Lord Snell
| birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name -->
| honorific-suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|CH|CBE|PC}}
⚫
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1865|04|01}}.
| image = The Lord Snell.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption =
|office = [[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms|Chief Whip of the House of Lords<br>Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms]]
| monarch = [[George VI]]
|primeminister = [[Winston Churchill]]
|term_start = 31 May 1940
|term_end = 21 April 1944
⚫
|predecessor = [[George Bingham, 5th Earl of Lucan|The Earl of Lucan]]
|successor = [[Hugh Fortescue, 5th Earl Fortescue|The Earl Fortescue]]
| office1 = [[Under-Secretary of State for India|Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India]]
| term_start1 = 13 March 1931
| term_end1 = 24 August 1931
| predecessor1 = [[Frank Russell, 2nd Earl Russell|The Earl Russell]]
| successor1 = [[Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian|The Marquess of Lothian]]
| monarch1 = [[George V]]
| primeminister1 = [[Ramsay MacDonald]]
|office2 = [[Member of the House of Lords]]<br/>[[Lords Temporal|Lord Temporal]]
|term_start2 = 23 March 1931
|term_end2 = 21 April 1944<br/>[[Hereditary Peerage]]
|predecessor2 = ''Peerage created''
|successor2 = ''Peerage extinct''
| office3 =[[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br/>for [[Woolwich East (UK Parliament constituency)|Woolwich East]]
| term_start3 = 15 November 1922
| term_end3 = 22 March 1931
| predecessor3 = [[Robert Gee]]
| successor3 = [[George Hicks (trade unionist)|George Hicks]]
⚫
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1865|04|01|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Sutton-on-Trent]] in Nottinghamshire, England
| birth_place = [[Sutton-on-Trent]] in Nottinghamshire, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1944|04|21|1865|04|01}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1944|04|21|1865|04|01|df=y}}
| death_place = [[London]], [[England]]
| death_place = [[London]], [[England]]
| nationality = English
| nationality = English
| other_names =
| occupation =
| years_active = 1875-1944
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
}}

'''Henry Snell, 1st Baron Snell''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|CH|CBE|PC}} (1 April 1865 – 21 April 1944), was a British socialist politician and campaigner. He served in government under [[Ramsay MacDonald]] and [[Winston Churchill]], and as the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]'s leader in the [[House of Lords]] in the late 1930s.
'''Henry Snell, 1st Baron Snell''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|CH|CBE|PC}} (1 April 1865 – 21 April 1944), was a British socialist politician and campaigner. He served in government under [[Ramsay MacDonald]] and [[Winston Churchill]], and as the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]'s leader in the [[House of Lords]] in the late 1930s.


==Background==
==Background==
Born in [[Sutton-on-Trent]] in Nottinghamshire, the son of agricultural workers, Harry Snell was educated at his local village school before beginning work as a farm hand at the age of eight. He worked full-time from the age of ten and became an indoor servant at the farm aged twelve. Dissatisfied with this work, Snell left and travelled around the county, taking a variety of jobs including work as a groom and ferryman at an inn on the [[River Trent]] and as a French-polisher in [[Nottingham]]. During long periods of unemployment he occupied himself with extensive reading, and was particularly influenced by the writing of [[Henry George]]. Inspired by [[Charles Bradlaugh]] and the cause of [[secularism]] in Nottingham 1881, he joined the [[National Secular Society]]. He rejected the austere and literalist Anglicanism of his up-bringing, but retained some religious faith and decided to join the [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] Church, impressed by its scientific approach to Christian doctrine and its progressive and tolerant values.{{citation needed|date=September 2010}}
Born in [[Sutton-on-Trent]] in Nottinghamshire, the son of agricultural workers, Harry Snell was educated at his local village school before beginning work as a farm hand at the age of eight. He worked full-time from the age of ten and became an indoor servant at the farm aged twelve. Dissatisfied with this work, Snell left and travelled around the county, taking a variety of jobs including work as a groom and at Hazelford Ferry on the [[River Trent]] and as a French polisher in [[Nottingham]]. During long periods of unemployment he occupied himself with extensive reading, and was particularly influenced by the writing of [[Henry George]]. Inspired by [[Charles Bradlaugh]] and the cause of [[secularism]] in Nottingham 1881, he joined the [[National Secular Society]]. He rejected the austere and literalist Anglicanism of his up-bringing, but retained some religious faith and decided to join the [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] Church, impressed by its scientific approach to Christian doctrine and its progressive and tolerant values.{{citation needed|date=September 2010}}


