- Harry Snell, 1st Baron Snell
Henry Snell, 1st Baron Snell CH, PC (
1 April 1865 –21 April 1944 ), was a Britishsocialist politician and campaigner. He served in government underRamsay MacDonald andWinston Churchill , and as the Labour Party's leader in theHouse of Lords in the late 1930s.Background
Born in
Sutton-on-Trent inNottinghamshire , 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 riverTrent and as a french-polisher inNottingham . During long periods of unemployment he occupied himself with extensive reading, and was particularly influenced by the writing ofHenry George . Inspired byCharles Bradlaugh and the cause ofsecularism in Nottingham 1881, he joined theNational Secular Society . He rejected the austere and literalist Anglicanism of his up-bringing, but retained some religious faith and decided to join theUnitarian Church, impressed by its scientific approach to Christian doctrine and its progressive and tolerant values.A Unitarian teacher, John Kentish-White, introduced Snell to the works of
Lord Byron andSamuel Taylor Coleridge . Through acquaintances made in the Unitarian movement, Snell was able to find a job inLondon as a clerk at the offices of the Midland Institute for the Blind. Here he continued his self-education at the reference library ofUniversity College, London , being influenced by the writings ofThomas Paine ,William Morris ,John Ruskin andJohn Stuart Mill . EventuallyUnitarianism would grow even too strict for him, and he became anagnostic and member of theNational Secular Society . After hearingAnnie Besant address a meeting of the Secular Society on the subject of socialism, Snell joined theSocial Democratic Federation . He worked onJohn Burns ' campaign for Parliament in 1885, and began to address public meetings himself, appearing alongside the likes ofHenry Hyndman ,Tom Mann ,Eleanor Marx andBen Tillett . He was active in supporting theBryant and May match factory strike and the London Dock Strike of 1889.Member of Parliament
In 1890, he began social work for the
Woolwich Charity Organisation Society , and later became secretary to the director of theLondon School of Economics . He joined theIndependent Labour Party and, in 1894, theFabian Society , travelling extensively around Britain to lecture on socialist topics with speakers includingRamsay MacDonald andBruce Glasier . Snell also lectured for theBritish Ethical Society (eventually becoming President) and its American counterpart. Snell stood unsuccessfully in Huddersfield as a candidate for the Labour Party in 1910 and 1918 . He was elected to theLondon County Council in 1919, serving until 1925, and becameMember of Parliament for Woolwich East, the seat formerly held byWill Crooks , at the 1922 General Election, being re-elected in 1929.In late 1929, Snell was appointed to the
Shaw Commission , which had been set-up to investigateArab up-risings in Palestine. When the Commission published its findings in March 1931, Snell delivered a Minority Report, disagreeing with the Commission's recommendation thatJew 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 ofZionism .House of Lords
Snell resigned his seat in the Commons in 1931, to make way for
George Hicks , a leading member of theTrades Union Congress , and was created Baron Snell of Plumstead in the County of Kent on23 March 1931 . Ramsay Macdonald made himUnder-Secretary of State for India and, upon the formation of the National Government a few months later, asked Snell to continue in this role; 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 theBritish Council , eventually becoming Vice-Chairman. In 1935, when Arthur Ponsonby chose to resign withGeorge Lansbury , Snell became Labour's leader in the Lords, serving underClement Attlee . He published an autobiography, "Men, Movements and Myself", in 1936, and was made aPrivy Counsellor in 1937 .As leader in the Lords, Snell took a strong line against the growing threat of
fascism , and attacked the Government's appeasement ofNazi Germany and its refusal to intervene to help the Republican government during theSpanish Civil War . He also continued to champion Zionism. During a debate in the Lords in 1938 he spoke in support the policy ofpopulation transfer of Arabs in Palestine for purposes of developing the land and creating cohesive settlements, pointing out that similar transfers had occurred inLibya 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 byWinston Churchill as DeputyLeader 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, and was awarded theCompanion of Honour in 1943 . 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.
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