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Earl Winterton: 47 years our MP
The Rt Hon Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton and
Baron Turnour of Shillinglee, was a significant
political figure for much of the first half of the
twentieth century, and as a Conservative, initially in
Balfour's government, he represented the Horsham
Division between 1904 and 1918 (he was elected on 11th
November, when he was just 21 and in his third year at
university), and then Horsham and Worthing between
1918 and 1940 and again the Horsham Division from 1940
to 1951.
He held a number of offices of state. Following an
strong maiden speech, an early rung on the ladder saw
him occupy the role of PPS to the Financial Secretary
to the Admiralty, Ernest Pretyman, between 1905-06.
His career prospered, and he later achieved more
senior roles. He was Under-Secretary for India between
1922-29, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from
1937-39. In 1938 he held the position of Deputy to the
Secretary of State for Air (Lord Swinton) and
Vice-President of the Air Council, and was in Neville
Chamberlain's cabinet between 1938-39. In that perod
he had spells as Assistant to the Home Secretary and
Paymaster General - and we will shortly discover that
he had many other strings to his bow. So let us take a
closer look at the life and times of this talented and
lively aristocrat.
He was born on 4th April 1883, the only son of the 5th
Earl, again an Edward, and his wife Lady Georgiana
Hamilton, who was a daughter of the Duke of Abercorn.
An early Turnour had played a leading part in
prosecuting the regicides, following the restoration
of Charles II to the throne in 1660. He succeeded to
his father's Earldom (an Irish title created for
Edward, the 1st Earl, in December 1765) in 1907, at
the age of 24, and to another Irish title, as Baron
Winterton of Gort, County Galway – created in 1761.
These Irish titles were to be no bar to him sitting in
the House of Commons. Earlier he had followed in the
traditional path: Eton – where he said his record was
'undistinguished', and Oxford – where he was a student
at New College.
In 1924 he married the Hon Cecilia Wilson, daughter of
the 2nd Baron Nunburnholme. His wife was said to be 'a
gifted and charming young lady who has been making
friends in all parts of the constituency'. They set up
home in style at Shillinglee Park, the Winterton
family seat for some 250 years out at Chiddingfold, on
that delightful back road between Horsham and
Haslemere, and Winterton made the claim that his
estate commanded about 2,800 acres.
His family had a strong sense of community
responsability, and following his father's death, and
together with his mother, he arranged for the donation
of a village hall to the village of Plaistow, in
memory of the 5th Earl. There was, of course, a
gathering to celebrate the occasion, and no doubt the
local great and the good jostled to be there. Fine
sentiments were expressed all round, and when the
speeches were over Earl Winterton entertained one and
all to 'sherry and cigarettes' – a nice contemporary
touch.
In retirement he wrote Orders of the Day, which looked
back on his parliamentary career. We may think that
the House of Commons is a rough old place today, but
judging from Winterton it certainly had its moments
then. He tells, for example, of an MP named Flavin
('powerfully built and ferocious-looking') who had
once been a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary.
Following his suspension from the House over some
matter, Flavin refused to withdraw – with the result
that he was carried out – physically - by attendants.
And then there was Swift McNeill, a well-known Irish
Nationalist and 'a most agreeable man...but of marked
simian appearance'. Apparently he was nicknamed 'Pongo',
after a celebrated performing ape of the day.
Winterton tells how 'whenever Mr McNeill got himself
into a scene, which he frequently did, and started, as
was his wont, to shout and wave his arms about, a low
murmur and refrain would would come forth from the
Conservative back benches: "Order, Pongo; give him a
nut; careful Pongo; chain! chain! Pongo".
Winterton was a friend of Hilaire Belloc, who lived
out at Shipley, but this did not prevent him noting
that the latter's brief career as a Liberal MP never
recovered from a fatal error he made in a speech one
day. Despite his high-pitched voice, he was a skilled
orator, and had been since his student days in the
Oxford Union. But an offensive allusion to 'the
Anglo-Judaic plutocracy' was met with Conservative
cries of 'Order, withdraw, cad!' while his Liberal
colleagues sat in silent disapproval. His
parliamentary career never recovered. The House could,
apparently, demonstrate good taste from time to time.
Following the 1910 election a certain Trebitsch
Lincoln, a Hungarian by birth, took his seat as a
Liberal. By no means Winterton's cup of tea, he was
judged to have an aggressive and unpleasant
personality, and in the course of one heated argument
the Earl shouted at him: 'go back to Hungary'. Hardly
a rapier thrust, one would have thought, but his is
exactly what the man did - just before the outbreak of
the Great War. It turned out that all the time he had
been spying for Hungary and Germany, but somehow he
survived unprosecuted post-war (which was lucky for
the Liberals, as Winterton points out, drily) and –
believe it or not - he ended up as a Buddhist monk
somewhere in Asia.
Winterton's war was spent largely in the Middle East.
He was with the Sussex Yeomanry at Gallipoli, and was
also in Palestine and Arabia. In 1916 he commanded a
company of the Imperial Camel Corps in desert
operations to the east of the Suez Canal, against
Bedouin tribesmen who sympathised with the Turks.
During this period he served under Colonel TE Lawrence
(Lawrence of Arabia), and the two men were to remain
in contact after the war. Some three years after its
end Winterton was approached by a representative of
the Prime Minister saying that the British government
was prepared to offer 'your friend Feisal' (then Emir
Feisal) the crown of Iraq, and could Winterton act as
an intermediary and test the ground in advance? This
he did, with the help of Colonel Lawrence among
others, after lengthy late night discussions down at
Shillinglee. Following further talks with the Emir, an
agreement was finally reached, and the latter then
became King Feisal I of Iraq. How the world has
changed since then....