A Unitarian teacher, John Kentish-White, introduced Snell to the works of [[Lord Byron]] and [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]. Through acquaintances made in the Unitarian movement, Snell was able to find a job in London as a clerk at the offices of the Midland Institute for the Blind. Here he continued his self-education at the reference library of [[University College London]], being influenced by the writings of [[Thomas Paine]], [[William Morris]], [[John Ruskin]] and [[John Stuart Mill]]. Eventually [[Unitarianism]] would grow even too strict for him, and he became an agnostic and member of the [[National Secular Society]]. After hearing [[Annie Besant]] address a meeting of the Secular Society on the subject of socialism, Snell joined the [[Social Democratic Federation]]. He worked on [[John Burns]]' campaign for [[British House of Commons|Parliament]] in 1885, and began to address public meetings himself, appearing alongside the likes of [[Henry Hyndman]], [[Tom Mann]], [[Eleanor Marx]] and [[Ben Tillett]]. He was active in supporting the [[Bryant and May match factory strike]] and the [[London dock strike of 1889]].{{citation needed|date=September 2010}}
A Unitarian teacher, John Kentish-White, introduced Snell to the works of [[Lord Byron]] and [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]. Through acquaintances made in the Unitarian movement, Snell was able to find a job in London as a clerk at the offices of the Midland Institute for the Blind. Here he continued his self-education at the reference library of [[University College London]], being influenced by the writings of [[Thomas Paine]], [[William Morris]], [[John Ruskin]] and [[John Stuart Mill]]. Eventually [[Unitarianism]] would grow even too strict for him, and he became an agnostic and member of the [[National Secular Society]]. After hearing [[Annie Besant]] address a meeting of the Secular Society on the subject of socialism, Snell joined the [[Social Democratic Federation]]. He worked on [[John Burns]]' campaign for [[British House of Commons|Parliament]] in 1885, and began to address public meetings himself, appearing alongside the likes of [[Henry Hyndman]], [[Tom Mann]], [[Eleanor Marx]] and [[Ben Tillett]]. He was active in supporting the [[Bryant and May match factory strike]] and the [[London dock strike of 1889]].{{citation needed|date=September 2010}}


