George Roberts (British politician)

George Henry Roberts (27 July 1868 – 25 April 1928) was a Labour Party politician who switched parties twice.


George Henry Roberts
Roberts in the mid 1900s
Minister of Food Control
In office
10 January 1919  19 March 1920
Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd George
Preceded byJohn Robert Clynes
Succeeded byCharles McCurdy
Minister for Labour
In office
17 August 1917  10 January 1919
Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd George
Preceded byJohn Hodge
Succeeded byRobert Horne
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade
In office
14 December 1916  17 August 1917
Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd George
Preceded byE. G. Pretyman
Succeeded byGeorge Wardle
Chief Whip of the Labour Party
In office
1916–1919
LeaderArthur Henderson
William Adamson
Preceded byFrank Goldstone
Succeeded byWilliam Tyson Wilson
In office
1907–1914
LeaderKeir Hardie
Arthur Henderson
George Barnes
Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded byArthur Henderson
Succeeded byArthur Henderson
Member of Parliament
for Norwich
In office
8 February 1906  6 December 1923
Preceded bySir Samuel Hoare
Succeeded byDorothy Jewson
Personal details
Born(1868-07-27)27 July 1868
Died25 April 1928(1928-04-25) (aged 59)
NationalityBritish
Other political
affiliations
Labour
Coalition Labour

Biography

He was born on 27 July 1868.

At the 1906 general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Norwich. He was a minister in the Lloyd George Coalition Government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade from 1916 to 1917, Minister of Labour from 1917 to 1919, and Minister of Food Control from 1919 to 1920. He was appointed as a Privy Counsellor in 1917.

Roberts stood in 1918 as a Coalition Labour candidate, opposed by the official Labour Party candidate. After leaving office in 1920, Roberts returned as a director to the firm he had left as works manager upon entering Parliament in 1906. He sat on the back-benches and as an independent retained his seat in the 1922 election but lost it as the Conservative candidate in 1923. Roberts spent the rest of his life in the sugar beet industry.

He died on 25 April 1928.

References

  • Brodie, Marc. "Roberts, George Henry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35769. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Bibliography

Meeres, Frank. George Roberts MP. A Life That 'Did Different'. (Poppyland Publishing, 2019)

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Samuel Hoare
Louis Tillett
Member of Parliament for Norwich
19061923
With: Louis Tillett, to Jan 1910
Frederick Low, 1910–1915
Hilton Young, from 1915
Succeeded by
Dorothy Jewson
Walter Smith
Trade union offices
Preceded by
William Brace and Ben Turner
Trades Union Congress representative to the American Federation of Labour
1911
With: James Crinion
Succeeded by
James Seddon and Robert Smillie
Party political offices
Preceded by
Ben Turner
Chair of the Labour Party
1912–1913
Succeeded by
Tom Fox
Political offices
Preceded by
John Hodge
Minister for Labour
1917–1919
Succeeded by
Robert Horne
Preceded by
J. R. Clynes
Minister of Food Control
1919–1920
Succeeded by
Charles McCurdy
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