The British Imperial Establishment, Post Imperial Era, and the ‘Churchillian’ World View, 1945-2016. (Adjustments & Challenges in Contemporary British Diplomatic Strategy)

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APPENDIX

Brief studies of the
leading personalities
of the British Political Elite 1945-63 involved

with decolonisation policy (and
its wider implications)

1. Labour Parts

Attlee. Clement R. Prime Minister 1945-51.

Clement
Attlee entered legal chambers after Oxford University, but in
1905 became involved in the Haileybury
boys’ club in Stepney. In 1907 he
became its resident manager. Toynbee Hall Settlement was another
institution
where Attlee served for a time as a secretary. Attlee’s years in the East End of
London
changed him to a socialist. He joined the Fabian Society in 1907,
however he thought it was too middle class
in terms of attitudes. By 1908 he was
a member of the Stepney branch of the Independent Labour Party, and
after a
time became its secretary. In 1922 Attlee was elected as a Labour M.P. for
Limehouse. In Ramsay
Macdonald’s first Government in 1923-24 he became
Under-Secretary for War. His appointment as Labour
member of the Simon
Commission to India provided him with the self-confidence required for his
Indian
initiative twenty years later.

Attlee
proved an efficient Leader of the Opposition, between 1935-1940.
He held the Party together. In 1945 having
served in the War Cabinet, he
eventually became the firm and decisive Chairman of a Cabinet that
carried
through a social revolution without violence or repression. From the
nationalisation of
hospitals to recognition of Communist China, Attlee
instinctively belonged to the radical camp. He held
together an extraordinary
team of powerful personalities, as well as his party and the Labour
movement,

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