Politicians, etc

Ministers of Transport, Prime Ministers and major landowners sometimes have had a major effect on railway development. This page mainly reflects their malign interference (Dalhousie and Huskisson are honourable exceptions) and will be be mainly activated by publications in journals like Backtrack rather than by biographies official or otherwise.

Barnes, Alfred John
Born on 17 July 1887 in Plaistow, London, the youngest of seven children of William Barnes, a docker and coffee-house keeper, and his wife, Lucinda Margaret Smith. At the age of eight he lost a leg in a fairground accident. He was educated at the Star Road Boys' School, at the Northampton Institute from 1905, and at the London County Council School of Arts and Crafts. After serving his apprenticeship he became a skilled designer and worker in precious metals. He established his own silversmith's business, which he relinquished in 1922 on his election to parliament.
From an early age he sought to improve the living conditions of the people of east London through co-operation and political action. In 1908 he joined the Stratford Co-operative Society and the Independent Labour Party (ILP). Barnes was an industrious and reliable person who gained widespread respect for his integrity which ensured his quick promotion; by 1910 he was secretary of the East London Federation of the ILP. He was elected to the management committee of the Stratford Co-operative Society in 1914 and became its president in 1915. In 1920 he played a major part in the founding of the London Co-operative Society, and served as its first president from 1920 to 1923. On 5 March 1921 Barnes married Leila Phoebe Real (b. 1900/01): there were three daughters of the marriage.
World War I gave Barnes the opportunity to achieve one of his aims—the establishment of a Co-operative [political] Party with representatives at Westminster and on local councils. By 1917 co-operators were in ‘revolt from one end of the country to another’ (A.J. Barnes, The Political Aspects of Co-Operation, 1922, 14) because of the unfair treatment received from the coalition government regarding taxation (of dividends); allocation of supplies; representation on wartime fuel and food committees; and unjust decisions from military tribunals which exempted many owners and managers of small businesses from military service but denied similar concessions to managers of co-operatives. At the 1918 general election the party fielded ten candidates, but only one was elected. He was elected to the Co-operative Party's national committee in 1920, and was its chairman from 1924 to 1945.
At the general election of November 1922 Barnes was elected as MP for East Ham South, one of four Co-operative Labour candidates to be returned to parliament. On the opposition benches at Westminster they were swamped by 138 MPs who were elected on the straight Labour Party ticket. Barnes, the realist, recognized that the situation had changed. Barnes won increasing recognition from his colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party because of his pleasant manner and transparent sincerity. Between his election to the Commons in 1922 and the loss of his seat at East Ham South in the general election of 27 October 1931, he was appointed parliamentary private secretary to William Graham at the exchequer (1922–4), Labour whip (1925–30), and junior lord of the Treasury from 11 June 1929 to 23 October 1930. In the general election of November 1935 Barnes regained his old seat and retained it until his voluntary retirement in 1955. Although he followed the Labour Party line in domestic politics, in the late 1930s co-operative society and party members, led by Barnes and Sydney Elliott, editor of the Co-operative Press Sunday newspaper, Reynolds News, took an independent position. They favoured the creation of an anti-aggression ‘peace pact’ of all peace-loving members of the League of Nations to resist fascist states that violated the sovereignty of other countries. Barnes held no ministerial office during the Second World War, but remained active in the co-operative movement.
Barnes piloted the Transport Bill through parliament, one of the major nationalization projects of the Attlee Labour government. He was appointed minister of war transport on 3 August 1945 and, when the department changed its name, minister of transport in 1946. The aim of the Transport Act, 1947, was to bring inland transport under comprehensive control through the British Transport Commission. This had supervision of the six executives for the six different forms of publicly owned transport, of which the Railway Executive was the most important. Barnes had little difficulty in gaining approval for the nationalization of the railways, as both Lloyd George and Churchill had advocated it as early as 1918. He had less success with his plans for the control of road freight haulage through the Road Haulage Executive.
For the management of the new undertakings established under the Transport Act, 1947, parliament adopted the policies of Herbert Morrison, lord president of the council. These took the form of the ‘corporatism’ exemplified by Morrison's London Passenger Transport Act, 1933, rather than of the ‘mutualism’ (workers' and transport users' participation) advocated by the Co-operative Party. In his Socialisation and Transport (1933) Morrison had urged that members of publicly owned boards should be appointed by the minister responsible ‘primarily on suitable grounds of competence’ as by these means ‘Parliamentary action against a Board would be reduced to the minimum—which is much to be desired’.
After his Transport Bill had passed through all its stages Barnes supported cautious consolidation of the public ownership measures so far achieved. He was one of the members of the cabinet who, on 7 August 1947, favoured the postponement of the introduction of the Steel Bill to the session 1948–9. He knew that the workforce in the steel industry was less committed to public ownership than were those employed in the coalmines or on the railways. On the other hand Barnes's more left-wing colleagues believed that ‘he who controlled the citadel of steel would control shipbuilding, the motor industry—in effect British industry as a whole’. In the event, to placate the left the Iron and Steel Bill, which became law at the end of 1949, was a compromise measure which Barnes loyally supported.
In the general election of 25 October 1951 Barnes retained his seat, but nationally the Conservatives secured a narrow majority and returned to power. The Churchill government rushed through the Transport Act, 1953, which provided for the return to private ownership of the road transport assets of the road haulage executive. The former minister of transport, who held that office for a longer period of time than any of his predecessors, was powerless to prevent the undermining of an important part of his main legislative achievement. He decided to retire from parliament at the end of the 1954–5 session. He died at Walton on the Naze, on 26 November 1974. ODNB entry by Philip S. Bagwell
Arthur Pearson's Man of the rail (p. 114) states that Alfred Barnes never stood out in my [his] mind as a really able Minister of Transport, but for that matter neither did Lennox-Boyd, Boyd-Carpenter or Watkinson, who in turn succeeded him, although one admired the urbanity of Lennox-Boyd and the latent efficiency of Watkinson. When one got to know Alfred Barnes one found he was a simple man. He was interested in slides of scenes in London, and he came to the theatre we had at Euston to see our material. This was typical of his tastes. One thing about him I shall always remember: during his period of office as Minister of Transport he rarely interfered with the day-to-day work of the Commission or the Railway Executive. This Ministerial restraint ended when he gave up the post.
Bonavia The birth of British Rail was highly critical of Bsrnes: "an uninspiring character", but one who was not easily shaken and could be shrewd and quite tough. Bonavia considered that Barnes choice of his choice of people to run the British Transport Commission was poor.

