Sir Geoffrey Butler and The Tory Tradition

Stephen Parkinson

he thoughtful, pragmatic The Cambridge Review and be elected Conservatism of R.A. Butler President of the Union. Trinity (whose is well known, as is the Master was Geoffrey’s uncle H.M. Butler) important role he played offered him a fellowship, but it was a Tin returning the Tories to government smaller college going through a period of within six years of the Labour landslide transformation – Corpus Christi – which of 1945 – and as a leading member of attracted him. the government before and after. But the Col. Robert Townley Caldwell was most important political and intellectual the first layman to become Master of influence on the young Rab – his uncle, Corpus, at a time when the fortunes of Sir Geoffrey Butler – has received little the fourteenth-century college were ‘at attention, not least because of his early a low ebb’. He set about ‘importing new death at the age of forty-two. During his blood’: from King’s he recruited William short life Sir Geoffrey made a powerful Spens to become director of studies in impression not only on his nephew but natural sciences, and E.G. Selwyn, a on a whole generation of talented young future Dean of Winchester; from Trinity men, and his lessons on Tory philosophy he lured not only Butler but another – particularly a series of lectures he Conservative historian who would enter delivered exactly one hundred years ago parliament, Kenneth Pickthorn.5 History Sir Geoffrey Butler was an 'ubiquitous – are still relevant today. was still a young subject at the university, and lively' character who made a lasting George Geoffrey Gilbert Butler was born impression on more than one generation of and Corpus did not have any history 6 on 15 August 1887, the eighth of nine sons. Conservatives. fellows. ‘More than most men of his The Butlers were not a wealthy family, generation, [Caldwell] appreciated the but were part of that ‘other’ aristocracy changed position of the History School’.7 whose dominance over the mid-twentieth Geoffrey happily followed in the family Butler’s election as a fellow in 1910 ‘led century Noel Annan described: one of ‘the line, declaring Cambridge ‘my life’s work to the development of historical studies intellectual families that intermarried in and passion’.3 After his schooling at as one of the main branches of learning the nineteenth century and were in full Clifton (where he was later a governor), at Corpus, to which the College has ever flower between the wars’.1 The Butlers he went up to Trinity in 1906, where ‘his since attached great importance.’8 maintained a consecutive tradition as original personality and singular capacity The other transformation Caldwell Cambridge dons from 1794 until the end for squeezing an extravagant infectious wrought was to convert Corpus from a of Rab’s time as Master of Trinity in 1978. humour out of the most unpromising Whig to a Tory College. Maurice Cowling ‘No other family can claim such a galaxy situation’ made him a popular figure.4 (who knew about these things, years of academic stars,’ noted at He had a glittering undergraduate later, at Peterhouse) declared: ‘The most the end of that impressive run, under the career, winning a double first in history important features of inter-war Corpus headline: ‘Cambridge without a Butler: and the Chancellor’s Medal for English were that it was a small college and that like a master without a servant’.2 verse while also finding time to edit it was a Conservative-Anglican plot’.9

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During his short life Sir doctrine loses all that is ennobling Politics without ideals in its appeal, if it confines itself to loathsome[;] with wrong ideals Geoffrey made a powerful these; if it fails, that is, to get down pathetic, says G.G.B.14 impression not only to the principles which lie beneath all such resistance. The great Tory This Betty was Elizabeth Levering on his nephew but on leaders of the past challenge us Jones, the daughter of a ‘widely known’ a whole generation of to something more, and by their Philadelphia lawyer who was one challenge show us the secret of of the trustees of the University of talented young men. their own irresistible example. Pennsylvania.15 Butler’s letters to her are The captains of Toryism in the all that remain of his papers at Corpus past can be made the instructors Christi, and reveal the anxieties of the Caldwell himself was an active Tory: of Toryism in the present: and the young author. ‘[T]he book is coming out he was ‘for some time’ chairman of the Tory tradition is the Tory hope.12 next week,’ he wrote to her in October Unionist party in Cambridge and declined 1914: ‘I don’t know how it will do’.16 By an invitation to become its parliamentary These last seven words were ones which Christmas, it was ‘going pretty well I candidate for the borough in 1905.10 Rab Butler was wont to quote throughout believe … But of course no books are really his political career; indeed, selling now’.17 It was certainly not the ‘The Tory Tradition’ acknowledges that it is ‘a sentence most best time to bring out a book on political Tory politicians have plagiarised in their philosophy. Butler’s brother Ralph – also This climate undoubtedly suited the time’.13 Through his lectures, Geoffrey a Fellow of Corpus – was now serving young history fellow. Although his Butler drew out those central tenets of on the Western Front. Nevertheless, main concern was diplomatic history, Butler was a committed and reflective Conservative. In 1914, he delivered a series of lectures at the University of Pennsylvania on ‘The Tory Tradition’. Revolving around four great Tory heroes – Bolingbroke, Burke, Disraeli, and Salisbury – these biographical portraits sought to explain not so much their careers but the philosophy which impelled them. Butler’s motive, he explained when the lectures were published in book form, had been to explain the Tory Party to an American audience which mistook it as ‘the party of privilege, of rapacious mediævalism, of opposition to enlightened reform’. This struck Butler as odd, seeing as America was ‘a country which in all the great things of life is essentially conservative’.11 But Butler was also speaking to a British audience. At home, politics had been dominated by protracted rows over the House of Lords and Irish Home Rule. These Tory preoccupations, feared Butler, had obscured the party’s concerns for the condition of the people. In his preface to the book, he regretted that Three Cambridge undergraduates: R.A. Butler, A.P. Marshall and Gerald Sparrow at the recent events had ‘concentrated the White House on the debating tour of the USA, October 1924. attention of the man in the street upon the negative rather than the constructive side of Toryism’. He sounded a clear that Tory tradition: the belief in an organic he had ‘been sending it to newspaper warning in his key passage: state, in duty rather than simple ‘rights’, editors of my acquaintance, and hope to and in the importance of confronting the get a good notice in and Resistance to predatory attacks world as it is, not as we wish it to be. He . But it is a bad time to bring upon property, and the like, will summed up his message more pithily in a a book out’.18 The Spectator did review always form important items in letter to his fiancée Betty a year after the it, although its lukewarm verdict may not the Tory programme. That Tory book was published: have been worth the effort. Its reviewer

