Emanuel Shinwell

Information about Emanuel Shinwell

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Rt. Hon. Manny Shinwell


Emanuel Shinwell, Baron Shinwell CH, PC (October 18, 1884 - May 8, 1986) (familiarly known as Manny) was born in London, but moved with his Polish-Jewish family to Scotland. He was a trade union official and Labour politician and was one of the leading figures of Red Clydeside.

Early career and trade union activities

Shinwell began his working life as a machinist in a clothing workshop. In 1903 he became active in the Amalgamated Union of Clothing Operatives, and joined the Glasgow Trades Council in 1906 as a delegate of that union.

In May 1911, he was seconded to help organise the seamen of Glasgow at the request of J. Havelock Wilson of the National Sailors' and Firemen's Union (NSFU). He played a prominent role in the six-week Glasgow seamen's strike which began on 14 June and which was part of a nation-wide strike movement. He subsequently became the secretary of the Glasgow branch of the NSFU. In August 1912, he participated in a revolt against the union, which resulted in the Glasgow branch becoming part of the Southampton-based British Seafarers' Union (BSU). He was the local secretary of the BSU until it became part of the Amalgamated Marine Workers' Union (AMWU) in 1922, after which he served as National Organiser of the new organisation.

In 1919, he gained national notoriety through his involvement in the Glasgow 40 Hours' Movement. This movement culminated in clashes between police and protesters in Glasgow's George Square. He was afterwards tried for incitement to riot and was sentenced to five months' imprisonment.

Political career

An Independent Labour Party (ILP) member, he became a Member of Parliament for Linlithgow in 1922. He lost his seat in 1924, but was re-elected for Linlithgow in 1928. In 1929 Ramsay MacDonald appointed him Financial Secretary to the War Office: Cowling says that MacDonald believed he had rescued Shinwell's ministerial career when no minister would take him. From 1930 Shinwell served as Secretary for Mines, an office he had previously held in 1924. He became a critic of Ramsay MacDonald's National Government, and in 1931 he again lost his seat. He returned to the Commons in 1935 for Seaham, County Durham, (after defeating MacDonald) whereafter he campaigned vigorously, along with left-wingers such as Aneurin Bevan for the United Kingdom to support the Popular Front government in Spain against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. In May 1940 he refused a position in Winston Churchill's National Coalition Government in the Ministry for Food. He became chairman of the Labour Party in 1942.

He served in Clement Attlee's government after the Labour victory in 1945. As Minister of Fuel and Power, he presided over the nationalisation of the mining industry. His decision to mine the grounds of Wentworth Woodhouse, home of the former mine owners, the Earls Fitzwilliam, was severely criticised, including by the miners themselves (who went on strike in an attempt to prevent it), and was perceived as an act of revenge. In 1947, Britain experienced a severe coal shortage. He was widely criticised for his failure to avert this crisis. Shortly afterwards he took up the position of Secretary of State for War which he held until 1950. His seat became Easington in 1950, at which point he became Minister of Defence. Towards the end of his Commons career, he served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party 1964-67.

Shinwell was made Baron Shinwell, of Easington in the County of Durham in 1970 and died in 1986, having become the longest-lived British politician on January 1 (and the longest lived peer on the 26 March) of that year.

Shinwell's son, Ernest, was for a short period a business associate of the Kray twins.

Bibliography

Shinwell wrote three volumes of autobiography:
  • Conflict Without Malice (1955)
  • I've Lived Through it All (1973)
  • Lead With the Left (1981)
Shinwell Wrote "When The Men Come Home" (1944)
  • Cowling, Maurice, The Impact of Hitler - British Policies and Policy 1933-1940, Cambridge University Press, 1975, p.416, ISBN 0-521-20582-4
Parliament of the United Kingdom (1801–present)
Preceded by
James Kidd		Member of Parliament for Linlithgow
1922–1924		Succeeded by
James Kidd
Preceded by
James Kidd		Member of Parliament for Linlithgow
1928–1931		Succeeded by
Adrian William Maxwell Baillie
Preceded by
Ramsay Macdonald		Member of Parliament for Seaham
1935–1950		Succeeded by
constituency abolished
Preceded by
new constituency		Member of Parliament for Easington
1950–1970		Succeeded by
Jack Dormand
Preceded by
Winston Churchill		Oldest sitting member
(nb not Father of the House)
1964 - 1970		Succeeded by
S. O. Davies
Political offices
Preceded by
George Lane-Fox		Secretary for Mines
1924		Succeeded by
George Lane-Fox
Preceded by
Alfred Duff Cooper		Financial Secretary to the War Office
1929–1930		Succeeded by
William Sanders
Preceded by
Ben Turner		Secretary for Mines
1930		Succeeded by
Isaac Foot
Preceded by
Philip Noel-Baker		Chair of the Labour Party
1947–1948		Succeeded by
Jim Griffiths
Preceded by
Frederick Bellenger		Secretary of State for War
1947–1950		Succeeded by
John Strachey
Preceded by
A. V. Alexander		Minister of Defence
1950–1951		Succeeded by
Winston Churchill
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Joseph Havelock Wilson (16 August 1858? – 16 April 1929) was a trade union leader, Liberal Party politician, and campaigner for the rights of merchant seamen.
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The Amalgamated Marine Workers' Union was a trade union of sailors, firemen and ship-board service personnel which existed in the United Kingdom between 1922 and 1926.
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Red Clydeside is a term used to describe the era of political radicalism that characterised the city of Glasgow in Scotland, and urban areas around the city on the banks of the River Clyde such as Clydebank, Greenock and Paisley.
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Date Name
5 August 1870 John Cranch Walker Vivian
15 November 1871 Henry Campbell-Bannerman
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