Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, known as Lord Irwin from 1926 until 1934, (1881-1959) was a British conservative politician. He is often regarded as one of the architects of appeasement prior to World War II.
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2 Viceroy of India 3 Halifax and Appeasement 4 Ambassador to the United States and Later Life 5 Further Reading |
Born into a rather sickly west country family, Halifax's three older brothers all
died in infancy leaving him the heir to his father's viscountcy. Halifax himself
was born with a withered left arm with no hand, a seeming disability that in
no way affected his riding, hunting or shooting. He was nicknamed the Holy Fox
by Winston Churchill in reference to these pursuits and also his extreme religiosity.
Halifax was first elected MP for Ripon in 1910, a position he held until elevated to the peerage in 1925. As a young officer in the Yorkshire Dragoons he saw some active service in World War I but remained mostly behind the lines, being moved to a desk job in 1917.
Turned down by South Africa for the post of governor general (the country was holding out for a cabinet minister or member of the royal family) and snubbed by Winston Churchill on his assumption of the post of Undersecretary
for the Colonies, a balked Halifax voted for the downfall of David Lloyd George's government and became President of the Board of Education under Andrew Bonar Law in 1922. He held this position (in which he was neither interested nor particularly effective) until 1924 when he was apparently equally undistinguished as Minister for Agriculture under Stanley Baldwin.
Halifax was rescued from the mediocrity into which his career had become
seemingly mired by his appointment as Governor General and Viceroy of India
in 1925 at the suggestion of George V no doubt mindful of his immediate
family background (his grandfather had been secretary of state for India)
and immaculate pedigree. He arrived in Bombay 1 April 1926 hoping to
improve Anglo-Indian relations and calm interfaith tensions in the country.
However the exclusion of Indians from a commission examining the country's
readiness for self-government provoked serious violence and Halifax was
forced into concessions which were poorly received in London as excessive
and in India as half-hearted. The criticism was largely unfair but Halifax
had made an error and the consequences were severe, unrest grew and
Halifax's attempts to mediate with prominent Indian leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi were stymied by London's refusal to concede or clarify the position
of dominion status. With little room for manoeuvre Halifax resorted to
repression using his emergency powers to arrest Gandhi, ban public gatherings
and crush rebellious opposition. But Gandhi's detention only made matters
worse and Halifax ultimately opted to negotiate signing the Delhi Pact in
January 1931 which ended civil disobedience and the boycott of British goods
in exchange for a Round Table conference which represented all interests.
On Halifax's return to England in April 1931 the situation was calm, though
within a year the conference collapsed and Gandhi was rearrested.
The same year Halifax turned down the position of Foreign Secretary in favour
of some time at home but inexplicably followed this up with a return to
Education in 1932, a position enlivened only by his continuing (now backroom) role in Indian politics and law, his attainment of the position of Master of the Middleton Hunt in 1932 and his election as Chancellor of Oxford University in 1933. In the period that followed he held a succession of government posts - Secretary of State for War for five months in 1935, Lord Privy Seal (1935-1937) and Lord President of the Council (1937-1938) under Baldwin and, after 1937, Neville Chamberlain.
The appointment of Anthony Eden as foreign secretary in 1935 seemed initially to tie in well with Halifax's feelings about the direction of foreign policy over which he increasingly began to advise. The two were in agreement (and in line with prevailing opinion throughout Britain) that Germany's reoccupation of the Rhineland - it's "own backyard" - constituted no serious threat and should be welcomed in so far as it continued Germany's seeming progress towards returning to normality after the tribulations of the post-World War I settlement. However, after Chamberlain succeeded Baldwin in 1937, the new prime minister began increasingly to use back channels - including Halifax himself - for foreign diplomacy.
In November 1937 Halifax went to Germany at the invitation of Hermann Göring. The pretext was a hunting exhibition but Halifax was given strict instructions from the foreign office in preparation for a meeting with Adolf Hitler. On meeting the Führer Halifax almost created an international incident by almost handing his coat to the diminutive dictator believing him to be a footman. In subsequent discussions Halifax ignored Eden's directive to pass on warnings against possible German designs on Austria and Czechoslovakia. He was also forced to listen politely to Hitler's hair-raising advice on how he should have handled difficulties in India and the meetings were generally uncomfortable.
The following year Eden resigned exasperated by the continued interference
of the Prime Minister in foreign affairs and his persistence - with Halifax -
in appeasement, particularly that of Benito Mussolini, whom Eden regarded as an untrustworthy gangster. Halifax got his job in February 1938. Three weeks later Hitler annexed Austria; Czechoslavakia was now seriously at risk.
