The Lord Dalton | |
|---|---|
 Dalton in 1940 | |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
| In office 31 May 1948 – 28 February 1950 | |
| Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
| Preceded by | The Lord Pakenham |
| Succeeded by | The Viscount Alexander of Hillsborough |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
| In office 27 July 1945 – 13 November 1947 | |
| Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
| Preceded by | John Anderson |
| Succeeded by | Stafford Cripps |
| President of the Board of Trade | |
| In office 22 February 1942 – 23 May 1945 | |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | John Llewellin |
| Succeeded by | Oliver Lyttelton |
| Minister of Economic Warfare | |
| In office 15 May 1940 – 22 February 1942 | |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | Ronald Cross |
| Succeeded by | Roundell Palmer |
| Chairman of the Labour Party | |
| In office 9 October 1936 – 8 October 1937 | |
| Leader | Clement Attlee |
| Preceded by | Jennie Adamson |
| Succeeded by | George Dallas |
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 11 June 1929 – 3 September 1931 | |
| Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | Anthony Eden |
| Succeeded by | James Stanhope |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| In office 28 January 1960 – 13 February 1962 Life Peerage | |
| Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland | |
| In office 14 November 1935 – 18 September 1959 | |
| Preceded by | Aaron Curry |
| Succeeded by | James Boyden |
| In office 30 May 1929 – 7 October 1931 | |
| Preceded by | Ruth Dalton |
| Succeeded by | Aaron Curry |
| Member of Parliament for Peckham | |
| In office 29 October 1924 – 10 May 1929 | |
| Preceded by | Collingwood Hughes |
| Succeeded by | John Beckett |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 August 1887 Neath, Wales |
| Died | 13 February 1962 (aged 74) |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge, London School of Economics |
Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton, PC (16 August 1887 – 13 February 1962) was a British Labour Party economist and politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945 to 1947.[1] He shaped Labour Party foreign policy in the 1930s, opposing pacifism; promoting rearmament against the German threat; and strongly opposed the appeasement policy of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938. Dalton served in Winston Churchill's wartime coalition cabinet; after the Dunkirk evacuation he was Minister of Economic Warfare, and established Special Operations Executive. As Chancellor, he pushed his policy of cheap money too hard, and mishandled the sterling crisis of 1947. His political position was already in jeopardy in 1947 when he, seemingly inadvertently, revealed a sentence of the budget to a reporter minutes before delivering his budget speech. Prime Minister Clement Attlee accepted his resignation; Dalton later returned to the cabinet in relatively minor positions.
His biographer Ben Pimlott characterised Dalton as peevish, irascible, given to poor judgment and lacking administrative talent.[2] Pimlott also recognised that Dalton was a genuine radical and an inspired politician; a man, to quote his old friend and critic John Freeman, "of feeling, humanity, and unshakeable loyalty to people which matched his talent."[3]
- ^ Kaderbhai, Nick (2024). "Capitalism, Sovereignty, and Planning in Hugh Dalton's Interwar International Thought". The International History Review: 1–28. doi:10.1080/07075332.2023.2265375. ISSN 0707-5332.
- ^ Loades, David ed. (2003) The Reader's Guide to British History vol. 1, p. 329. ISBN 9781579584269
- ^ Pimlott (1985), p. 639.