Conservative History Journal  Vol. II, Issue 3  Autumn 2014 19 questioned Butler’s view of Bolingbroke British Government. It was, Butler told ‘as the real founder of modern Toryism’, Betty, ‘a very difficult job,’ but one he thought that he ‘should have given some seemed to enjoy: explanation of [Burke’s] explanation of his attitude towards ’, and was We have taken up the habit nonplussed by his lecture on Disraeli: of interviews which you may ‘though Mr. Butler is full of enthusiasm, have noticed in the US papers he does not impart any very large share of – Sir E[dward] Grey, Lord it to his readers.’19 The unfortunate timing Robert [Cecil], Lord Newton, of the book also coloured its reception by Lord Hardinge … These form a The Political Quarterly. ‘What have we good means of putting our side to do with Tories or Radicals any more?’ before the public. Quite between it asked, hoping that the country would ourselves my dear not a few are not ‘go on playing our ridiculous party from the pen of one you know.26 games, unmindful of the lessons the war is teaching, and will yet teach us’. But it It was evidently also a job at which was slightly more generous, conceding Butler excelled – for it led in 1917 to his that ‘Mr. Butler is, however, a thoughtful appointment as a member of the Balfour writer’ and that the book ‘would not have Mission to the USA. The purpose of the been without its justification if it had mission, headed by the appeared at another period in the history and former Prime Minister, was to of the world’.20 Other reviewers were less arrange for American co-operation with Sir Gilbert Parker, Bt., the novellist and querulous: the Political Science Quarterly the Allies now the US had entered the Conservative MP in charge of propaganda found it ‘an exceedingly readable as well for the United States. war. Butler acted as the mission’s press as permanently valuable addition to the adviser and spokesman and was ‘largely literature of English party history’, 21 while responsible’ for the ‘good reception’ the Times Literary Supplement praised mean.’24 Both Spens and Butler were it received, winning plaudits from the its ‘admirable judgment and good temper given jobs at the Foreign Office: Spens as Washington Press Club for his services.27 … Mr. Butler’s slim volume will be found secretary of the foreign trade department, When the rest of the mission returned to be full of solid reflection and sound administering the Black List of goods; to Britain, Butler stayed behind to run learning.’22 Butler working in the news department. an organization – the British Pictorial ‘This will be good for Corpus,’ Butler Service – supplying the American press Master of propaganda noted.25 Butler helped to organize with information about the war and the propaganda directed at the United role the British forces were playing in it. Geoffrey Butler was unable to join States, overseen by Sir Gilbert Parker, This developed into the British Bureau his brother in active service, debarred Bt., the Conservative MP for Gravesend of Information, of which Butler became by partial lameness and poor physical (1900–18). Sir Gilbert was ideally suited director (1917–19). His headquarters on health. (His nephew Rab suffered a for the role: born in Canada, he was Fifth Avenue ‘became the centre of a very similar handicap: a childhood riding widely travelled, had married a New York active propaganda to beguile Americans accident prevented him from serving in heiress, and had been associate editor into the British camp’.28 It involved the Second World War – an omission of the Sydney Morning Herald before extensive travel around the United which compounded his support for turning to romantic fiction, writing best- States, and brought Butler into contact and made him unsuitable selling books on both sides of the Atlantic. with powerful editors and proprietors, to lead his party in the eyes of many of Employing his fame – and forceful including Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Tory MPs.) He felt the impotence keenly. character –­ he arranged for letters and Northcliffe, who had succeeded Balfour ‘Oh, my dear, it will be rather horrid for articles sympathetic to the British cause as head of the British War Mission. you years hence to feel that I have done to appear in American newspapers, John Grier Hibben, the President of nothing in the war,’ he wrote to Betty in penned by prominent British writers Princeton, who met Butler during this January 1915: ‘when all the other wives such as Kipling, H.G. Wells, and Bernard period, thought ‘the public service which will be proud of their husbands going or Shaw. He and Butler also distributed he rendered to his country and to the serving.’23 But the young don, with his their literature to American libraries, cause of the Allies could not be too highly grounding in diplomatic history, was periodicals, and colleges, building valued or overestimated.’29 He received able to play his part in other ways. ‘He relationships with academics, scientists, the CBE for it in 1918, and was knighted regarded a European war in the near doctors, and politicians – a method the following year. future as highly probable,’ recorded his emulated by subsequent propagandists. friend and colleague at Corpus, William Their mailing list soon encompassed a The Corpus Evangel Spens, and ‘did his best to ensure that quarter of a million influential American the undergraduates of his college should citizens and organizations, whom they Sir Geoffrey returned to Cambridge, and have some idea of what such a war would approached with no mention of the to Corpus, in 1919. Col. Caldwell had been