It is Halifax's handling of this crisis that usually gains him the most criticism. British foreign policy was predicated on the notion that the
dictators in Europe were essentially honourable, reasonable and were disinclined to general warfare throghout the continent. All three of these posits turned out to be false. The main result of this severe error of judgement was the loss of Czechoslavakia, its industry and military to the Reich without a shot being fired. Halifax had severe doubts during the lead up to the complete occupation in March 1939 but he made little effort to alter
British policy fearing Britain's military unpreparedness to meet the Nazi
threat and allowed himself to be sidelined as Chamberlain attended fruitless
conferences in Germany (Berchtesgaden, Godesberg and Munich) without him.
From here things stumbled from bad to worse. Halifax failed to realise how
close relations had become between Moscow and Berlin until it was too late. Italy invaded Albania and on 1 September 1939 Halifax had to watch as the international order he had sought to preserve fell to bits as Hitler invaded Poland. Chamberlain's mishandling of the peace and his equally feckless handling of what is usually called the Phony War led to his
departure from 10 Downing Street. Halifax was a relatively popular candidate for the post of Prime Minister, but hurriedly ruled himself out, fearing he was not up to the challenge.
Winston Churchill maintained him as foreign minister for about nine months
to present the Conservative Party as a unified front but the two men did
not enjoy a particularly close relationship and Halifax soon found himself
packed off to Washington - a common recourse of Churchill with men he
suspected might be able but with whom he did not get on. Halifax did not at first appear a particularly deft diplomat and made a number of widely publicised gaffes including some poorly received jokes about baseball. To the American public he came across as the distant, out of touch British aristocrat that arguably he was. Gradually relations improved, particularly with President Roosevelt, but Halifax was always going to be on the margins in America because of Winston Churchill's tight personal control of contact with the United States. Once again Halifax was sidelined by his own prime minister and he was often excluded from sensitive discussions. Now an old man and mourning the death of his middle son in combat in 1942, Halifax wearied of Washington and asked Anthony Eden to have him replaced but ultimately he stuck out the position under both Harry Truman and Clement Attlee back in Britain. The appointment continued to be dogged by failure however as the Americans abruply cancelled lend-lease, upon which the British economy depended and the subsequent loan negotiations were fraught
and unsatisfying to the UK.
More successfully he took part in a plethora of international conferences
over the UN and Russia (memorably describing Molotov, the Russian foreign minister as "smiling granite") though here again he believed that
Churchill's view of the Russian threat was exaggerated and urged him to
be more conciliatory perhaps indicating the reluctance to learn the lessons
of the 1930's so obvious in his 1957 autobiography The Fulness of Days, a book politely dubbed "gently evasive".
In retirement from 1946 he returned to largely honorary pursuits as Chancellor of Sheffield University and the Order of the Garter and Chairman of the BBC. He died at his estate at Garrowby shortly before Christmas 1959.
Lord Halifax features in the novel The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro and also the 1993 film of the same name in which he is portrayed by the actor Peter Eyre.
The Holy Fox: The Life of Lord Halifax by Andrew Roberts
Early Career
Viceroy of India
Halifax and Appeasement
Ambassador to the United States and Later Life
Further Reading
| Preceded by: H.A.L. Fisher | President of the Board of Education 1922-1924 | Followed by: Charles Philips Trevelyan |
| Preceded by: Noel Buxton | Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries 1924-1925 | Followed by: '''Walter Guinness |
| Preceded by: The Earl of Reading | Viceroy of India 1926-1929 | Followed by: The Earl of Willingdon |
| Preceded by: Sir Donald Maclean | President of the Board of Education 1932-1935 | Followed by: Oliver Stanley |
| Preceded by: The Viscount Hailsham | Secretary of State for War 1935 | Followed by: Duff Cooper |
| Preceded by: The Marquess of Londonderry | Lord Privy Seal 1935-1937 | Followed by: The Earl De La Warr |
| Preceded by: Ramsay Macdonald | Lord President of the Council 1937-1938 | Followed by: The Viscount Hailsham |
| Preceded by: Anthony Eden | Foreign Secretary 1938-1940 | Followed by: Anthony Eden |
| Preceded by: New Creation | Earl of Halifax | Followed by: Charles Wood |
| Preceded by: Charles Wood | Viscount Halifax |