Augustine Birrell

Birrell was born in Wavertree, near Liverpool, the son of The Rev. Charles Mitchell Birrell (1811-1880), a Scottish Baptist minister. He was educated at Amersham Hall school and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he was made an Honorary Fellow in 1879.[1] He joined the Sylvan Debating Club in 1872. He started work in a solicitor's office in Liverpool[2] but was called to the Bar in 1875, becoming a KC in 1893 and a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1903.[3] From 1896 to 1899 he was Professor of Comparative Law at University College, London.[4][5] In 1911 Birrell served as Lord Rector of Glasgow University.[3]

His first wife, Margaret Mirrielees, died in 1879, only a year after their marriage, and in 1888 he married Eleanor Tennyson, daughter of the poet Frederick Locker-Lampson and widow of Lionel Tennyson, son of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson.[4][6] They had two sons, one of whom, Frankie (1889–1935) was later a journalist and critic and associated with the Bloomsbury Group. Birrell found success as a writer with the publication of a volume of essays entitled Obiter Dicta in 1884. This was followed by a second series of Obiter Dicta in 1887 and Res Judicatae in 1892. These, despite their titles, were not concerned with law, but he also wrote books on copyright and on trusts. Birrell wrote, and spoke, with a characteristic humour which became known as birrelling.[7]

Augustine Birrell c1895

After unsuccessfully contesting parliamentary seats in Liverpool, Walton in 1885 and Widnes in 1886, Birrell was elected to parliament for West Fife at a by-election in 1889, as a Liberal.[8] He retained his seat in the general elections of 1892 and 1895, but in the general election of 1900 he stood in Manchester North East and was defeated. In 1903 he edited Eight Years of Tory Government, a "handbook for the use of Liberals", which attacked the incumbent Conservative administration's record on issues such as housing and worker's compensation.[9]

In December 1905 Birrell was included in the cabinet of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman as President of the Board of Education,[4][10] and that month he was sworn of the Privy Council.[11] He was returned for Bristol North at the general election of January 1906, in which the Liberals won a large majority.[4][12] Like Campbell-Bannerman, Birrell belonged to the Radical tradition of the party.[13] Birrell also belonged to a group called the "New Radicals" or "New Liberals", which also included H. H. Asquith, R. B. Haldane and Sir Edward Grey.[14]

Birrell introduced the Education Bill 1906, intended to address nonconformist grievances arising from the Education Act 1902. The bill passed the Liberal dominated House of Commons comfortably, but the House of Lords, with a Conservative majority, passed wrecking amendments which undermined its meaning, and the government dropped it. This use of dilatory parliamentary procedures and wrecking amendments over the education bill began a period of political tension between the Commons and Lords which ultimately concluded with the Lords' rejection of the People's Budget of 1909, sparking the Constitutional Crises of 1909–11.[15]

Birrell had been seen as a poor advocate for the bill, although he complained privately that it was mainly Lloyd George's work, and that he himself had had little say over its contents.[16] The defeat of the bill made it impossible for Birrell to continue in his post, and in January 1907 he was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, to replace James Bryce who had been made Ambassador to the United States. While serving in government, Birrell supported a number of progressive measures and proposals such as expanded housing provisions, land reform,[17] and substantial increases in education spending at both primary and secondary level.[18]

Like many of his political colleagues and members of the general public, Birrell strongly disapproved of the militancy and violence of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU; suffragettes). In November 1910, when walking alone from the House of Commons, he was set upon by a group of about twenty suffragettes who had recognised him. While he did not believe there was any serious attempt to injure him, in trying to escape he twisted his knee and "slipped the knee-cap".[19] C. P. Scott wrote in his diary that Birrell feared he might require an operation to remove his knee-cap and joked that, if he did, he would remain 'a weak-kneed politician' to the end of his life.[20] Birrell was, however, described by the paper Votes for Women as one of a number of "Suffragist members of the Cabinet" who met with a deputation from the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), led by Millicent Fawcett, on 8 August 1913, following a similar meeting by the NUWSS with Prime Minister Asquith on the same day. According to Votes for Women, The Times reported that the ministers asked the deputation what kind of bill the NUWSS was looking for. Other ministers present included Lloyd George, John Simon, Francis Dyke Acland and McKinnon Wood.[21]

Birrell with his son Anthony and Katharine Asquith

While Birrell's first phase as Chief Secretary was a clear success, the period from about 1912 onwards saw something of a decline in Birrell's career which was also mirrored in his domestic life. Birrell's second wife Eleanor had been suffering from an inoperable brain tumour and this eventually caused her to lose her sanity. This affected Birrell deeply, privately and publicly, but he did not tell his political colleagues, who were simply given to understand that she did not care for social life. There were two sons of the marriage Francis and Anthony.

