Josiah Wedgwood, 1st Baron Wedgwood

Colonel The Right Honourable The Lord Wedgwood DSO PC DL
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 22 January – 3 November 1924
Prime Minister	Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by	J. C. C. Davidson
Succeeded by	The Viscount Cecil of Chelwood
Personal details
Born	16 March 1872
Died	26 July 1943 (1943-07-27) (aged 71)

Colonel Josiah Clement Wedgwood, 1st Baron Wedgwood, DSO, PC, DL (16 March 1872 – 26 July 1943), sometimes referred to as Josiah Wedgwood IV, was a British Liberal and Labour politician who served in government under Ramsay MacDonald. He was a prominent single-tax activist following the political-economic reformer Henry George. He was the great-great-grandson of the famous potter Josiah Wedgwood.

Biography

Josiah Wedgwood was born at Barlaston in Staffordshire, the son of Clement Wedgwood. He was the great-great-grandson of the potter Josiah Wedgwood. His mother Emily Catherine was the daughter of the engineer James Meadows Rendel. He was educated at Clifton College and then studied at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.

He married his first cousin Ethel Kate Bowen (1869–1952), daughter of Sir Charles Bowen, 1st Baron Bowen in 1894 but she left him in 1913 and divorced him in 1919. Since divorce at that time required a guilty party, he agreed to take the blame and was found guilty of adultery and desertion of his wife and children. This led to criticism from the press and pulpit. More criticism was levelled after the divorce was final and he revealed that the desertion was a formality and the adultery staged. They had seven children:

• Helen Bowen Wedgwood (1895–1981), married the geneticist Michael Pease, son of Edward Reynolds Pease. One of their sons was the physicist Bas Pease and one of their daughters, Jocelyn Richenda Gammell Pease (1925–2003), married Andrew Huxley, the biologist.
• Rosamund Wedgwood (1896–1960)
• Francis Charles Bowen Wedgwood (1898–1959), 2nd Baron Wedgwood. He was father of the 3rd Baron.
• Josiah Wedgwood V (1899–1968), managing director of Wedgwood. He was father of Dr John Wedgwood (1919–2007), former heir presumptive to the barony.
• Camilla Hildegarde Wedgwood (1901–1955), anthropologist
• Elizabeth Julia Wedgwood (1907–1993)
• Gloria Wedgwood (1909–1974)

In 1919 he remarried; his second wife was Florence Ethel Willett (1878–1969).

Military and political career

Proficient in mathematics, he joined the workshops of an arms manufacturer, Elswick. In 1891, he was commissioned in the 1st Northumberland (Western Division, Royal Artillery).^[1] He worked for a year from 1895 as an Assistant Naval Constructor in Portsmouth before returning to Newcastle upon Tyne to head the drawing office of another arms manufacturer, Armstrong. Following the outbreak of the Second Boer War in late 1899 he was given the army rank of captain on 3 March 1900,^[2] and for three years commanded a volunteer battery of the Royal Field Artillery equipped by Elswick. He remained in South Africa after the war, spending two years as a Resident Magistrate in the district of Ermelo in the Transvaal. His studies of native land laws gave him an interest in Land Reform. Influenced by the writings of Henry George, he developed a lifelong belief in the Single Tax, advocating a tax on property to replace taxes on income and goods as a way of securing for workers the full reward for their work. He became president of the League for the Taxation of Land Values in 1908.

Having returned to England, Wedgwood was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle-under-Lyme at the 1906 general election. Though he stood for the Liberal Party, he made it clear that he would take an independent line in Parliament if necessary, in accordance with his conscience. He was re-elected at both the January and December 1910 elections, and that year was also elected to Staffordshire County Council, remaining a councillor until 1918. He became disillusioned with the Liberals after 1910, when it became clear that the government would not honour campaign commitments to land reform and opposing vested interests. His disillusionment was increased by the government's reaction against the Suffragettes, whom he also supported. In 1913 he staged a filibuster against the government's Mental Deficiency Bill, which he saw as authoritarian and unjust. Over the course of two days in Parliament, he tabled 120 amendments and made 150 speeches in Parliament,^{[dubious – discuss]} sustaining himself with only barley-water and chocolate according to press reports, until his voice gave out. This campaign brought him to public attention outside of his own constituency and the Land Reform movement, and he became known as a leading backbencher.

제1차 세계 대전

제1차 세계대전이 발발한 후 그는 육군 중령 계급장을 갖고 왕실 해군 자원 봉사 예비역에 자원봉사를 했다. 그는 기계 공사로 복귀하여 해군 항공국의 장갑차 부문에 파견되었다. 그는 1914년에 기갑차로 벨기에와 프랑스에서 복무했다. 1915년 다르다넬스 운동에서 부상을 입고 케이프 헬레스 착륙 도중 SS 리버 클라이드 기관총을 지휘하는 공로로 공훈장을^[3] 받았다. 그가 팔레스타인에 대한 영국 정책에 대한 그의 견해에 영향을 미칠 조셉 트럼펠도르가 지휘하는 시온 뮬 군단 지원자들을 만난 것은 갈리폴리였다.^[4] 그는 양심적 병역거부자들의 권리도 옹호했지만, 국회로 돌아와서는 부족한 인력과 국가 봉사에 대한 지원에 우려를 표명했다. 그해 말 그는 동아프리카의 얀 스마츠 장군의 참모들에게 육군 대위로 임명되었다. 1916년에 그는 메소포타미아 조사위원회의 일원이었다.