Campbell, Sir Hugh Hume
Born in Edinburgh in 1812; succeeded his father in Baronetcy in 1833. Educated at Trinity College in Cambridge. Member of Parliament for Berwickshire 1834-47. Died in London on 30 January 1894. Assisted construction of Berwickshire Railway by donating land. Buried Polwarth Castle. Nisbet, Alistair F. The Berwickshire Railway. Backtrack, 2011, 25,. 664-70.

Castle, Barbara
Anthony Howard has written a ludicrously unobjective biography of Barbara Castle in the ODNB which utterly fails to appreciate her contributions, good or bad,to transport, but does within its stilted style proffer the basic background of her life. She was born Barbara Anne Betts in Chesterfield on 6 October 1910 the youngest of three children of Frank Betts (1882–1945), tax inspector, and his wife, Annie Rebecca, née Farrand (1883–1990). She was educated at Bradford Girls Grammar School and St. Hugh's College, Oxford where she studied PPE and became involved in politics. In 1944 she married Ted Castle and in 1945 she won the Blackburn seat in the Labour landslide election. Ted Castle—ennobled by Harold Wilson in 1974, as Baron Castle of Islington—died at their home on Boxing day 1979: Barbara refused to use the title Lady Barbara. In 1990 she was made a life peer: Baroness Castle of Blackburn. She died  at 3 May 2002 at her home, Hell Corner Farm, Grays Lane, Ibstone, Buckinghamshire.
She was a fiery politician, but it is too easy to forget the damage to the railway network which was inflicted during her period as Minister of Transport (KPJ).
Geoffrey Skelsey's "Not King Canute...": Barbara Castle and the railways, 1965-8. Backtrack, 2020, 24, 268-75 is an excellent appreciation of Barbara Castle's achievements as Minister of Transport in the Harold Wilson Government which states that Castle's lasting achievements were:

Dalhousie, Marquess of (Ramsay, James Andrew Broun)
Born at Dalhousie Castle, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, on 22 April 1812. Accompanied parents to Canada in 1816 but returned home in 1822, entering Harrow School in 1825. In 1829 he went up to Christ Church, Oxford. In 1837 he was elected MP for East Lothian, but his father's death led him to the Lords as the tenth earl of Dalhousie where he came to the notice of the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, who in 1841 became Conservative prime minister. Dalhousie declined an appointment to the queen's household, but in 1843 his chance came with the offer of the post of vice-president of the Board of Trade when Gladstone became president.
His appointment coincided with the ‘railway mania’ which confronted the Board with a huge workload. Gladstone gave Dalhousie a free hand, allowing him an insight into railway business of great value later when he dealt with schemes in India. In 1845 he succeeded Gladstone as president, and eventually joined the cabinet. If Dalhousie had had his way, he would have subjected the construction and management of railway schemes to the co-ordinating control of government. He failed, however, to win Peel's support and devised instead a mechanism for the close scrutiny of each new scheme before sanction was given. Ellis British railway history notes that Gladstone's Advisory Board (which only had a brief existence) consisted of Lord Dalhousie (Chairman), General Pasley, D.O'Brien, G.R. Porter and Samuel Laing (last two acting as secretaries). The railway companies termed them the 'Five Kings'.
In the following year Dalhousie accepted Russell's offer of the governor-generalship of India in succession to Viscount Hardinge, on the understanding that it would not compromise his political loyalties. A factor in his decision was the insecure financial position he inherited (a debt by now of £48,000): the governor-general commanded a substantial salary. He sailed for India in November 1847 and was sworn as governor-general in Calcutta on 12 January 1848. At thirty-five he was the youngest man to have held the appointment; small and short but well made in stature, with dark brown hair and a rich resonant voice, he had a quiet dignity coupled with a nervous force backed by obvious strength of mind and character.
The changes made in the administration of the law sprang from the same desire for more effective, impartial, and therefore secure rule, for example by bringing Europeans within the jurisdiction of local criminal courts (they already came under local civil courts), although Indian law needed modification to be acceptable to Europeans. Dalhousie undertook some of the most important domestic reforms ever introduced into modern India. Most significant was probably his railway scheme, contained in a seminal minute of 1853 which drew much on his previous British ministerial experience and was heralded by the Friend of India newspaper as ‘the text book for all future Railway projects in India’ (8 Sept 1853). The minute also embodied proposals that had been impossible at home. Dalhousie wished to establish a strategic scheme for the whole country, embracing a rational assessment of political, military, and commercial needs and, while making the most of private capital, reserved the right of the government of India to take over lines after twenty-five or thirty years. He was also careful to decide on only one gauge—of 5 ft 6 in.—after careful weighing of the technical and financial arguments, rather than the standard of 4 ft 8½ in. established after the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. Dalhousie took care to make the best use possible of expert opinion and worked closely with Colonel John Pitt Kennedy, who had been appointed consulting engineer for railways in 1850. In 1853 the first line in India was opened over the 20 miles from Bombay to Thana. In 1855 Dalhousie himself inaugurated the first section of the East Indian Railway from Calcutta to Raniganj. By 1858 there were 400 miles of railway open and another 3600 planned throughout the subcontinent.
Dalhousie supplemented railways with the electric telegraph, which revolutionized the tempo of both commercial and official business. He also established a public works department and colleges of engineering, key agents in development policy, especially of roads and irrigation. Social measures included the initiation of a complete scheme of public education in both English and the vernaculars (framed before Sir Charles Wood's famous Education Despatch of 1854), action against thuggee, suttee, dacoity, and infanticide, concern to improve the lot of Indian women, and reform of prison administration.
All this effort, and it was also a period of considerable unrest and Imperial expansion, led to Dalhousie becoming worn out and on 13 May 1856 he arrived at Spithead having, typically, spent the voyage composing a major review of his Indian administration. Dalhousie travelled to London and, although very ill, received a number of friends at Claridge's, including Gladstone. Dalhousie received a letter of thanks for his services from Queen Victoria, and the directors of the East India Company voted him a pension of £5000 per year. In August he moved north to Arrochar and from there to Edinburgh (Dalhousie Castle being in the hands of builders). His health remained precarious; in December 1856 he wrote, ‘My progress is so slow and my condition such, that there is no probability of my return to public life, under any circumstances, for a long time to come, if ever’. During 1857 his health was further eroded by the news of the mutiny in India; a sea cruise to Malta brought little improvement. In September 1857 he recorded that ‘I can hardly bear to think of the horrible scenes that have been acted’. A year later he was back in Edinburgh and, as the alterations to Dalhousie Castle were by then complete, he took an interest in the running of the estate. India was never far away, however, and the factor on the estate recorded how Dalhousie often talked of the mutiny and considered that, if he had still been in Calcutta, the turmoil would not have happened. Dalhousie's health remained poor, and in 1860 he gave up the duties of lord warden of the Cinque Ports (assumed after the death of the Duke of Wellington in 1852). He died peacefully at home on 19 December 1860 from Bright's disease of the kidney. He was buried next to his wife in the Dalhousie vault in the old churchyard at Cockpen.
Dalhousie was frustrated in developing a political career at home, and India gave him the opportunity to make his mark from a sense of both patriotic duty and ambition for his family tradition. He proved himself a superb, lucid, and indefatigable administrator who was at once a master of detail but also a strategic thinker. He did not set out for India with any preconceived ideas of ‘modernization’, ‘Westernization’, or ‘annexation’. Instead he used his immense skills and energy in a pragmatic way to tackle the fundamental problem of closing the gap between the reality and fragility of company power on the one hand and the expectations vested in it on the other. Based largely on David J. Howlett contribution in  ODNB biography which includes a portrait by Sir John Watson-Gordon, 1847> Jack Simmons also contributed an excellent concise sketch in the Oxford Companion.

