1942

Stafford Cripps (1889-1952), the son of a Conservative politician, made a career in the law before being drawn into the Labour party in 1929. Appointed solicitor-general in the new Labour government in 1930, he was elected for a safe seat the following year. He refused to serve in the national government, however, and moved well to the left. After war broke out he was determined to undertake a useful role in the struggle against fascism, and eventually was despatched by the Churchill government as ambassador to the Soviet Union - although he remained a Member of Parliament. He returned to London in 1942 with his reputation enhanced; Churchill appointed him Leader of the House of Commons on his return, with a place in the war cabinet. Cripps spent most of his energies on discussing the post-war settlement of India, and he resigned before the end of the year. President of the Board of Trade, then chancellor of the exchequer in Attlee's post-war Labour government, he resigned in 1950 because of the illness which killed him two years later.