소령으로 진급하여 1916년 제2남아공 보병여단에서 기관총 회사를 지휘하였다. 1917년 그는 대령의 계급으로 참호전 부국장이 되었다. 1918년 초에 그는 시베리아로 보내졌는데, 그의 임무는 러시아의 지속적인 전쟁 참여를 장려하고 시베리아에서 볼셰비키 통제에 대한 정보를 수집하는 것이었다.

1918년 총선

1918년 총선거에서 그는 재선을 노렸다. 선거 당시 그의 구체적인 소속 여부에 대해 약간의 혼란이 있었다. 그는 지역 자유당 협회의 공식 지지를 받았고 연립 정부의 공식 승인을 받았다. 이 때문에 그는 당시 많은 소식통에 자유당 연합으로 묘사되었다. 그러나 선거 운동 중에 그는 공개적으로 연립 정부와 거리를 두었다. 자신의 지역 선거 캠페인은 반대하지 않았기 때문에 미미했다. 그는 선거 연설에서 "나는 1906년에 처음 당선된 것과 같은 무력한 독립 급진주의자인 당신 앞에 간다"^[5]고 말했다. 이것은 1906년에 그가 '자유주의자'로 분류되었음에도 불구하고 1918년에 일부 사람들이 그를 '독립 급진주의자'로 잘못 묘사하게 만들었다. 보통 믿을 만한 F. W. S. 크레이그는 1918-1949년 그의 저서 영국 의회 선거 결과에서 그를 '독립 자유주의자'로 묘사했다. 그러나 1919년 2월 3일 자유당 제1차 회의에 참석하면서 독립 자유당이 아닌 공식 자유당으로서의 그의 지위가 확인되었다.^[6]

노동당에 가입

1919년 웨드우드는 하원에서 노동당의 채찍을 들고 독립 노동당에 가입했다. 그는 노동당의 보다 자유로운 분위기를 즐겼고 당은 1921년 그를 의회 노동당의 공동 부의장으로 선출하면서 그를 따뜻하게 환영했다. 웨지우드는 새로운 아이디어와 외부인과 약자들의 이익을 옹호하는 것으로 명성을 유지했다. 그는 베르사유 조약에 포함된 독일로부터의 배상 반대 등, 많은 인기 없는 명분을 지지했다. 1920년에 그는 정부가 영국 영토를 팔레스타인과 트랜스조르단으로 분할하는 것을 비판했고, 이후 20년 동안 시오니즘에 대한 편향으로 본 것을 계속 공격했다. 그 해 그는 노동당과 TUC에서 헝가리로의 위원회를 이끌었는데, 헝가리에서는 혁명적인 공산주의 독재 정권을 계승한 호시 정권 하에서 공산주의자로 의심되는 용의자들에 대한 가혹한 처우를 보고하였다. 그는 영국, 특히 Emma Goldman과 같은 소련 출신의 무정부주의자들의 난민 신청을 지지했다. 무엇보다도 그는 인도의 독립운동에 대한 지지로 유명해졌다.

내각과 귀족

1923년 총선에서 일부 의석에서는 노동당과 야당인 자유당 사이에 암묵적인 공조가 있었고, 뉴캐슬-언더-리메에서는 웨지우드가 무반주로 출마했다. 1922년과 1923년 당 부위원장으로 재선된 웨드우드는 1924년 초 노동당이 첫 정부를 구성할 때 내각의 자리를 기대했다. 언론에서는 그가 해군대신이 될 것이라는 추측과 함께 그가 식민지나 인도의 국무장관이 될 것이라는 기대도 있었다. 시드니 웹은 웨드우드가 무역위원회의 대통령이 되는 것을 선호할 것이라고 믿었고, 기꺼이 그의 편을 들어주었다. 그러나 램지 맥도널드는 처음에 그에게 재무장관의 하급직만을 제공했다. 맥도날드는 어느 정도 압박을 가한 후에 그에게 내각에 자리를 내주었지만, 부서 포트폴리오보다는 랭커스터의 두치 총리라는 확실한 직함을 부여했다. 이 자격으로 그는 정부에서 여러 사실상의 업무를 수행했다. 그 해 말, 그는 아서 헨더슨의 뒤를 이어 최고 산업 위원장으로 임명되었는데, 정부가 산업 활동에 관한 전임자의 정책들 중 일부를 유지하기로 결정함에 따라 노동 운동 내에서 많은 마찰이 발생했기 때문이다. 그는 1924년에 추밀원에 취임했다.