==Member of Parliament==
==Member of Parliament==
In 1890, Snell began social work for the Woolwich Charity Organisation Society, and later became secretary to the director of the [[London School of Economics]]. He joined the [[Independent Labour Party]] and, in 1894, the [[Fabian Society]], travelling extensively around Britain to lecture on socialist topics with speakers including [[Ramsay MacDonald]] and [[Bruce Glasier]]. Snell also lectured for the British [[South Place Ethical Society]] (eventually becoming President) and its American counterpart. Snell stood unsuccessfully in [[Huddersfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Huddersfield]] as a candidate for the Labour Party in [[January 1910 United Kingdom general election|January]] and [[December 1910 United Kingdom general election|December 1910]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Pease|first=Edward R.|title=The History of the Fabian Society|year=1925|publisher=Library of Alexandria|isbn=1465502483|page=148}}</ref> and [[1918 United Kingdom general election|1918]]. He was elected to the [[London County Council]] in 1919, serving until 1925,<ref name=DNB>{{cite web|last=Howell|first=David|title=Snell, Henry, Baron Snell (1865–1944)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36177|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|accessdate=25 February 2013|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/36177}}</ref> and became Member of Parliament for [[Woolwich East (UK Parliament constituency)|Woolwich East]], the seat formerly held by [[Will Crooks]], at the [[1922 United Kingdom general election|1922 General Election]], being re-elected in [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Wcommons5.htm|title=House of Commons: Witney to Wythenshawe and Sale East|publisher=Leighrayment.com|accessdate=7 January 2012}}</ref>
In 1890, Snell began social work for the Woolwich Charity Organisation Society, and later became secretary to the director of the [[London School of Economics]]. He joined the [[Independent Labour Party]] and, in 1894, the [[Fabian Society]], travelling extensively around Britain to lecture on socialist topics with speakers including [[Ramsay MacDonald]] and [[Bruce Glasier]]. Snell also lectured for the British [[South Place Ethical Society]] (eventually becoming President) and its American counterpart. Snell stood unsuccessfully in [[Huddersfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Huddersfield]] as a candidate for the Labour Party in [[January 1910 United Kingdom general election|January]] and [[December 1910 United Kingdom general election|December 1910]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Pease|first=Edward R.|title=The History of the Fabian Society|year=1925|publisher=Library of Alexandria|isbn=1465502483|page=148}}</ref> and [[1918 United Kingdom general election|1918]]. He was elected to the [[London County Council]] in 1919, serving until 1925,<ref name=DNB>{{cite ODNB|last=Howell|first=David|title=Snell, Henry, Baron Snell (1865–1944)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36177|year=2004|access-date=25 February 2013|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/36177}}</ref> and became Member of Parliament for [[Woolwich East (UK Parliament constituency)|Woolwich East]], the seat formerly held by [[Will Crooks]], at the [[1922 United Kingdom general election|1922 General Election]], being re-elected in [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Wcommons5.htm|title=House of Commons: Witney to Wythenshawe and Sale East|publisher=Leighrayment.com|access-date=7 January 2012|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101231174353/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Wcommons5.htm|archive-date=31 December 2010}}</ref>
[[File:ירושלים - הרי סנל חבר ועדת החקירה - ב"כ הפועלים-JNF018734.jpeg|thumb|Harry Snell 1929]]

⚫
In late 1929, Snell was appointed to the [[Shaw Commission]], which had been set up to investigate [[Arab]] uprisings in [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]]. When the Commission published its findings in March 1931, Snell delivered a Minority Report, disagreeing with the Commission's recommendation that [[Jew]]ish immigration and land purchase be curtailed. Snell also dissented from the Commission's claims that Palestine was overcrowded, agreeing with reports published two years earlier that had found the area to be under-populated and greatly under-cultivated. He described the impact of Jewish immigration as having raised the standard of living for Arab workers, and asserted that the Commission was wrongly and dangerously encouraging the view that immigration was a menace to Arabs and threatened their economic future. Following this, Snell became a strong supporter of [[Zionism]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Tessler|first=Mark|title=A History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict|year=1994|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0253208734|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofisraeli00tess_0/page/237 237]|edition=2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofisraeli00tess_0/page/237}}</ref>


From 1931 to 1932, he served as President of the British Ethical Union (now known as [[Humanists UK]]), an organisation promoting [[secular humanism|humanism]] as [[secular ethics|a non-religious basis for morality]].<ref>{{cite archive|item=Annual Reports of the Union of Ethical Societies|item-url=https://internetserver.bishopsgate.org.uk/Details/archive/110028005|item-id=|date=1913-1946|fonds=|series=Congress Minutes and Papers, 1913–1991|file=Minute Book|collection=British Humanist Association|collection-url=https://internetserver.bishopsgate.org.uk/Details/archive/110012192|institution=Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives|location=London|accession=|ref=BHA/1/1/1}}</ref>
⚫
In late 1929, Snell was appointed to the [[Shaw Commission]], which had been set up to investigate [[Arab]] up-risings in [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]]. When the Commission published its findings in March 1931, Snell delivered a Minority Report, disagreeing with the Commission's recommendation that [[Jew]]ish immigration and land-purchase be curtailed. Snell also dissented from the Commission's claims that Palestine was over-crowded, agreeing with reports published two years earlier that had found the area to be under-populated and greatly under-cultivated. He described the impact of Jewish immigration as having raised the standard of living for Arab workers, and asserted that the Commission was wrongly and dangerously encouraging the view that immigration was a menace to Arabs and threatened their economic future. Following this, Snell became a strong supporter of [[Zionism]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Tessler|first=Mark|title=A History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict|year=1994|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0253208734|page=237|edition=2}}</ref>