George, David Lloyd
Born in Chorlton upon Medlock, Manchester on 17 January 1863. In the honours list of 1 January 1945 it was learned that Wales's great commoner would become Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor. It did not enhance his reputation among his admirers. On 26 March he died of cancer in Ty Newydd. Four days later, in a simple service, he was buried beside the River Dwyfor in Llanystumdwy. A great boulder marks his grave. There is no inscription. Kenneth O. Morgan ODNB. He was undoubtedly a towering politician and greatly noted for his oratory. The ODNB enters him under Gorge rather than Lloyd-George which is the form adopted by Wragg who unlike Morgan notes his stance as a young solicitor against the LNWR for discrimination against its Welsh speaking employees: otherwise Morgan is better on railway matters and far more besides. 

Gladstone, William Ewart
Born on 29 December 1809.into the Scottish commercial community in Liverpool. He died at Hawarden on 19 May 1898. The family accepted the offer of a state funeral and, after Gladstone's body had lain in state for three days in Westminster Hall, he was buried in the statesman's corner of Westminster Abbey on 28 May. ODNB entry by H.C.G. Matthew who is aware of Gladstone's influence on railways..Gladstone is almost certainly the most influential British politician to be positively involved in railway development. Hodgkins, David. Gladstone and railways. J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2007, 35, 501; and 574

Grenfell, Pascoe
Born Marazion, Cornwall, and baptized at St Hilary's Church on 24 September 1761, the son of Pascoe Grenfell of Marazion, merchant and consul to the states of Holland, and his wife, Mary, third child of William Tremenheere, attorney, of Penzance. Educated at Truro grammar school, he was sent, through his father's connections, to learn banking with the firm of Hope Brothers of Amsterdam. He returned to London, entering into business with his father and uncle as merchants and dealers in tin and copper ores. He later became involved with the copper magnate Thomas Williams, acting as his agent on a sales trip to France. Most of information from Edmund Newell ODNB entry.
A close association developed from this involvement with Williams. Grenfell became a shareholder in Williams's enterprises, and by the late 1780s he was running Williams's newly established office in London. Their business relationship was further extended in 1794 when Grenfell went into partnership with Williams's son Owen to buy Cornish ores, primarily to supply Williams's Middle and Upper Bank smelting works in Swansea. Following Thomas Williams's death in 1802 Grenfell and Owen Williams took over these works. Owen Williams withdrew his interest in 1829, which led to the establishment of the family firm of Pascoe Grenfell & Sons, which remained a major copper producer for most of the nineteenth century.
Grenfell's association with Thomas Williams extended into politics. Having purchased Taplow House, Grenfell succeeded Williams as MP for Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, from 14 December 1802 until 29 February 1820. He subsequently served as MP for Penryn, Cornwall from 21 April 1820 to 2 June 1826. In the Commons Grenfell associated himself with the Grenville party and his strong evangelical faith and friendship with William Wilberforce led him to speak against the slave trade. Recognized as an expert on financial matters Grenfell was instrumental in the introduction of the periodical publication of accounts by the Bank of England, of which he was a vigilant observer. He was also governor of the Royal Exchange Assurance Company and a commissioner of the lieutenancy for London.
His activities as an early railway promoter are described in an article (with portrait) by Penny Watts-Russell in J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2011 (210), 34-46. These activities are not mentioned in the ODNB entry.
Grenfell married twice. His first wife, his cousin Charlotte Granville, died in 1790. They had two sons, the younger of whom, Charles Pascoe Grenfell (1790–1867), was born in London on 4 April 1790.  
The second wife of Pascoe Grenfell, whom he married on 15 January 1798, was Georgiana St Leger, seventh and youngest daughter of St Leger St Leger (formerly St Leger Aldworth), first Viscount Doneraile of the second creation. They had two sons, Pascoe St Leger Grenfell (1798–1879) and Riversdale William Grenfell (1807–1871), both of whom were closely involved in Pascoe Grenfell & Sons and became prominent figures in Swansea.
Pascoe Grenfell died at 38 Belgrave Square, London, on 23 January 1838.