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killed in a motor accident in Scotland just wing of Conservatism means count, but falling behind on second after the outbreak of war, eight years into to fight, I am the natural local preferences (from 1918 the university his Mastership. His successor, Edmund representative. It might come to seats having been elected by the single Pearce, was another ‘strong Conservative’ their running me as candidate transferable vote system). who served as Mayor of Cambridge in even – tho’, as we know, we would The choice of Sir Geoffrey as a 1917 and chairman of the county council rather wait a bit for that.33 Conservative candidate was bolstered in 1927 – resigning at the end of that by his stewardship of the Cambridge year to become bishop of the new see of In the event, it was not a long wait. University Derby.30 Butler’s great friend Spens was There were at that time twelve university (CUCA). A number of Conservative elected his successor – completing the seats in Parliament. From 1603 until the caucuses had existed within the pair’s control over the college. From their abolition of university representation in university to organize for elections, but it earliest days there, they had held high 1948, Cambridge graduates returned two was Butler who established the first body ambitions for the college. Butler tried to ‘Burgesses’ as Members of Parliament. for undergraduates. They elected him explain it in a letter to Betty at Christmas The ‘normal allegiance’ of the seat was their president in 1920,37 and he ‘threw 1914: ‘we aren’t much interested in Conservative, but this trend was broken immense energy into his work’ for CUCA, great individuals at Corpus, but rather in 1922 – by a Butler. Sir Geoffrey’s cousin making it ‘a considerable political force in making a great institution to pursue James Butler was another historian and a in Cambridge’.38 One young member a great idea – that idea which is the real Fellow of Trinity. He had been approached says that Sir Geoffrey ‘saw himself as truth as this generation ought to see it’.31 by Sidney Webb in 1918 to be the Labour recruiting a part of the Conservative elite He and Spens methodically set about candidate for the university seat, but for the next generation’.39 His nephew building up connections: ‘Bill Spens and decided against.34 But at the following Rab – who naturally became chairman I had a long discussion as to the amount election in 1922 – ‘based on the weakness of the association – recalled the role and nature of the entertaining that would of the Conservative candidate’35 – he was he played: fall upon them and us this next few years,’ elected as an ‘Independent’, much to the Butler told Betty at the start of 1915. They surprise of G.M. Trevelyan, who ‘took for Geoffrey’s subtle and interesting envisaged hosting fortnightly dinners granted that no person with an ounce of mind left a considerable in Cambridge: liberal views in him cld ever be elected impact on the young men of his for Cambridge Univ.’36 It seemed fitting generation, and he did much to Then Bill will try to get elected that the candidate to regain the seat the bridge the gulf between leading at the Carlton which is the great following year should also be a Butler. Parliamentarians in London and political Conservative club in James stood this time as an ‘Independent ‘the young idea’ in Cambridge. London: and I shall no doubt Liberal’, outpolling Geoffrey on the first Everyone seemed to wish to come gradually get into touch with to his rooms at Corpus Christi more and more people. Then one – and how greatly stimulated can ask interesting people outside we undergraduates were by the London down to stay a week-end lavish entertainment we received or to talk to my history lambs and the celebrated people in College or something. All this we met.40 spreads the knowledge of the Corpus Evangel among the people It was a role which Rab himself would that matter.32 reprise at the end of his career: as Master of Trinity, he would invite CUCA By the eve of the meeting members to parties in the Master’s Lodge which brought about the end of the Lloyd and ‘hold them in thrall with talk of his George coalition in October 1922, Butler political life’ and show them the political was sufficiently plugged in to send Betty cartoons he hung on its panelled walls.41 his analysis of the political situation – and But in the 1920s he was one of many to hope to profit from it: undergraduates who benefited from Sir Geoffrey connections to meet the The political muddle is complete succession of leading Conservatives he but I am not worrying. Corpus is enticed up to Cambridge. Duff Cooper, linked to a very active bunch of Walter Elliot, and John Buchan all came men – Horne, Birkenhead, Balfour to visit – as did the Prime Minister etc. They may not be going to pull () and the Chancellor it off for the moment, but they are of the Exchequer (). a living force whatever happens, Perhaps the most memorable guest, in power or out; I only am The front cover of the Conservative Political however, was Lord Curzon, who came to interested in living forces. If Lloyd Centre's 1957 reprint of Sir Geoffrey's speak in March 1924. A dinner was laid Georgianism wins, if the sensible lectures. on in his honour. The great man was

Conservative History Journal  Vol. II, Issue 3  Autumn 2014 21 dressing for it at Christ’s College when he was suddenly taken ill: ‘A surgeon was sent for, an operation decided upon and Lady Curzon arrived to take him away.’ A fortnight later he was dead.42

‘The godfather of all our careers’