Snell was appointed a [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in the [[1930 Birthday Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33611 |date=3 June 1930 |page=3481 |supp=y}}</ref>
Snell was appointed a [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in the [[1930 Birthday Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33611 |date=3 June 1930 |page=3481 |supp=y}}</ref>


==House of Lords==
==House of Lords==
Snell resigned his seat in the Commons in 1931, to make way for [[George Hicks (trade unionist)|George Hicks]], a leading member of the [[Trades Union Congress]],{{citation needed|date=September 2010}} and was raised to the peerage as '''Baron Snell''', of [[Plumstead]] in the [[County of Kent]], on 23 March 1931.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33701|date=24 March 1931|page=1987}}</ref> Ramsay MacDonald made him [[Under-Secretary of State for India]] and, upon the formation of the National Government a few months later, asked Snell to continue in this role. However, Snell refused, choosing to remain loyal to the Labour Party. In the Lords, he spoke on and agricultural issues, with particular concern for rural workers, and on foreign affairs, and was a member of the British Institute of Parliamentary Affairs and the Empire Parliamentary Association. He was also appointed to the [[British Council]], eventually becoming vice-chairman. In 1935, when [[Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede|Arthur Ponsonby]] chose to resign with [[George Lansbury]], Snell became Labour's leader in the Lords, serving under [[Clement Attlee]]. He published an autobiography, ''Men, Movements and Myself'', in 1936,<ref>{{cite book|last=Snell|first=Henry|title=Men, movements, and myself|year=1936|publisher=J.M. Dent and Sons|pages=284}}</ref> and was made a [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|Privy Counsellor]] in 1937.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34407|date=11 June 1937|page=3731}}</ref>
Snell resigned his seat in the Commons in 1931, to make way for [[George Hicks (trade unionist)|George Hicks]], a leading member of the [[Trades Union Congress]],{{citation needed|date=September 2010}} and was raised to the peerage as '''Baron Snell''', of [[Plumstead]] in the [[County of Kent]], on 23 March 1931.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33701|date=24 March 1931|page=1987}}</ref> Ramsay MacDonald made him [[Under-Secretary of State for India]] and, upon the formation of the National Government a few months later, asked Snell to continue in this role. However, Snell refused, choosing to remain loyal to the Labour Party. In the Lords, he spoke on agricultural issues, with particular concern for rural workers, and on foreign affairs, and was a member of the British Institute of Parliamentary Affairs and the Empire Parliamentary Association. He was also appointed to the [[British Council]], eventually becoming vice-chairman. In 1935, when [[Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede|Arthur Ponsonby]] chose to resign with [[George Lansbury]], Snell became Labour's leader in the Lords, serving under [[Clement Attlee]]. He published an autobiography, ''Men, Movements and Myself'', in 1936,<ref>{{cite book|last=Snell|first=Henry|title=Men, movements, and myself|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.176151|year=1936|publisher=J.M. Dent and Sons|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.176151/page/n308 284]}}</ref> and was made a [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|Privy Counsellor]] in 1937.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34407|date=11 June 1937|page=3731}}</ref>


As leader in the Lords, Snell took a strong line against the growing threat of fascism, and attacked the Government's appeasement of [[Nazi Germany]] and its refusal to intervene to help the Republican government during the [[Spanish Civil War]]. He also continued to champion Zionism. During a debate in the Lords in 1938 he spoke in support the policy of [[population transfer]] of Arabs in Palestine for purposes of developing the land and creating cohesive settlements, pointing out that similar transfers had occurred in [[Libya]] and other Arab countries without any protest. Aged seventy-five and with his health failing, he stood down as leader of the Labour peers in 1940. However, he recovered and was appointed by [[Winston Churchill]] as [[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms]] (Deputy [[Leader of the House of Lords]]) a year later (having been considered as Leader, but passed-over in favour of a [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]). He chaired several committees and inquiries during the [[Second World War]],{{citation needed|date=September 2010}} and was awarded the [[Companion of Honour]] in 1943.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=36033|date=28 May 1943|page=2438 |supp=y}}</ref> Whilst still in the role of Deputy Leader, Snell fell ill at the end of March 1944, and died less than a month later, his peerage becoming extinct at that time.
As leader in the Lords, Snell took a strong line against the growing threat of fascism, and attacked the Government's appeasement of [[Nazi Germany]] and its refusal to intervene to help the Republican government during the [[Spanish Civil War]]. He also continued to champion Zionism. During a debate in the Lords in 1938 he spoke in support of the policy of [[population transfer]] of Arabs in Palestine for the purposes of developing the land and creating cohesive settlements, pointing out that similar transfers had occurred in [[Libya]] and other Arab countries without any protest. Aged seventy-five and with his health failing, he stood down as leader of the Labour peers in 1940. However, he recovered and was appointed by [[Winston Churchill]] as [[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms]] (Deputy [[Leader of the House of Lords]]) a year later (having been considered as Leader, but passed over in favour of a [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]). He chaired several committees and inquiries during the [[Second World War]],{{citation needed|date=September 2010}} and was appointed a [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]] in 1943.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=36033|date=28 May 1943|page=2438 |supp=y}}</ref> Whilst still in the role of Deputy Leader, Snell fell ill at the end of March 1944, and died less than a month later, his peerage becoming extinct at that time.


