Baldwin (of Bewdley), Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl 1867-1947
English Conservative politician and Prime Minister

Born in Bewdley, Worcestershire, he was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, and became vice-chairman of the family iron and steel business. An MP in 1906, he became president of the Board of Trade (1921), and he unexpectedly succeeded Bonar Law as premier in 1923, being preferred to George Curzon. Shortly afterwards he brought down the Liberal coalition with a speech that revealed his distrust of David Lloyd-George, despite criticism of his handling, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, of the US debt. His period of office included the General Strike (1926) and was interrupted by the Ramsay MacDonald Coalition (1931-35), in which he served as Lord President of the Council. He skilfully avoided a party split by his India Act (1935), but his disavowal of the Hoare-Laval pact ceding Ethiopian territory to Italy, and the policy of non-intervention in Spain (1936) came to be regarded as betrayals of the League of Nations. He was noted for his reluctance to re-arm Great Britain's defences and for his tact and resolution during the constitutional crisis culminating in Edward VIII's abdication (1936). Criticism of his failure to recognize the threat from Nazi Germany brought his resignation in 1937. Although Baldwin's competence as an international politician is questionable, he was one of the party's best-ever electoral assets, with a combination of patriotism, social consciousness, and readiness always to govern by consensus.