As a fluent speaker – hampered only by his ‘high-pitched voice’43 – Sir Geoffrey contributed to the House of Commons more often than was usual for university representatives. But it was outside the Chamber that his skills were best employed: ‘He exercised a private rather than a public influence, and was at his best in a small circle rather than on a public platform.’44 Despite his lifelong financial worries, he was a devoted clubman – his letters to Betty came from the Carlton, the Junior Carlton, the United University Club, and St. Stephen’s (‘my latest club’).45 He quickly made a name for himself on the London scene: in March 1926 he found himself next to the editor of The Sunday Times at a dinner at the Carlton, who ‘treated me with profound, almost suspicious deference’ and ‘appeared to know my views – “You are a Liberal Conservative as is well known”.’46 Even as such, Butler had mixed feelings towards Baldwin, the leader throughout his time in Parliament. ‘Yes it was right to A CUCA recruitment poster from 1924 bearing a message of support from Baldwin. stick to Baldwin,’ he told Betty after the Prospective members are directed to the future Ministers Rab Butler and Geoffrey Lloyd. government was defeated in a confidence vote at the start of 1924, ‘but I wish we had more men to stretch our imaginations’.47 – and built strong relationships with other Such was the mark Butler made, even When rumours abounded on the House senior Tories.50 His closest was with the in this junior role, that he was almost of Commons Terrace that Churchill was Secretary of State for the Air, Sir Samuel appointed Chairman of the Party. In planning to ‘turn him out and take his Hoare, who – ‘with his usual flair for April 1926 he wrote to tell Betty the place’, Butler could ‘hardly believe it’ and picking the right man’ – made Sir Geoffrey ‘wild rumour’ that he was ‘going to be was not sure he wanted to: ‘You know I his Parliamentary Private Secretary.51 asked to succeed Lord Linlithgow at the don’t believe in Baldwin but still less do Hoare’s biographer says that ‘Butler Central Office … I don’t know even if it I believe in Churchill’.48 By 1927 he was was in many ways more an additional were true and I were offered it whether I coolly appreciative, telling Rab: junior minister for Hoare than merely would consent. I suspect that I shan’t be the hewer of wood and drawer of water offered it’.54 He very nearly was. Neville Our strong card in the Country of PPS tradition’. His main contribution Chamberlain visited Baldwin at Chequers is Baldwin with any manner of to policy was the creation of university in October 1926 to discuss the party doubt. He isn’t exciting nor does air squadrons – starting, naturally, at organization, reporting back to his sister he respond to every one of your Cambridge in October 1925. But ‘not less in confidence that ‘the present favourite and my thrills but hundreds important was the wide range of contacts for the Chairmanship is Sir Geoffrey of thousands who would have he made for his minister. Through Butler, Butler MP for Cambridge University. I voted Liberal vote for his policy. Hoare met Cambridge scientists and don’t suppose you know much of him Whether one likes it or not it is a others whose work was highly relevant but he is a Don with a gift for enthusing cold hard electoral fact.49 to the concerns of the Air Ministry’.52 Sir young men & is said to have done Samuel himself was full of praise: ‘I never wonderful work among the undergrads’.55 He ‘learned to respect Neville had a better friend than Geoffrey, nor an It would, says David Dilks, ‘have been a Chamberlain greatly – a really fine fellow’ adviser who gave me wiser guidance’.53 most distinguished appointment; not yet