==See also==
==See also==
* [[Shaw Commission]]
* [[Report of the Commission on the Palestine Disturbances of August, 1929, Cmd. 3530]]


==References==
==References==
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==External links==
==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Commonscat}}
* {{Hansard-contribs|mr-henry-snell|Harry Snell}}
* {{Hansard-contribs|mr-henry-snell|Harry Snell}}


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{{s-ttl|title=[[List of chairmen of the London County Council|Chairman of the London County Council]]|years=1934–1938}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of chairmen of the London County Council|Chairman of the London County Council]]|years=1934–1938}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Ewart Culpin]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Ewart Culpin]]}}
{{s-bef | before = [[George Charles Bingham, 5th Earl of Lucan|The Earl of Lucan]] }}
{{succession box
{{s-ttl
| title = [[Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms]]
| title = [[Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms]]
⚫
| before = [[George Charles Bingham, 5th Earl of Lucan|The Earl of Lucan]]
| after = Vacant
| years = 1940–1944
| years = 1940–1944
}}
}}
{{s-vac|next=[[Hugh Fortescue, 5th Earl Fortescue|The Earl Fortescue]]}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{succession box|title=London Division representative on the [[Independent Labour Party]] National Administrative Council|years=1910–1911|before=[[Robert Ensor]]|after=[[Harry Dubery]]}}
{{succession box|title=London Division representative on the [[Independent Labour Party]] National Administrative Council|years=1910–1911|before=[[Robert Ensor]]|after=[[Harry Dubery]]}}
{{succession box|title=Leader of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] in the [[House of Lords]]|years=1935–1940|before=[[Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede|The Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede]]|after=[[Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison|The Lord Addison]]}}
{{succession box|title=[[Leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords]]|years=1935–1940|before=[[Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede|The Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede]]|after=[[Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison|The Lord Addison]]}}
{{s-reg|uk}}
{{s-reg|uk}}
{{s-new | creation}}
{{s-new | creation}}
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{{s-end}}
{{s-end}}


{{UK Labour Party}}
{{Leaders of the Opposition UK}}
{{Leaders of the Opposition UK}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:1865 births]]
[[Category:1865 births]]
[[Category:1944 deaths]]
[[Category:1944 deaths]]
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[[Category:People from Newark and Sherwood (district)]]
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[[Category:Members of the Fabian Society Executive Committee]]
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[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
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[[Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Members of London County Council]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:English agnostics]]
[[Category:English humanists]]
[[Category:Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms]]
[[Category:Independent Labour Party MPs]]
[[Category:Independent Labour Party MPs]]
[[Category:Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members]]
[[Category:Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members]]
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[[Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Members of London County Council]]
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[[Category:Members of the Fabian Society]]
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[[Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour]]
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[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Ministers in the Churchill wartime government, 1940–1945]]
[[Category:People associated with the London School of Economics]]
[[Category:People associated with the London School of Economics]]
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[[Category:People from Newark and Sherwood (district)]]
[[Category:Presidents of Humanists UK]]
[[Category:Social Democratic Federation members]]
[[Category:Social Democratic Federation members]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1922–1923]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1922–1923]]
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[[Category:UK MPs 1924–1929]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1924–1929]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1929–1931]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1929–1931]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour]]
[[Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages]]
[[Category:English agnostics]]
[[Category:Barons created by George V]]
[[Category:Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms]]
[[Category:National Council of Social Service presidents]]
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[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]

Latest revision as of 18:36, 5 May 2024

For the Swedish Olympic cyclist, see Harry Snell (cyclist).