Together with Winston Churchill (who had high regard
for Lawrence, and thought him to be of ministerial
quality), Winterton attended Lawrence's funeral in
1935, after his famous - and fatal - motorbike
accident.
In March 1938 Chamberlain offered Winterton a Cabinet
seat, in order to represent Lord Swinton, the
Secretary of State for Air, in the Commons, and to act
as Deputy Secretary of State. The offer came,
apparently, as a complete surprise - but it was one he
accepted readily. However just two months later he
made a terrible mess of a debate, and failed to carry
the House with him – and so felt honour-bound to
resign. In his own words, he 'crashed'. But he
remained in the Cabinet (until January 1939), and
retained his Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster,
and soon after went on to the Home Office as an
Under-Secretary of State.
During the Second World War Shillinglee, like so many
large houses, was occupied by the military, and in
January 1943 Winterton suffered a tremendous blow when
the fine old Georgian mansion was badly damaged by
fire. The blaze lasted several hours, but luckily a
number of paintings, including Old Masters, were
rescued. Winston Churchill, abroad at the time and
with much on his mind, still found time to send a
cable, expressing his sorrow at the loss. Winterton
was particularly touched, because while the two had
long been old friends in private life, Churchill had
been criticised by him in public on matters of policy.
In January 1945 Winterton became Father of the House
of Commons, in succession to Lloyd George, who had
accepted a peerage. Winterton had declined a United
Kingdom peerage as far back as 1935, but he did accept
one in 1952, a year after he relinquished his position
as MP for Horsham (where he was succeeded by Frederick
Gough). His role as Father of the House was then taken
over by his old colleague Manny Shinwell. In his later
years Lord Winterton became a familiar figure in the
House of Lords, with his trademark green eye-shade (he
had long suffered from an eye complaint). He had also
declined, more than once, the offer of a Governorship
abroad, many said out of loyalty to his constituency
down in Sussex.
In June 1951 Lord and Lady Rotherwick held a
Conservative fete at Sedgwick Park – just the right
occasion to mark Earl Winterton's retirement from his
Horsham constituency. Lord Woolton made a fine speech,
noting that in a career that had encompassed thirteen
by-elections Winterton had started as Baby of the
House and ended up as its Father. To mark the occasion
a really splendid gift was presented: a
beautifully-bound and enscribed book with 8,000
signatures from members of his constituency and other
admirers. The book was crafted by a certain Bob Green
of Horsham, and was encased in a box made of Sussex
oak by Hoad and Taylor. It was presented to the Earl
by Edward Crosse, 'the cheerful stocky' stud groom
from West Grinstead Park. Where is it now, I wonder?
So what kind of man was Winterton? Clearly one of very
considerable talent, and on terms of friendship with
leading figures of the day, as well as local folk;
also a man of great energy, a busy speaker both in the
House and in the country. His name comes up with great
regularity in back issues of the West Sussex County
Times – presiding over meetings, presenting prizes at
Collyer's Founder's Days, getting over his point of
view and generally active and involved in the business
of the constituency. Judging from his memoirs he also
had a sharp sense of humour, and was also vigorous in
debate, never backward in coming forward when he had
something to say, or judged that someone needed
attacking. He was also known as a bit of a character,
and it is not difficult to see why. Comments by his
contemporaries run as follows: 'a fighting spirit'; 'a
fearless champion'; 'irrepressible, full of vitality
and quick-witted'; 'of great presence, but with an
impish spirit, who did not stand on dignity'; 'no
respecter of rank'..... all in all he sounds like a
good chap to have on the team.
He was, in his time, Master of the Chiddingfold Hunt,
and a polo player in his youth. In 1905, with his old
friend Winston Churchill, he once turned out for a
House of Commons team against Oxford University, and
on the way to the polo ground, in a hansom from Oxford
station, said he was 'beguiled with political gossip'.
Heady stuff for a young man, just arrived in the
House, and still only 22.
A sporting digression: he did confess that his
cricketing skills were not matched by his father's.
Like many grand families at the time the Wintertons
had their own private ground, and he liked to tell of
the 5th Earl (an original member of West Sussex County
Council and in due course its Chairman), who fielded a
team known as the Gentlemen of Sussex. Apparently they
had one famous match at Shillinglee against the Sussex
Militia, when the Gentlemen included the 5th Earl, his
two brothers and his father, and so devastating was
this aristocratic combination that the Militia were
totally humiliated with a first innings score of zero,
and no more than 10 runs, second time round. And
believe it or not, in another Shillinglee match a
well-struck cricket ball managed to hit a Swallow in
mid-flight and kill it stone dead. Tall tales?
Earl Winterton died on 26th August 1962, aged 79,
while at the King Edward VII Sanitorium in Midhurst.
He was buried in Kirdford churchyard, to the
accompaniment of the Chiddingfold huntsman's 'hounds
gone home', and at the graveside were his widow
Countess Winterton (who was to survive him by some
twelve years), Prince Tomislau of Yugoslavia, the Duke
of Norfolk, Sir Giles Loder and many friends - from
the hunting community and elsewhere. His marriage had
produced no children, and the United Kingdom title
died with him. But the heir to his Irish titles was
Robert Chad Turnour, 3rd cousin and a Canadian, and it
is good to know that these titles remain current today
with the latter's nephew, Donald David Turnour, the
8th Earl. |
