Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford

Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford (19 November 1870 – 14 November 1949) was a prominent Liberal, later National Liberal politician in the United Kingdom from the 1900s until the 1930s.

The son of shipping magnate Sir Walter Runciman, Runciman was first elected as a Member of Parliament in a two-member by-election for Oldham in 1899, defeating the Conservative candidates James Mawdsley and Winston Churchill. After winning, Runciman is reported to have commented to Churchill: "Don't worry, I don't think this is the last the country has heard of either of us." The following year in the 1900 general election Churchill stood against Runciman again and defeated him.

Runciman soon returned to Parliament for Dewsbury in 1902 and steadily rose through the ranks of the Liberal Party. In 1908 the new Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith appointed him as President of the Board of Education, which he held for three years, followed by another three years as President of the Board of Agriculture.

In 1914, on the outbreak of war, the President of the Board of Trade, John Burns, resigned and Runciman was appointed to succeed him. He held the position for the next two years but resigned in December 1916 when Asquith's government fell and was succeeded by a coalition headed by David Lloyd George. In the splits that were to rage in the Liberal Party for the next seven years Runciman remained prominent in opposition to Lloyd George, especially when the latter became party leader in 1926. Runciman had lost his seat in 1918, but returned for Swansea West in 1924.

In the 1929 general election the Liberals emerged with the balance of power between the Conservatives and Labour. Runciman took the seat of St Ives, which his wife Hilda had won in a by-election the previous year. The Liberals soon found themselves heavily divided over how to respond to the Great Depression, whether or not to continue supporting the Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald and even over the basic direction of the party. In 1931 the cause of the strife was seemingly removed when the Labour Government fell and was succeeded by an all party 'National Government' but further divisions emerged when it was proposed that the National Government call a general election to seek a mandate to introduce protective tariffs, a policy that was anathema to many Liberals, Runciman included. The Liberals officially threatened to withdraw from the government, but a group under Sir John Simon emerged as the Liberal Nationals, mainly composed of those who had been opposed to Lloyd George's leadership, who were prepared to continue to support the National Government. A compromise was worked out whereby each party in the National Government campaigned on its own manifesto.

After the National Government won a massive majority in the 1931 general election the Cabinet was reconstructed. It was felt prudent to balance the key Cabinet committee that would take the decisions on tariffs and so Runciman was appointed President of the Board of Trade once more, in the belief that he would serve as a counterbalance to the protectionist Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain. However like the other Liberal Nationals, Runciman came to accept the principle of tariffs. When in late 1932 the official Liberals resigned their ministerial posts, Runicman very nearly resigned with them but decided not to. In 1933 the official Liberals withdrew completely their support for the National Government but Runciman remained holding office, even though he was President of the extra-Parliamentary National Liberal Federation until 1934. He concluded the Roca-Runciman Treaty with Argentina, which triggered a public uproar in Buenos Aires.

Runciman remained as President of the Board of Trade until May 1937 when Stanley Baldwin retired and his successor, Neville Chamberlain, only offered Runciman the sinecure position of Lord Privy Seal, an offer Runciman declined. Four years earlier his father had been created Baron Runciman and so he was created Viscount Runciman of Doxford — a rare case of a father and son sitting in the House of Lords at the same time, with the son holding a superior title. A few months later his father died and he inherited both the barony and his father's shipping business.

In 1938 Runciman returned to public life when the new Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, sent him to Czechoslovakia to see if he could obtain a settlement between the Czechoslovak government and the Germans in the Sudetenland who were agitating to become part of Germany. Runciman's mission came down on the side of the Sudeten Germans, but did not produce immediate results though it led to the Munich Agreement. Dowling (2002) claims that Runciman spent most of his time in Czechoslovakia being entertained by German aristocrats and listening to complaints from Germans that had suffered from the land reform of the 1920s. [cite book|last=Dowling|first=Maria|authorlink=Maria Dowling|title=Czechoslovakia|year=2002|publisher=Arnold|location=London|pages=p. 51|isbn=0-340-76369-8|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=MmJLcRObcuAC&dq=Maria+Dowling+Czechoslovakia&lr=&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=0_2]

Lord Runciman reported to the following the British government [Alfred de Zayas, "Anglo-American Responsibility for the Expulsion of the Germans, 1944–48", (Pittsburg lecture, published in Vardy/Tooley "Ethnic Cleansing in 20th Century Europe" pp. 239–254) p. 243] :

Shortly after the agreement was signed, Chamberlain reshuffled his Cabinet and appointed Runciman as Lord President of the Council, a post he held until the outbreak of the Second World War.

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External links

* [http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/search/Object.asp?object_key=16272 Portrait] UK Government Art Collection.