The Right Honourable
The Lord Snell
CH CBE PC
Chief Whip of the House of Lords
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms
In office
31 May 1940 – 21 April 1944
MonarchGeorge VI
Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
Preceded byThe Earl of Lucan
Succeeded byThe Earl Fortescue
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India
In office
13 March 1931 – 24 August 1931
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald
Preceded byThe Earl Russell
Succeeded byThe Marquess of Lothian
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
23 March 1931 – 21 April 1944
Hereditary Peerage
Preceded byPeerage created
Succeeded byPeerage extinct
Member of Parliament
for Woolwich East
In office
15 November 1922 – 22 March 1931
Preceded byRobert Gee
Succeeded byGeorge Hicks
Personal details
Born(1865-04-01)1 April 1865
Sutton-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, England
Died21 April 1944(1944-04-21) (aged 79)
London, England

Henry Snell, 1st Baron Snell CH CBE PC (1 April 1865 – 21 April 1944), was a British socialist politician and campaigner. He served in government under Ramsay MacDonald and Winston Churchill, and as the Labour Party's leader in the House of Lords in the late 1930s.

Background[edit]

Born in Sutton-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, the son of agricultural workers, Harry Snell was educated at his local village school before beginning work as a farm hand at the age of eight. He worked full-time from the age of ten and became an indoor servant at the farm aged twelve. Dissatisfied with this work, Snell left and travelled around the county, taking a variety of jobs including work as a groom and at Hazelford Ferry on the River Trent and as a French polisher in Nottingham. During long periods of unemployment he occupied himself with extensive reading, and was particularly influenced by the writing of Henry George. Inspired by Charles Bradlaugh and the cause of secularism in Nottingham 1881, he joined the National Secular Society. He rejected the austere and literalist Anglicanism of his up-bringing, but retained some religious faith and decided to join the Unitarian Church, impressed by its scientific approach to Christian doctrine and its progressive and tolerant values.[citation needed]

A Unitarian teacher, John Kentish-White, introduced Snell to the works of Lord Byron and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Through acquaintances made in the Unitarian movement, Snell was able to find a job in London as a clerk at the offices of the Midland Institute for the Blind. Here he continued his self-education at the reference library of University College London, being influenced by the writings of Thomas Paine, William Morris, John Ruskin and John Stuart Mill. Eventually Unitarianism would grow even too strict for him, and he became an agnostic and member of the National Secular Society. After hearing Annie Besant address a meeting of the Secular Society on the subject of socialism, Snell joined the Social Democratic Federation. He worked on John Burns' campaign for Parliament in 1885, and began to address public meetings himself, appearing alongside the likes of Henry Hyndman, Tom Mann, Eleanor Marx and Ben Tillett. He was active in supporting the Bryant and May match factory strike and the London dock strike of 1889.[citation needed]

Member of Parliament[edit]

In 1890, Snell began social work for the Woolwich Charity Organisation Society, and later became secretary to the director of the London School of Economics. He joined the Independent Labour Party and, in 1894, the Fabian Society, travelling extensively around Britain to lecture on socialist topics with speakers including Ramsay MacDonald and Bruce Glasier. Snell also lectured for the British South Place Ethical Society (eventually becoming President) and its American counterpart. Snell stood unsuccessfully in Huddersfield as a candidate for the Labour Party in January and December 1910[1] and 1918. He was elected to the London County Council in 1919, serving until 1925,[2] and became Member of Parliament for Woolwich East, the seat formerly held by Will Crooks, at the 1922 General Election, being re-elected in 1929.[3]