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40, Butler had made a fine reputation as court judge and law lord, remembers him the Air Ministry, ‘another Butler, in the a public servant and inspiring tutor’.56 as ‘a man of great kindness and geniality’, form of his youthful nephew, was brought But was not to be: Chamberlain had gratefully recording: ‘Sir Geoffrey was the into the vacant chair at the high table’.70 reservations about the creation of a godfather of all our careers’.62 As there And he was determined that Rab should new chef de cabinet role at Number 10, were no law fellows at Devlin’s college follow him to Westminster too. While and persuaded Baldwin against it; the (Christ’s), Sir Geoffrey arranged for him Sydney and Rab were on honeymoon, Sir man who had been earmarked for to be supervised by Arthur Goodhart, a Geoffrey wrote to them excitedly to say that – J.C.C. Davidson – became Party talented American lawyer at Corpus – that William Foot Mitchell, the MP for Chairman instead. which set the future jurist ‘on the right had taken him aside But even without this elevation, Sir road’. After Cambridge, when he was Geoffrey was able to use his growing worried that he could not afford to take and, after histing and swearing influence in Government to advance the the Bar examinations, the pair arranged a me to secrecy a good deal, told careers of his Cambridge protégés. Despite job for him at the Law Quarterly Review, me he was bound to give up being increasingly in Westminster, he which Goodhart edited.63 pretty soon and thought it had maintained a close interest in student One of Butler’s students at Corpus best be soon rather than late, politics: at the end of a long letter to was Basil Liddell Hart, the distinguished if his successor was to get a Betty about parliamentary affairs in 1924, military historian. His undergraduate chance of becoming known to the he switched to news of undergraduate career did not augur well: he scored constituency. politics: ‘You will have seen that Geoffrey ‘a dismal Third’ at the end of his first Lloyd was elected Secretary of the Union. year in June 1914, and received a ‘brief Rab’s name had been mentioned to I’m so glad’.57 Lloyd was a good friend admonition’ from Butler.64 This poor start him, and Sir Geoffrey wasted no time in of Rab’s and would also forge a career – and the outbreak of war, during which extoling his virtues: in politics. This had not been apparent he served on the Western Front – meant when he first came up to Trinity from that Liddell Hart never took his degree; I do hope it will come off. I can’t Harrow, however. Until Sir Geoffrey when Corpus made him an honorary tell you what ill-luck I have enlisted him in CUCA, the future Tory Fellow in 1965, he was obliged to attend wished that dear old man in my Minister was ‘interested in term time only in his undergraduate gown.65 But Butler prayers; but I was deadly afraid in hunting, drinking and punting on the saw the potential in his erstwhile student. that I had overdone and he would Cam, preferably naked in inconspicuous When Liddell Hart was invalided out of die (when I should be sorry for he stretches; and during vacations interested the Army in 1916 and wrote a short book is a very nice old man) or that I chiefly in the pleasures of Parisian on the Somme offensive, Butler sent it should underdo it and he would life’.58 By 1924, however, he was set on on to a number of his contacts, including only get gout or German measles a parliamentary career. He fought his John Buchan, who was then working or a tickling in the throat. Now first seat in that year’s general election for General Haig.66 Years later, when my black prayers have seemed to – just four months after graduating. Sir Sir Geoffrey was working for Sir Samuel get pretty near the mark …71 Geoffrey did all he could to help him, Hoare, he ‘took an early opportunity’ getting Hoare ‘to speak very warmly to to give his new boss a copy of Liddell Rab was duly selected as the about Geoffrey Hart’s latest work, and arranged for Conservative candidate for Saffron Lloyd for the vacant seat in Birmingham’ the two to meet. This led to a series of Walden – entering the Commons at the two years later.59 This was Ladywood, the discussions between the minister and age of twenty-six in 1929 and holding seat Chamberlain was vacating in favour the strategist ‘not only about RAF affairs, the seat until he resigned, as Father of of his native Edgbaston, having seen off but also on wider problems of defence the House, in 1965. ‘When I look back a strong challenge from Labour’s Sir and disarmament.’67 When Hoare’s ally on the good fortune that attended my Oswald Mosley at the preceding election. Chamberlain became prime minister in youth,’ he wrote many years later, ‘I ‘I don’t see why GL should not pull it May 1937, ‘Liddell Hart now became the must really count this one of the luckiest off,’ Sir Geoffrey told Rab.60 He almost decisive intellectual influence on British developments of my career’.72 But his did, losing by just 11 votes. Once again, grand strategy’.68 But Sir Geoffrey was uncle did not want Rab to have to rely on Sir Geoffrey came to his assistance – not around to see it; his death was ‘a great good luck. During the time between his getting him a job as private secretary to blow’ Liddell Hart, ‘as I have never had a adoption and the election, Sir Geoffrey Sir Samuel Hoare until the next election, better friend, in every sense of the word’.69 got him a job working alongside Geoffrey when Lloyd won the seat by 14,000 votes. Sir Geoffrey’s greatest protégé, of course, Lloyd for Sir Samuel Hoare. This ‘timely Sir Geoffrey took pride in other CUCA was his nephew Rab. He was best man at help’ gave Rab a useful entrée: alumni who went into national politics: Rab’s wedding to Sydney Courtauld (a ‘Lampard Vachell has been adopted fellow CUCA member from Newnham), Now he could slip in and out of for Lincoln where he has a pretty good and helped to secure a Fellowship for Westminster at will. He saw all the chance,’ he wrote to Rab in 1927: ‘Our third him at Corpus – although Rab, with his figures of the period performing. actual candidate of recent vintages’.61 But double first, was undoubtedly qualified He watched as the Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey’s patronage was not confined for it. When Sir Geoffrey left Corpus in answered questions at three to politics. Patrick Devlin, later a high 1925 because of his growing duties at o’clock. He heard the last Baldwin

