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32 Iles Hopkin Charles Masterman Review insurance reforms (he was the first chair of the newly-established No proper account Insurance Commission), and within the Liberal Party his defeats lent him Eric Hopkins: Charles Masterman (1873–1927): an aura of failure. An opponent of Lloyd George’s coalitions with the Politician and Journalist – The Splendid Failure Conservatives between and (Lampeter Press, Lewistown, USA, 1999; pp303) , he forged a new – if wary – Lawrence Irvine Iles alliance with him in , entering Reviewed by Lawrence Irvine Iles Parliament again briefly as the senior MP for Manchester. Prior to this he had flirted with Labour under his book does not do justice to ‘deselected’ in the run-up to the Harold Laski’s urging, but never Tits subject, and indeed is at times election by a group of right-wing actually joined the party. Hopkins offensive in its allegations. C. F. G. shopowner Liberals who regularly suggests a sustained psychological Masterman was the Wimbledon-born made common cause in city politics breakdown, but there is no evidence younger son of a vast Disraelian Tory with local Tories, an episode inad- for this. He also suggests Masterman Evangelical household. Through his equately covered by Hopkins, who was a closet homosexual, citing his own academic endeavour and a misunderstands the social make-up of nude bathing while a visiting school- brilliantly incisive, innovative and the borough. master at Bembridge, and his keen sardonic writing style he won scholar- By Masterman had entered interest in photography – but in fact ships to Wellington and Cambridge, the government despite middle-class he was a founder of the Society of enabling him to escape Home Coun- and nonconformist opposition. He Progressive Education, which em- ties narrow-mindedness. At Cam- had quickly made influential friends bodied a back-to-nature ethos, as bridge he became President of the with Lloyd George, Winston well as a talented photographer in his Union and a postgraduate writer Churchill and others on the left of own right, one of whose last books Fellow, as well as secretary of the the party. By he was Lloyd was an acclaimed accompaniment to University Liberal Club, where he led George’s official number two as a German collection of British a team of left-wing ‘progressives’ in Financial Secretary to the Treasury, landscapes. capturing many of the student forums pioneering national health and Hopkins’ agenda negates any value and publications outlets. He and his insurance provisions through the that this biography might have had. team, who included Noel Buxton – Parliament. In he Better by far is that by Masterman’s (later the first Labour Agriculture entered the Cabinet as Chancellor of wife Lucy, CFG; As I Knew Him, Minister), shocked the usually domi- the Duchy of Lancaster. Closely published in . Reviewing it nant Tory college authorities, not least associated with the more radical then, Richard Crossman described by their hostility to the Unionist clauses of the budget, he was Masterman as a brilliant intellectual Government’s South African policies, also, by virtue of his personal friend- polyglot to whom history had failed which he characterised, in a book ship with Ramsay Macdonald, Lloyd to give proper account for the entitled The Heart of the Empire, as George’s secret conduit to the services he had rendered to his all- capitalistic Imperialism at its racist and Labour Party’s MPs between too-conservative country and – jingoistic extreme. and . This was a key role given above all – its poorest and most After Cambridge, and a period the unreliability of the Irish Nation- economically deprived citizens. It is lecturing in literature all over Britain alist vote in perilous Commons both a significantly more measured on London University’s extension divisions. judgement than that of Hopkins, as programmes, Masterman, who was But his very success was to cost well as an epitaph to be proud of. very much a Christian socialist in his him his seat until . Obliged to own eyes (as well as – grudgingly – resign his seat, as was the require- Lawrence Irvine Iles is the US/Canada those of Keir Hardie) considered ment of the time for holding an representative of the British Labour Party Anglican ordination. He rejected this, office of profit under the Crown, he Heritage Group and an adjunct visiting however, unable to stomach the lost by-elections to the Tories at both history instructor at Kirksville Adult literalism of much of the dogma, and Bethnal Green and Ipswich and had Education Technical Center, Missouri, US. the Tory sympathies of many of his to resign from the Cabinet early in potential parishioners. Instead, while . Although not (contrary to This review has been edited for reasons of still a working journalist he was elected Hopkins) an indifferent campaigner, space. in as Liberal MP for North West his opponents were successfully able Ham, although not without some to ridicule his immersion in the difficulty. He was temporarily administrative minutiae of his 38 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 32 Autumn 2001.
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