Harry Snell 1929

In late 1929, Snell was appointed to the Shaw Commission, which had been set up to investigate Arab uprisings in Palestine. When the Commission published its findings in March 1931, Snell delivered a Minority Report, disagreeing with the Commission's recommendation that Jewish immigration and land purchase be curtailed. Snell also dissented from the Commission's claims that Palestine was overcrowded, agreeing with reports published two years earlier that had found the area to be under-populated and greatly under-cultivated. He described the impact of Jewish immigration as having raised the standard of living for Arab workers, and asserted that the Commission was wrongly and dangerously encouraging the view that immigration was a menace to Arabs and threatened their economic future. Following this, Snell became a strong supporter of Zionism.[4]

From 1931 to 1932, he served as President of the British Ethical Union (now known as Humanists UK), an organisation promoting humanism as a non-religious basis for morality.[5]

Snell was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1930 Birthday Honours.[6]

House of Lords[edit]

Snell resigned his seat in the Commons in 1931, to make way for George Hicks, a leading member of the Trades Union Congress,[citation needed] and was raised to the peerage as Baron Snell, of Plumstead in the County of Kent, on 23 March 1931.[7] Ramsay MacDonald made him Under-Secretary of State for India and, upon the formation of the National Government a few months later, asked Snell to continue in this role. However, Snell refused, choosing to remain loyal to the Labour Party. In the Lords, he spoke on agricultural issues, with particular concern for rural workers, and on foreign affairs, and was a member of the British Institute of Parliamentary Affairs and the Empire Parliamentary Association. He was also appointed to the British Council, eventually becoming vice-chairman. In 1935, when Arthur Ponsonby chose to resign with George Lansbury, Snell became Labour's leader in the Lords, serving under Clement Attlee. He published an autobiography, Men, Movements and Myself, in 1936,[8] and was made a Privy Counsellor in 1937.[9]

As leader in the Lords, Snell took a strong line against the growing threat of fascism, and attacked the Government's appeasement of Nazi Germany and its refusal to intervene to help the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War. He also continued to champion Zionism. During a debate in the Lords in 1938 he spoke in support of the policy of population transfer of Arabs in Palestine for the purposes of developing the land and creating cohesive settlements, pointing out that similar transfers had occurred in Libya and other Arab countries without any protest. Aged seventy-five and with his health failing, he stood down as leader of the Labour peers in 1940. However, he recovered and was appointed by Winston Churchill as Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (Deputy Leader of the House of Lords) a year later (having been considered as Leader, but passed over in favour of a Conservative). He chaired several committees and inquiries during the Second World War,[citation needed] and was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1943.[10] Whilst still in the role of Deputy Leader, Snell fell ill at the end of March 1944, and died less than a month later, his peerage becoming extinct at that time.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Pease, Edward R. (1925). The History of the Fabian Society. Library of Alexandria. p. 148. ISBN 1465502483.
  2. ^ Howell, David (2004). "Snell, Henry, Baron Snell (1865–1944)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36177. Retrieved 25 February 2013. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ "House of Commons: Witney to Wythenshawe and Sale East". Leighrayment.com. Archived from the original on 31 December 2010. Retrieved 7 January 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. ^ Tessler, Mark (1994). A History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (2 ed.). Indiana University Press. p. 237. ISBN 0253208734.
  5. ^ "Annual Reports of the Union of Ethical Societies" (1913-1946). British Humanist Association, Series: Congress Minutes and Papers, 1913–1991, File: Minute Book. London: Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives.
  6. ^ "No. 33611". The London Gazette (Supplement). 3 June 1930. p. 3481.
  7. ^ "No. 33701". The London Gazette. 24 March 1931. p. 1987.
  8. ^ Snell, Henry (1936). Men, movements, and myself. J.M. Dent and Sons. pp. 284.
  9. ^ "No. 34407". The London Gazette. 11 June 1937. p. 3731.
  10. ^ "No. 36033". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 May 1943. p. 2438.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harry Snell, 1st Baron Snell.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Woolwich East
1922–1931 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Under-Secretary of State for India
1929–1931 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Ernest Dence
 Chairman of the London County Council
1934–1938 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms
1940–1944 		Vacant
Title next held by
The Earl Fortescue
Party political offices
Preceded by London Division representative on the Independent Labour Party National Administrative Council
1910–1911 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords
1935–1940 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Snell
1931–1944 		Extinct
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