Conservative History Journal  Vol. II, Issue 3  Autumn 2014 23 Budget. He lunched and often that. // There will be many who Private Secretary. Of all the good dined in the House listening to the will look back over the years and advice his uncle gave me, none best informed political talk of the see in you and your friendship was better than that contained in day. All this before he had won an the source and impulse of all his dying wish.77 election.73 that they have endeavoured to accomplish. // You were certainly Even more important than the practical Alas, the uncle and nephew would an inspiration to me when I first help Sir Geoffrey was able to extend to never sit alongside each other on the visited you at Cambridge, now his nephew, however, was the intellectual green benches: Sir Geoffrey died on many years ago, and I bless you influence he had on him. As one of Rab’s 2 May 1929 – just twenty-eight days and am thankful for it. // Ever biographers – and Cambridge friends – before the election which brought Rab yours, Stanley Baldwin.75 points out, ‘Sir Geoffrey Butler occupied into Parliament. Permanently lame, and a unique position not only in Cambridge of delicate health, Sir Geoffrey’s letters Baldwin’s tender valediction to Sir but in the wider life of the Tory Party. speak of almost constant ailments. He Geoffrey would be followed a fortnight He was the Conservative scholar and did not allow these to hold him back, but later by a letter of condolence to his thinker then very much in vogue’.78 his friends saw the strain he bore. Bill widow. It was joined by countless more Another contemporary describes Spens had no doubt that ‘his health had from his former pupils and Parliamentary him as ‘ of the essence of been affected by overwork’ – particularly colleagues, the Vice-Chancellor and Conservatism in a difficult period for the following a long trip Sir Geoffrey made to Masters of many Cambridge colleges, the party’.79 Rab himself was only too happy Ceylon from November 1927 to February President of Princeton, and the Governor to acknowledge that his ‘own attitude to 1928 as part of the Donoughmore of Ceylon. Sir Samuel Hoare wrote politics’ was ‘strongly influenced by my Commission charged with writing a new immediately from the Air Ministry: ‘To uncle Geoffrey Butler’s essays on The constitution for the country.74 By April me it means the loss of my greatest friend Tory Tradition.’ Indeed, he went out of 1929 it was clear that the cancer from in politics, and of one for whom I had the his way throughout his political life to give which he was suffering was terminal. greatest admiration and affection. I can the essays the attention they had failed to Letters flooded in from friends and well- honestly say that political life will never attract in 1914. He mentioned his uncle in wishers, including a tender letter from again be the same to me’.76 But Sir Samuel the opening pages of his memoirs, written the Prime Minister. ‘My dear Geoffrey’, had been asked one final favour from his in 1971, and was convinced that his essays he wrote: ‘greatest friend’ – to take his nephew as were ‘still relevant’.80 He highlighted them his PPS in his place. Sir Samuel recalls again six years later when he published I am grieved to learn of your that Geoffrey’s a history of the Conservative Party by illness and I send you from my leading historians. Just as his uncle had heart a message of warm affection last words to me when I visited him used the example of four leading Tory and true sympathy. // No one has on his death-bed were: ‘Look after figures to adumbrate the essential tenets done more than you have to teach my nephew Rab, and help him in of Conservatism for a new generation, the the true faith as you and I see it his newly-started political career.’ nephew wanted these historical studies to those entering their life’s work, This was the history of my taking not only to and your work will bear fruit the future Chancellor of the in the next generation and after Exchequer as my Parliamentary indicate the themes and achievements of the greatest and longest surviving party in the State, [but] also serve as a guideline for the future activities, prospects and philosophy of Conservatism. Where there has been inspiration this can be carried forward; where there have been mistakes these can be avoided. As Sir Geoffrey Butler, the Senior Burgess for Cambridge University, wrote in his book The Tory Tradition, “the Tory tradition is the Tory hope”.81

The devoted nephew, writing on the eve of the Thatcherite revolution, made no apology for quoting at length from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge ─ to which Sir Geoffrey attracted leading Conservatives his uncle’s book, written more than and keen young students to follow in their footsteps. sixty years earlier, ‘because it is I think

24 Conservative History Journal  Vol. II, Issue 2  Autumn 2014 Sir Geoffrey Butler and The Tory Tradition

of the Exchequer 1951–55 – were heartedly approved by the whole party. But there were other times, Rab found, ‘when I was obliged to stand out as a champion of progress against substantial sections both in parliament and in the country’. His long career offers many examples: the Government of India Bill, which so enraged Churchill in the 1930s, and his later support for decolonization as Foreign Secretary; his Education Act of 1944 and the of 1947 – regarded by some as ‘pink socialism’; or his time at the where he ‘incurred opprobrium for eschewing the use of birch and cat’.87 But in pursuing his reforms, Rab was careful never to push politics beyond the limits of the possible, or to be unfaithful to the traditions of his party. In a lecture to the CPC in 1956, Rab allowed himself a moment of satisfaction for what he and his party had Stanley Baldwin's touching letter to his old friend on his deathbed. accomplished:

As I see it, our achievements very apt to the circumstances of today In his memoirs, Rab expanded on the between 1945 and 1951 was that when we are hoping so keenly for a way he had sought to identify the legacy we showed that we were true to Conservative revival’.82 It had certainly of his uncle’s ‘captains of Toryism’ for a our to Tory tradition of social been an inspiration – and a useful tool – party in intellectual torment after 1945: progress. We gained the people’s for him during his great work to ensure confidence because we were ready a swift and effective Conservative revival What they had left us, I insisted, to move ahead with the times.88 after the Labour landslide of 1945. As was not a collection of causes for chairman of the Conservative Research which we were obliged to die in That, he said, was the key lesson for Department (CRD), and founder of the a last ditch, nor a set of premises the Conservative Party – for: ‘Unless Conservative Political Centre (CPC), Rab by whose consistent application Butler orchestrated the revivification of we might infallibly regulate our our movement is deep-set in a living the Conservative Party, overhauling its conduct, but a mature tradition and spiritual philosophy it will not have 89 policy programme and restoring its faith of political thought and behaviour the inspiration necessary to prevail’. in its political creed. In his own words, which is neither fixed nor finished. The inspiration which allowed him to ‘We were shaken out of our lethargy and This tradition at its best is prevail throughout a political career that impelled to re-think our philosophy and responsive to the demands of each spanned half the twentieth century – and re-form our ranks with a thoroughness new age, empirical as to method, the philosophy to which he remained unmatched for a century’.83 resourceful in expressing itself true from his undergraduate days at The CPC, which Rab established as a in popular idiom, though deeply Trinity to his time as its septuagenarian ‘thinking machine’ for the Conservative conscious that the ‘councils to Master – were both the gifts of his Party, organized conferences, lectures, which Time is not called, Time will wise and generous uncle. A century and summer schools, and published not ratify’.85 after his four, short lectures to the pamphlets on all aspects of policy. One of University of Pennsylvania, Sir Geoffrey its publications, in 1957, was a reprint of This was a tradition in which Rab Butler Butler’s influence on twentieth-century The Tory Tradition. Rab explained: sought to conduct his whole political Conservatism deserves to be recognized. career, not just his work immediately after We do not republish it simply 1945. His uncle, in the words of William Stephen Parkinson read history at to reverence a man or to revive Spens, ‘was, and remained, a convinced Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where – a memory, but rather to recall conservative, but was intolerant of any like Sir Geoffrey and Rab Butler – he ran a message. Geoffrey Butler’s conception of conservatism which was the University Conservative Association message is summed up in his own not concerned to secure reforms’.86 So too and was President of the Union. He is words, ‘The Tory tradition is the was his nephew. Sometimes the reforms the Director of the Conservative History Tory hope’.84 he proposed – for instance, as Chancellor Group.

