Charles Ammon, 1st Baron Ammon

Charles George Ammon, 1st Baron Ammon PC DL JP (22 April 1873 – 2 April 1960) was a British Labour Party politician.

Background and education

The son of Charles George and Mary Ammon, he was educated at Public Elementary schools.

Career

Ammon worked with the Post Office for twenty-four years. He was Secretary of the Union of Post Office Workers from 1920 to 1928, the first General Secretary of the National Union of Docks, Wharves and Shipping Staffs, and the Organising Secretary of the Civil Service Union.

Local politics

Ammon was London County Councillor for North Camberwell from 1919-1925 and 1934-1946, and Chairman of London County Council in 1941-1942. He was an Alderman on Camberwell Borough Council from 1934-1953 and Mayor of Camberwell, 1950-1951. Freedom of Borough of Camberwell, 1951.

Parliament

Ammon was Member of Parliament (MP) for Camberwell North from 1922-1931 and 1935-1944, unsuccessfully contesting the seat in 1918 and 1931. He was Labour Party whip in 1923 and a member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, 1921-1926. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty in 1924 and again in 1929-1931 and was a member of the West African Mission of 1938-1939 and of the Select Committee on National Expenditure, 1939-1944. He was temporary Chairman of Committees in 1943 and the same year served as Chairman of a Parliamentary Commission to investigate the future of the dominion of Newfoundland; the other members were A. P. Herbert and Derrick Gunston.

He was raised to the peerage as Baron Ammon, of Camberwell in the County of Surrey, in 1944^[1] and appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1945. In the House of Lords he was Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms (Chief Whip) from 1945-1949, and a Deputy Speaker of the House from 1945-1958. In 1947 he was Chairman of a Parliamentary Mission to China. He was first Chairman of the National Dock Labour Board from 1944-1950. His political career was effectively ended when he clashed with the government over the 1949 London dock strike.

Other public appointments

Outside Parliament, he was President of the UK Band of Hope Union and a Methodist Local Preacher. He was President of the International Arbitration League, Vice-President of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a Governor of the London School of Economics and Dulwich College and Chairman of the Trustees of Crystal Palace. He was a Member of the Channel Islands Commission in 1947.

Personal life

Lord Ammon was predeceased by his only son Charles Kempley Ammon (1907-1909) and the peerage became extinct on his death in April 1960, aged 86.

References

1. ^ London Gazette: no. 36357. p. 593. 1 February 1944.

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Portraits of Charles Ammon at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Charles Ammon

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Henry Newton Knights	Member of Parliament for Camberwell North 1922 – 1931	Succeeded by Arthur Leonard Bateman
Preceded by Arthur Leonard Bateman	Member of Parliament for Camberwell North 1935 – 1944	Succeeded by Cecil Aubrey Gwynne Manning
Political offices
Preceded by Albert Emil Davies	Chairman of the London County Council 1941 – 1942	Succeeded by J P Blake
Preceded by The Lord Templemore	Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords 1945 – 1949	Succeeded by The Lord Shepherd
Preceded by The Earl Fortescue	Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms 1945 – 1949
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Ammon 1944 – 1960	Extinct