He chaired a Cabinet Committee to contemplate the use of the Emergency Powers Act against strikes in the transport industry. He took a strong line on a number of issues, opposing disarmament and the promise of a loan to the Soviet Union. He was also wary of the state undertaking public works purely for the sake of doing so, without any utilitarian benefit.

After the fall of the government, Wedgwood publicly criticised MacDonald's leadership and Labour's reliance on civil servants. He sat on Labour's front bench in opposition, speaking on, amongst other policy areas, local government, where he encouraged Clement Attlee. He was not offered a position in the second Labour government. In March 1929, he became chairman of the House of Commons Records Committee. He began compiling a history of the Commons, a subject that consumed his interest. He wrote a history of Staffordshire's parliamentary representatives from the thirteenth century to the First World War, and two volumes of biographies of MPs of the 15th century. Wedgwood's work in this area led eventually to the establishment of the History of Parliament Trust. Throughout the 1930s, he continued to speak in the Commons on issues of importance to him, particularly the Single Tax and native resistance to colonialism. In 1930 and 1931 he was made Mayor of Newcastle-under-Lyme after successfully campaigning for the town to remain independent of Stoke-on-Trent.^[7]

From the mid-1930s he was critical of appeasement and of limitations on the migration of Jews to Palestine (1939 White Paper) and of German refugees to Britain and worked tirelessly to help European Jews. The actor Heinz Bernard's life was saved as a result of a parliamentary question^[8] asked by Wedgwood which resulted in his being given a visa to Britain.

In the Second World War, he joined the Home Guard in 1940. In 1941 he toured the United States of America, putting Britain's case against Germany at public meetings. Whilst Wedgwood was in America, Winston Churchill offered him a peerage, inviting him to sit for Labour in the House of Lords. Wedgwood accepted, resigning as MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme after 36 years and becoming Baron Wedgwood, of Barlaston in the County of Stafford on 21 January 1942.^[9] The following year he died in London at age of 71.

Zionism

Wedgwood was impressed by his contact with the Zion Mule Corps in 1915, while serving in World War I, but said that he first became aware of Zionism "as a creed" in 1916 when Dorothy Richardson invited him to address a Zionist meeting.^[10] In October 1926, Wedgwood, a devoted Zionist, visited Palestine and challenged the Mandatory government's policies in his 1928 book The Seventh Dominion, accusing the British administration of hindering the country's social and economic development.^[11]

In 1942 he prefaced the booklet STOP THEM NOW, the first public report printed in English about the non-stop destruction of the Jews in German-occupied territories, in which he says : "The Huns and the Mongols, Tamerlane with his mountains of skulls, all these demons of long ago were patterns of chivalry compared with the pureblooded devils into which Hitler has converted Germans."^[12]

Legacy and commemoration

• Wedgwood Memorial College, a residential college founded in Stoke-on-Trent in 1945 was named after him.^[13]
• Nachal Reuven, a moshav in central Israel, was renamed Gan Yoshiya (Hebrew: גן יאשיה, lit. Josiah's Garden) in his honour.
• The Josiah Wedgwood, a 1946 Aliyah Bet ship (originally the Royal Canadian Navy corvette HMCS Beauharnois) was named after him. The ship was later part of the Israeli Navy as INS Wedgwood (K-18).
• Streets in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa bear his name.^[14]

Arms

Coat of arms of Josiah Wedgwood, 1st Baron Wedgwood

Crest Upon a ducal coronet a lion passant Argent. Escutcheon Gules four mullets in cross; a canton Argent. Supporters On either side a lion double-queued Argent supporting a staff raguly Gules. Motto Obstantia Discindo[15]

See also

• Darwin–Wedgwood family

References

추가 읽기

• 폴 멀비(2010) 요시야 C의 정치 인생. 웨지우드: 토지, 자유 그리고 제국, 1872-1943년-1943년
• J. C. 웨지우드(1940) 격투 생활 회고록(자율생물학)
• C.V. 웨지우드(1951) 라스트 오브 더 레디컬스
• 조슈아 B. 스타인 (1992) 우리의 위대한 사무 변호사: 요시야 C. 웨지우드와 유대인
• 가브리엘라 어퍼시츠(2004) My Royal Gentile: Lord Wedgwood and Other Memories Labson

비아그

비아프 22945636

외부 링크

• Hansard 1803–2005: Josiah Wedgwood의 의회 헌금

영국의 의회
선행자 알프레드 세일 하슬람 경	뉴캐슬-언더-리메 국회의원 1906–1942	성공자 존 데이비드 맥
정치국
선행자 J. C. C. 데이비드슨	랭커스터 두치 재상 1924	성공자 첼우드의 Viscount Cecil
영국의 귀족
새로운 창조	웨드우드 남작 1942–1943	성공자 프랜시스 찰스 보웬 웨드우드