Conservative History Journal  Vol. II, Issue 3  Autumn 2014 25 I am grateful to Dr. Lucy Hughes, Modern 25 GB to Betty, 1 October 1915 unfortunate Benjamin Lampard-Vachell did Archivist and Records Manager, and Gill 26 GB to Betty, 24 May 1916. Original not prosper at Lincoln, nor on his other two Cannell, Sub Librarian of the Parker Library, emphasis. attempts to become a Member of Parliament: for their kind assistance as I consulted Sir 27 Col. W.G. Lyddon, British War Missions he had fallen just 338 votes shorts in Wednesbury in 1924, and went on to lose the Geoffrey Butler’s papers at Corpus Christi to the United States, 1914–1918 (, 1938), p. 35. previously Tory seat of Barnstaple by 454 College, Cambridge; and to the Master and 28 George Sylvester Viereck, Spreading Germs votes in 1935. He had, however, a successful Fellows of Trinity College for permission to of Hate (London: Duckworth, 1931), p. 127. career in local government, culminating as consult the papers of R.A. Butler and J.R.M. 29 John Grier Hibben, to Betty, 3 May 1929, Sir High Sheriff of Devon. Butler, both held at the Wren Library there. Geoffrey Butler MSS, Corpus. 62 Devlin, op. cit., pp. 44, 47. 30 Bury, op. cit., p. 153. 63 Devlin, op. cit., pp. 57, 75. 1 Noel Annan (Lord Annan), Our Age: 31 GB to Betty, 23 December 1914 64 ‘Now do try,’ Butler told him in a letter dated Portrait of a Generation (London: 32 GB to Betty, 15 January 1915 15 June 1914. Alex Danchev, Alchemist of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1990), p. 7. 33 GB to Betty, 18 October 1922. War: The Life of Basil Liddell Hart (London: 2 The Times, 24 July 1978. Actually, the 34 J.R.M. Butler MSS, Trinity College, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998), pp. 37–8. dynasty continued, albeit without the Butler Cambridge. JRMB/H1/1, Dudley Ward to 65 Danchev, op. cit., p. 247. surname: both the daughter and grandson of J.R.M. Butler, 13 March 1918. ‘It is unlikely 66 Liddell Hart, op. cit., pp. 26–27. Geoffrey’s sister Isabel were still Fellows at that you would get in,’ Ward says, ‘but they 67 ibid., p. 143. Cambridge. (the Webbs) assure me that if you stand you 68 Corelli Barnett, The Collapse of British 3 Geoffrey Butler to Elizabeth Levering Jones would then have a good claim to a safe seat Power (Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1984), (hereafter ‘GB to Betty’), August 1914, Sir next time.’ p. 502. Rather more colourfully, Barnett says Geoffrey Butler MSS, Corpus Christi College, 35 Michael Bentley, The Liberal Mind, 1914–29 that ‘Liddell Hart played a strategic Jeeves Cambridge. (Cambridge University Press, 1973), p. 175. to Hore-Belisha’s political Bertie Wooster, 4 Quoted in Patrick Bury, The College of The ‘weak’ candidate was William Sorley – laying out the elegant suits of ideas and Corpus Christi and of the Blessed Virgin father of the war poet Charles Sorley, who schemes which Hore-Belisha was to wear Mary: A History from 1822 to 1952 was Rab Butler’s first cousin on his mother’s later in Cabinet’. (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1952), side. 69 Liddell Hart, op. cit., p. 147. p. 241. 36 JRMB/H2/8, G.M. Trevelyan to J.R.M. 70 Ralph Harris (Lord Harris of High Cross), 5 Bury, op. cit., p. 121. Butler, n.d. (November 1922). Politics without Prejudice: A Political 6 Reba N. Soffer, Discipline and Power: 37 ‘This is an honour but not lucrative,’ he Appreciation of The Rt. Hon. Richard The University, History, and the Making wrote to Betty (5 May 1920). Austen Butler CH, MP (London: Staples of an English Elite, 1870­–1930 (Stanford 38 Spens, op. cit. Press Ltd., 195a6), p. 22. University Press, 1994), p. 133. 39 Patrick Devlin (Lord Devlin), Taken at the 71 RAB A10/5, GB to Sydney and Rab 7 The Corpus Association Letter, no. 2, Flood (East Harling: Taverner Publications, Butler, 14 June 1927. In fact, Foot Mitchell February 1915. 1996), p. 44. lived until 1947 – but was consoled with 8 Bury, op. cit., p. 122. 