Clement Attlee

Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was a British statesman and Labour Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. Attlee served as Deputy Prime Minister during the wartime coalition government under Winston Churchill, and Leader of the Opposition twice from 1935 to 1940 and from 1951 to 1955. He remains the longest serving Labour leader.

Quick Facts Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Monarch ...

The Right Honourable The Earl Attlee KG OM CH PC FRS
Portrait c. 1945
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 26 July 1945 – 26 October 1951
Monarch	George VI
Deputy	Herbert Morrison
Preceded by	Winston Churchill
Succeeded by	Winston Churchill
Leader of the Opposition
In office 26 October 1951 – 25 November 1955
Monarchs	George VI Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill Anthony Eden
Preceded by	Winston Churchill
Succeeded by	Herbert Morrison
In office 25 October 1935 – 11 May 1940
Monarchs	George V Edward VIII George VI
Prime Minister	Stanley Baldwin Neville Chamberlain
Preceded by	George Lansbury
Succeeded by	Hastings Lees-Smith
Leader of the Labour Party
In office 25 October 1935 – 7 December 1955
Deputy	Arthur Greenwood Herbert Morrison
Preceded by	George Lansbury
Succeeded by	Hugh Gaitskell
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
In office 25 October 1932 – 25 October 1935
Leader	George Lansbury
Preceded by	J. R. Clynes
Succeeded by	Arthur Greenwood
Wartime ministerial offices Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom De facto 19 February 1942 – 23 May 1945 Prime Minister Winston Churchill Preceded by Office established Succeeded by Herbert Morrison (de facto) Lord President of the Council In office 28 September 1943 – 23 May 1945 Prime Minister Winston Churchill Preceded by Sir John Anderson Succeeded by The Lord Woolton Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs In office 15 February 1942 – 24 September 1943 Prime Minister Winston Churchill Preceded by Viscount Cranborne Succeeded by Viscount Cranborne Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal In office 12 May 1940 – 15 February 1942 Prime Minister Winston Churchill Preceded by Kingsley Wood Succeeded by Stafford Cripps
Interwar ministerial offices Postmaster General In office 13 March 1931 – 25 August 1931 Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald Preceded by Hastings Lees-Smith Succeeded by William Ormsby-Gore Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster In office 23 May 1930 – 13 March 1931 Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald Preceded by Oswald Mosley Succeeded by The Lord Ponsonby Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War In office 23 January 1924 – 4 November 1924 Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald Preceded by Wilfrid Ashley Succeeded by Richard Onslow
Parliamentary offices Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Hereditary peerage 25 January 1956 – 8 October 1967 Preceded by Earldom created Succeeded by The 2nd Earl Attlee Member of Parliament for Walthamstow West In office 23 February 1950 – 16 December 1955 Preceded by Valentine McEntee Succeeded by Edward Redhead Member of Parliament for Limehouse In office 15 November 1922 – 3 February 1950 Preceded by William Pearce Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	Clement Richard Attlee (1883-01-03)3 January 1883 Putney, England
Died	8 October 1967(1967-10-08) (aged 84) London, England
Resting place	Westminster Abbey
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Violet Millar ​ ​ (m. 1922; died 1964)​
Children	4, including Martin, 2nd Earl Attlee
Education	University College, Oxford
Occupation	Politician Barrister Lecturer Social worker Soldier
Signature
Military service
Branch/service	British Army
Years of service	1914–1919
Rank	Major
Unit	South Lancashire Regiment Tank Corps
Battles/wars	First World War Gallipoli campaign Mesopotamian campaign Western Front
Awards	1914–15 Star British War Medal Victory Medal

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Attlee was born into an upper-middle-class family, the son of a wealthy London solicitor, Henry Atlee. After attending Haileybury College and the University of Oxford, he practised as a barrister. The volunteer work he carried out in London's East End exposed him to poverty, and his political views shifted leftwards thereafter. He joined the Independent Labour Party, gave up his legal career, and began lecturing at the London School of Economics; with his work briefly interrupted by service in the First World War. In 1919, he became mayor of Stepney and in 1922 was elected as the Member for Limehouse. Attlee served in the first Labour minority government led by Ramsay MacDonald in 1924, and then joined the Cabinet during MacDonald's second minority (1929–1931). After retaining his seat in Labour's landslide defeat of 1931, he became the party's Deputy Leader. Elected Leader of the Labour Party in 1935, and at first advocating pacificism and opposing re-armament, he became a critic of Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement in the lead-up to the Second World War. Attlee took Labour into the wartime coalition government in 1940 and served under Winston Churchill, initially as Lord Privy Seal and then as Deputy Prime Minister from 1942.^{[note 1]}

The Labour Party, led by Attlee, won a landslide victory in the 1945 general election, on their post-war recovery platform.^{[note 2]} They inherited a country close to bankruptcy following the Second World War and beset by food, housing and resource shortages. Attlee led the construction of the first Labour majority government, which aimed to maintain full employment, a mixed economy and a greatly enlarged system of social services provided by the state. To this end, it undertook the nationalisation of public utilities and major industries, and implemented wide-ranging social reforms, including the passing of the National Insurance Act 1946 and National Assistance Act 1948, the formation of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, and the enlargement of public subsidies for council house building. His government also reformed trade union legislation, working practices and children's services; it created the National Parks system, passed the New Towns Act 1946 and established the town and country planning system. From 1945 to 1948, over 200 public Acts of Parliament were passed, with eight major pieces of legislation placed on the statute book in 1946 alone.^[1]

Attlee's foreign policy focused on decolonization efforts, including the partition of India (1947), the independence of Burma and Ceylon, and the dissolution of the British mandates of Palestine and Transjordan. Attlee and Bevin encouraged the United States to take a vigorous role in the Cold War. He supported the Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe with American money and, in 1949, promoted the NATO military alliance against the Soviet bloc. After leading Labour to a narrow victory at the 1950 general election, he sent British troops to fight alongside South Korea in the Korean War.^{[note 3]}

Despite his social reforms and economic programme food, housing and resource shortages persisted throughout his premiership, alongside recurrent currency crises and dependence on US aid. His party was narrowly defeated by the Conservatives in the 1951 general election, despite winning the most votes. He continued as Labour leader but retired after losing the 1955 election and was elevated to the House of Lords, where he served until his death in 1967.

In public, he was modest and unassuming, but behind the scenes his depth of knowledge, quiet demeanour, objectivity and pragmatism proved decisive.^[2] He is often ranked as one of the greatest British prime ministers. In 2004, he was voted the most successful British prime minister of the 20th century by a poll of 139 academics.^[3] The majority of those responses singled out the Attlee government's welfare state reforms and the creation of the NHS as the key 20th century domestic policy achievements. He is also commended for continuing the 'Special Relationship' with the US and active involvement in NATO.