The quality of his public work deteriorated and as one historian has noted the severe personal strain must have been a contributory factor in "...the uncharacteristic combination of excessive zeal and indecision which marked [Birrell's] response to the Dublin industrial agitation of 1913".[39] Only after Eleanor died in 1915 did Birrell begin to regain some of his old energy and effectiveness as a minister.

Birrell did not defend his seat in the 1918 general election, nor did he ever return to Ireland. In 1929, he accepted an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland, but storms in the Irish Sea prevented him from making the crossing and he had to receive his degree in absentia.[40] He returned to literature with a further volume of essays and book reviews, More Obiter Dicta (1920) and a book on his father-in-law, Frederick Locker-Lampson.[31] He died in London on 20 November 1933, aged eighty-three. His autobiography, Things Past Redress was published posthumously.

• Obiter Dicta, Elliot Stock, 1885
• Res Judicatae: Papers and Essays, Charles Scribner's Sons 1892
• Essays about Men, Women, and Books, Elliot Stock, 1895
• Collected Essays, Elliot Stock, 1899[41] (comprising Obiter Dicta; Res Judicatae; Essays about Men, Women, and Books)
• Miscellanies, Elliot Stock, 1901
• Essays and Addresses, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901 (same content as Miscellanies)
• William Hazlitt, Macmillan, 1902
• Eight Years of Tory Government, 1895-1903; home affairs; handbook for the use of liberals London, 1903
• In the Name of the Bodleian, and Other Essays, Elliot Stock, 1905
• Andrew Marvell, Macmillan, 1905
• Selected Essays: 1884–1907, Thomas Nelson, 1909
• Self-Selected Essays : a Second Series, Nelson, 1917
• More Obiter Dicta, W. Heinemann ltd., 1924
• Et Cetera: A Collection, Chatto and Windus, 1930
• Things Past Redress London, 1937

The main collection of Birrell's papers, those dealing with his period as Chief Secretary, are deposited in the Bodleian Library. The Bodleian also contains collections of Birrell's public correspondence with political figures of his day, Asquith, Lewis Harcourt and others. Birrell's correspondence with Campbell-Bannerman and Herbert Gladstone are in the British Library. His correspondence with Lloyd George is in the Parliamentary Archives. Correspondence with Herbert Samuel is in King's College, Cambridge. Other collections can be found in the National Library of Ireland, Lambeth Palace, National Library of Scotland and Trinity College, Dublin. His family correspondence is deposited in the University of Liverpool.[42]

• The Times, Obituary, 21 November 1933
• Augustine Birrell: Politician and Author by Pat Jalland in Dictionary of National Biography OUP, 2004–08
• Augustine Birrell by Alvin Jackson, entry in Dictionary of Liberal Biography, Brack et al. (eds.) Politico's, 1998
• Guinn, Paul (1965). British Strategy and Politics 1914-18. Clarendon. ASIN B0000CML3C.

Bibliography

• "Obituary: Augustine Birrell". The Times. 21 November 1933.
• Crosby, Travis. L. (2014), The Unknown David Lloyd George: A Statesman in Conflict, London: IB Tauris and Co. Ltd, ISBN 978-1-78076-485-6, retrieved 23 August 2014
• Jackson, Alvin (1998). Brack, Duncan; et al. (eds.). "Augustine Birrell". Dictionary of Liberal Biography. London: Politico's.
• Jalland, Pat (2004). "Augustine Birrell: Politician and Author". Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP.
• Guinn, Paul (1965). British Strategy and Politics 1914-18. Clarendon. ASIN B0000CML3C.

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