Arthur Samuel, 1st Baron Mancroft explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Lord Mancroft
Office1:Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee
Term Start1:1929
Term End1:1931
Predecessor1:William Graham
Successor1:Morgan Jones
Office2:Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Primeminister2:Stanley Baldwin
Term Start2:1 November 1927
Term End2:5 June 1929
Predecessor2:Ronald McNeill
Successor2:Frederick Pethick-Lawrence
Office3:Secretary for Overseas Trade
Primeminister3:Stanley Baldwin
Term Start3:4 November 1924
Term End3:1 November 1927
Predecessor3:William Lunn
Successor3:Douglas Hacking
Office14:Member of Parliament
for Farnham
Term Start14:14 December 1918
Term End14:23 March 1937
Predecessor14:Constituency created
Successor14:Godfrey Nicholson
Office13:Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Term Start13:23 December 1937
Term End13:17 August 1942
Hereditary peerage
Predecessor13:Peerage created
Successor13:The 2nd Baron Mancroft
Birth Name:Arthur Michael Samuel
Birth Date:1872 12, df=y
Birth Place:Norwich, England
Death Place:Uckfield, England
Party:Conservative
Education:Norwich School

Arthur Michael Samuel, 1st Baron Mancroft (6 December 1872 – 17 August 1942) was a British Conservative politician.

Background

Born in Norwich,[1] Lord Mancroft was the eldest son of Benjamin Samuel, of Norwich (19 April 1840 – 16 April 1890), and Rosetta Haldinstein (died 29 April 1907, daughter of Philip Haldinstein and wife Rachel Soman), and grandson of Michael Samuel (1799–1857), all of them were Ashkenazi Jews.

Early life

He was educated at Norwich School.[2] He was Lord Mayor of Norwich from 1912 to 1913. He was the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Norwich [3] and was made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Norwich in 1928.

Member of Parliament

in the two General elections of 1910 he stood for the Conservatives in the Stretford division of Lancashire, near Manchester, but was unsuccessful on both occasions. In 1918 he was elected as member of parliament (MP) for Farnham, a seat he would hold until 1937, and served under Stanley Baldwin as Secretary for Overseas Trade from 1924 to 1927 and as Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1927 to 1929. He was also chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons in 1930 and 1931. Samuel was created a Baronet, of Mancroft, in the City of Norwich in the County of Norfolk, on 15 January 1932, and on 23 December 1937, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Mancroft, of Mancroft (referring to the area around St Peter Mancroft church) in the City of Norwich.

Family

Lord Mancroft married Phoebe Fletcher, daughter of George Alfred Chune Fletcher and wife, in 1912. He died in Uckfield[4] on 17 August 1942,[5] aged 69, and was succeeded in the baronetcy and the barony by his son Stormont Mancroft, 2nd Baron Mancroft. He was also to become a Conservative government minister.

The papers of Lord Mancroft are in the Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.[6]

Author

He published: "Life of Giovanni Battista Piranesi"; "The Working of the Bill of Exchange with an Explanation of the Overseas Trade Balance"; "The Herring: its Effect on the History of Britain"; and "The Mancroft Essays".[7]

Arms

Escutcheon:Gules a chevron chequy Argent and Sable between in chief two portcullises chained Or and in base a representation of Farnham Castle triple towered Or on a chief Or a lion passant guardant Sable.
Crest:In front of a representation of Norwich Castle with three cupolas issuant from each a staff Proper flying therefrom a banner Argent charged with a cross Gules a sword sheathed Gules garnished Or pommelled and hilted Or and a mace Gold in saltire (i.e. a representation of the ancient Crystal Mace and the Sword in the Regalia of the Corporation of the City of Norwich).
Supporters:On either side a whiffler of the Corporation of the City of Norwich Proper.[8]
Motto:COURAGE, PATIENCE

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Index entry. 17 April 2023. FreeBMD. ONS.
  2. Who's Who 1938, page 2220
  3. Web site: [//jewishlivesproject.com/profiles/arthur-samuel Public Service ]. Jewish Lives Project . 3 January 2022.
  4. Web site: Index entry. 17 April 2023. FreeBMD. ONS.
  5. Web site: Mr Arthur Samuel (Hansard). 2023-04-17. api.parliament.uk.
  6. Web site: The Papers of 1st Baron Mancroft. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20211004225338/https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1723 . 4 October 2021 . 5 November 2021. Archivesearch.
  7. Web site: The Papers of 1st Baron Mancroft . rchives centre . University of ambridge . 1 January 2022.
  8. Book: Debrett's Peerage . 2019 . 3534.