Huskisson, William
Huskisson occupies an unfortunate position in railway history being fatally injured on the opening day of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. His death is the subject of an excellent article by George Smith in Backtrack, 2010, 24, 420 which includes illustrations of two of the memorials to hime: one at Parkside (the site of the fatal accident when he was knocked down by the Rocket) and one in Chichester Cathedral. He is also included in the ODNB where A.C. Howe celebrates his life. He is not in the Oxford Companion. He was born on 11 March 1770 and died on 15 September 1830. His life was spent in public service, much of it as a Member of Parliament, latterly for Liverpool. Memorial statues located in and around Liverpool see Backtrack, 2011, 25, 740  See also Simon Garfield's The last journey of William Huskisson.

Leathers, Frederick James
Born in East London on 21 November 1883. Joined the Steamship Owners Coal Association which was eventually taken over by William Cory where he became general manager. Minsister of War Transport under Churchill which recognised his contribution to the management of shipping and was created a peer. Died in Ealing on 19 March 1965.

Majoribanks, David
Born 2 April 1757; changed his name to Robertson on marriage, but subsequently became Baron Majoribanks. Stockbroker and MP for Berwickshire between 1859 and 1873. Lord Lieutenant of County 1860-1873. Assisted construction of Berwickshire Railway by donating land. Buried Polwarth Castle. Nisbet, Alistair F. The Berwickshire Railway. Backtrack, 2011, 25,. 664-70.

Morrison, James
Son of an innkeeper, Morrison was born at Middle Wallop in 1789. He was employed by a London haberdasher, and probably as a result of marrying his employer's daughter became rich and in 1830 became the MP for St. Ives, then Ipswich (1832-7) and Inverness Burghs from 1840-7. He died at Basildon Park, one of several estates owned by him, on 30 October 1857. He invested in American railways, but investigated the finances of British railways: chairing Parliamentary Select Committees which brought him into conflict with Hudson. He established a notable collection of Italian and Dutch old masters and contemporary English paintings and was one of the richest commoners in the nineteenth century according to Charles Jones (ODNB). His railway work is considered by Robert S. Sephton: J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2003, 34, 364 and 467

Peel, [Sir] Robert
Born Bury (presumably Lancs) on 5 February 1788. He died on 2 July 1850 following a riding accident. John Prest ODNB who states nothing on railways other than Peel's fear of railway building in Ireland (he had a great hatred of the Irish and of Catholics). Wragg (Historical dictionary) notes that he was instrumental in fanning the Railway Mania by getting rid of Dalhousie's board.

Wharncliffe, Lord
James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie was born on 1 November 1776 and sat as an MP until created Baron Wharncliffe. He died on 19 December 1845. He introduced legislation to protect railway shareholders and was influentail in supporting the Great Western Railway Bill. See Fenwick and Bloomfield J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc.,  2008 (203), 179. ODNB entry by by G. Le G. Norgate, revised H.C.G. Matthew makes no mention of railway activity but notes his becoming a Catholic and his Scottish origins. His son John Stuart Wortley was Chairman of the GIPR..