William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate

Air Commodore The Right Honourable
The Viscount Stansgate
DSO DFC PC
Secretary of State for India
In office
7 June 1929 – 24 August 1931
Monarch George V
Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald
Preceded by The Viscount Peel
Succeeded by Sir Samuel Hoare, Bt
Secretary of State for Air
In office
3 August 1945 – 4 October 1946
Monarch George VI
Prime Minister Clement Attlee
Preceded by Harold Macmillan
Succeeded by Philip Noel-Baker
Personal details
Born 10 May 1877 (1877-05-10)
Hackney, London
Died 17 November 1960(1960-11-17) (aged 83)
Westminster, London
Nationality British
Political party Liberal
Labour
Spouse(s) Margaret Holmes
Children 4
Alma mater University College, London

Military career

Allegiance  United Kingdom
Service/branch  Royal Navy
 British Army
 Royal Air Force
Years of service 1914–1918, 1940–1945
Rank Air Commodore
Battles/wars

First World War
Second World War

Awards DSO (1917)
DFC (1918)
Bronze Medal of Military Valor (Italy; 1918)

Air Commodore William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate, DSO, DFC, PC (10 May 1877 – 17 November 1960) was a British Liberal politician who later joined the Labour Party. A decorated Royal Air Force officer, he was Secretary of State for India between 1929 and 1931 and Secretary of State for Air between 1945 and 1946. He was the father of Tony Benn and the grandfather of Hilary Benn.

Background and education

Born in Hackney, Benn was the second son of Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet. He was given the name Wedgwood because his mother, Elizabeth (Lily) Pickstone, was distantly linked to Josiah Wedgwood of the pottery family.[1] Benn was educated at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris and at University College, London.

Political career

Wedgwood Benn c. 1906

In 1906 Benn was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for the St George's division of Tower Hamlets in east London, a seat he held until 1918. He served under H. H. Asquith as a Lord of the Treasury (government whip) between 1910 and 1915. In 1918 he was elected for Leith in Scotland. During the 1924–29 parliament, which was dominated by a Conservative majority, he worked closely with a group of radical Liberal MPs that included Frank Briant, Percy Harris, Joseph Kenworthy and Horace Crawfurd to provide opposition to the government.[2] He sat until March 1927, when he resigned from the Liberal Party and from Parliament. In 1928 Benn re-entered Parliament as Labour member for Aberdeen North. MacDonald recognised his talent offering the possibility of promotion. He was Secretary of State for India between 1929 and 1931 in Ramsay MacDonald's second government and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1929.[3] However, he refused to follow MacDonald into the National Government coalition with the Conservatives, and at the 1931 election he lost his seat to John George Burnett.[4] He returned to parliament in 1937 when he was elected for Gorton near Manchester.

In 1942 Benn was raised to the peerage as Viscount Stansgate, of Stansgate in the County of Essex.[5] Two years later he was appointed Vice President of the Allied Control Commission which was charged with reconstructing a democratic government in Italy. In 1945 he became Secretary of State for Air in Clement Attlee's Labour government, a position he held until October 1946. He then sat as a backbench Labour peer until his death fourteen years later.

Military career

Capt. Wedgwood Benn c. 1918

Although aged 37 at the time World War I broke out, on 8 December 1914, Benn was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Middlesex Yeomanry (Duke of Cambridge's Hussars).[6] On 12 May 1916, he was appointed an observer flying officer in the Royal Flying Corps.[7] On 8 July 1916, he was appointed as the commanding officer of a seaplane observer squadron, with the temporary rank of captain.[8] Seeing service at Gallipoli, he was seconded to the Royal Naval Air Service on 17 May 1917.[9] He was awarded the DSO on 4 June 1917[10] He was promoted to lieutenant on 10 July 1917 (seniority from 1 June 1916, and with full pay and allowances from 1 July 1917).[11][12] On 12 July 1918, Benn transferred to the Royal Air Force, and was appointed a temporary staff officer 3rd class, retaining his temporary captaincy.[13]

In September 1918, he was awarded the DFC. The citation read:

"A gallant observer of exceptional ability. After setting out on a bombing raid, the Scout machines assigned to act as an escort became separated, and it then became necessary for the bombing planes to proceed on their task without support. Captain Benn's machine took the lead, followed by three other bombers, and succeeded in dropping his bombs (direct hits) on an enemy aerodrome. On the return journey the bombing machines were attacked by several enemy scouts, which were eventually driven away. Recently, this officer organised and carried out a special flight by night over the enemy's lines, under most difficult circumstances, with conspicuous success. He has at all times set a splendid example of courage" (21 September 1918).[14]

Also in September 1918 (night of 8–9 September) Benn was a pilot of Savoia-Pomilio SP.4 aeroplane, specially equipped for a parachute drop. This was the first military parachute/spy mission. The parachutist was Alessandro Tandura (1893–1937), who parachuted behind enemy lines in the vicinity of Piave river. In November he was awarded the Bronze Medal of Military Valour by the Italian Government.[15] After his return to politics, Benn resigned his commission in the RAF on 28 December 1918, retaining the rank of captain.[16]

Though in his early 60s at start of the Second World War, Benn returned to military flying, joining the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as a war-substantive pilot officer (on probation) on 27 May 1940, with the service number 79452.[17] He was promoted to flying officer (war substantive) on 7 December, and was confirmed in his rank on 27 May 1941.[18][19] Promoted in 1942 to the substantive rank of flight lieutenant, he was promoted to group captain (war substantive) on 29 December 1942, skipping two ranks.[20] Following his promotion to acting air commodore in 1944, he served as Director of Public Relations at the Air Ministry. At age 67 he flew several flights operationally as an RAF Bomber Aircrew gunner and is possibly the oldest man to do so.[21] He resigned his commission on 3 August 1945, retaining the rank of air commodore.[22]

Family

Lord Stansgate married Margaret Holmes, daughter of Daniel Holmes, in 1920. His eldest son Michael Benn was killed in the Second World War in 1944. Stansgate died at Westminster, London, in November 1960, aged 83, and was succeeded in the viscountcy by his second son, Tony Benn, who in 1963 succeeded in getting the law changed to allow him to disclaim the peerage.

References

  1. ↑ Spartacus biography
  2. ↑ Forty Years in and out of Parliament by Sir Percy Harris
  3. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 33505. p. 3855. 11 June 1929.
  4. ↑ The Times Obituary John George Burnett 22 Jan 1962 p17
  5. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 35426. p. 345. 20 January 1942.
  6. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 29015. p. 10938. 22 December 1914. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  7. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 29950. p. 1725. 16 February 1917. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  8. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 29733. p. 8684. 1 September 1916. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  9. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 30073. p. 4767. 15 May 1917. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  10. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 30111. p. 5468. 1 June 1917.
  11. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 30173. p. 6858. 6 July 1917. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  12. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 30366. p. 11430. 2 November 1917. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  13. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 30881. p. 10395. 3 September 1918. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  14. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 30913. p. 11249. 20 September 1918.
  15. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 30999. p. 13200. 5 November 1918.
  16. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 31323. p. 5515. 2 May 1919. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  17. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 34870. p. 3523. 11 June 1940. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  18. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 35076. p. 910. 14 February 1941. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  19. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 35208. p. 3836. 4 July 1941. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  20. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 35900. p. 756. 9 February 1943. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  21. ↑ Cooper (2009), p.59
  22. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 37231. p. 4215. 17 August 1945. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Thomas Dewar		 Member of Parliament for St George's
1906 – 1918 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Leith
1918 – 1927 		Succeeded by
Ernest Brown
Preceded by
Frank Herbert Rose		 Member of Parliament for Aberdeen North
1928 – 1931 		Succeeded by
John George Burnett
Preceded by
Joseph Compton		 Member of Parliament for Manchester Gorton
1937–1942 		Succeeded by
William Oldfield
Political offices
Preceded by
The Viscount Peel		 Secretary of State for India
1929–1931 		Succeeded by
Sir Samuel Hoare, Bt
Preceded by
Harold Macmillan		 Secretary of State for Air
1945–1946 		Succeeded by
Philip Noel-Baker
Military offices
Preceded by
H Peake		 Director of Public Relations (RAF)
1942–1943 		Succeeded by
H A Jones
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Viscount Stansgate
1942–1960 		Succeeded by
Tony Benn
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