40 R.A. Butler (Lord Butler of Saffron Walden), a knighthood after his departure from 9 Maurice Cowling, Religion and Public The Art of the Possible: The Memoirs of Lord Parliament. Doctrine in Modern , vol. I Butler KG CH (London: Hamish Hamilton, 72 R.A. Butler, The Art of the Possible, p. 22. (Cambridge University Press, 1980), pp. 1971), p. 15. 73 Gerald Sparrow, ‘R.A.B.’: Study of a 73–4. There is less evidence for another 41 Mollie Butler (Lady Butler of Saffron Statesman (London: Odhams Books Ltd., characteristic of the college described by Walden), August and Rab: A Memoir 1965), p. 34. Edward Upward: he wrote to his Repton (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987), 74 Spens, op. cit. For more on the friend Christopher Isherwood, who would pp. 100, 108. Donoughmore Commission, see S. follow him to Corpus the following year, 42 Devlin, op. cit., p. 48. Namasivayam, The Legislatures of Ceylon, that the college was ‘a hot-bed of homo- 43 S.C. Roberts, Adventures with Authors 1928–1948 (London: Faber & Faber, 1951). sexualism’ (Peter Parker, Isherwood: A Life (Cambridge University Press, 1966), p. 11, 49. 75 Baldwin to GB, 15 April 1929, Sir Geoffrey (London: Picador, 2004), p. 91). 44 B.H. Liddell Hart, The Memoirs of Captain Butler MSS, Corpus. 10 Bury, op. cit., p. 135. Liddell Hart, vol. I (London: Cassell, 1965), 76 Sir Samuel Hoare to Elizabeth Butler, 2 May 11 Geoffrey Butler, The Tory Tradition (rev. p. 147. 1929, Sir Geoffrey Butler MSS, Corpus. edn., London: Conservative Political Centre, 45 GB to Betty, 8 April 1924. 77 Templewood, op. cit., p. 71. 1957), pp. 11–12. 46 GB to Betty, 17 March 1926 78 Sparrow, op. cit., p. 30. 12 ibid., p. 12. 47 GB to Betty, 13 February 1924 79 Cited in Francis Boyd, Richard Austen 13 Chris Patten (Lord Patten of Barnes), ‘R.A. 48 GB to Betty, 22 July 1925. Butler (Rockliff Political Monographs, 1956), Butler – What We Missed’ in Mollie Butler 49 RAB A10/4, GB to RAB, 1 March 1927. p. 34. (ed.), A Rabanthology (York: Wilton 65, 50 RAB A10/2, GB to RAB, 10 November 1926. 80 R.A. Butler, The Art of the Possible, pp. 3, 15. 1995), p. 103. 51 in the words of his private secretary, 81 Lord Butler of Saffron Walden (ed.), The 14 GB to Betty, 1 October 1915. Christopher Bullock. Quoted in J.A. Cross, Conservatives: A History from their Origins 15 Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia, PA), Sir Samuel Hoare: a Political Biography to 1965 (London: George Allen & Unwin, 25 November 1920. (London: Jonathan Cape, 1977), p. 91. 1977), p. 9. 16 GB to Betty, 22 October 1914. 52 Cross, op. cit., p. 91. 82 Lord Butler, The Conservatives, p. 11. 17 GB to Betty, 23 December 1914. 53 Viscount Templewood, Nine Troubled Years 83 R.A. Butler, foreword to Peter Goldman 18 Ralph Butler to Betty, 17 December 1914, Sir (London: Collins, 1954), p. 71. (ed.), The New Conservatism (London: Geoffrey Butler MSS. 54 GB to Betty, 21 April 1926. Conservative Political Centre, 1955), p. 7. 19 The Spectator, 2 January 1915. 55 Letter dated 10 October 1926, in Robert 84 R.A. Butler (ed.), The Tory Tradition 20 The Political Quarterly, no. 5 (February Self (ed.), The Neville Chamberlain Diary (London: Conservative Political Centre, 1915), p. 215. Letters, vol. II: The Reform Years, 1921–27 1957), p. 8. 21 Political Science Quarterly, vol. XXXI, no. 1, (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), p. 367. 85 R.A. Butler, The Art of the Possible, p. 28. p. 184. 56 David Dilks, Neville Chamberlain, vol. The quotation at the end is widely attributed 22 The Times Literary Supplement, 19 I: Pioneering and Reform, 1869–1929 to Francis Bacon – although Butler November 1914. (Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 485. presumably means ‘counsels’ rather than 23 GB to Betty, 15 January 1915. 57 GB to Betty, 12 March 1924 ‘councils’. 24 William Spens, ‘Sir (George) Geoffrey 58 Devlin, op. cit., p. 47. 86 Spens, op. cit., pp. 148–50. (Gilbert) Butler’, Dictionary of National 59 GB to Betty, 26 July 1926. 87 R.A. Butler, The Art of the Possible, p. 28. Biography, 1922–30 (Oxford University 60 RAB A10/2, GB to RAB, 10 November 1926. 88 Quoted in Sparrow, op. cit., pp. 249–50. Press, 1937). 61 RAB A10/4, GB to RAB, 1 March 1927. The 89 ibid.

26 Conservative History Journal  Vol. II, Issue 2  Autumn 2014