Charles Breese (politician)

Charles Edward Breese (26 March 1867 – 15 August 1932) was a Welsh solicitor, antiquarian and Liberal politician. He was Major during World War I and became Parliamentary Private Secretary to H. A. L. Fisher, the President of the Board of Education.

Family

Breese was the son of Edward Breese (1835–1881), lawyer and antiquary, who published Kalendars of Gwynedd, a complete record of the high officers (sheriffs, MPs etc.) of the counties of Anglesey, Caernarvonshire, and Merionethshire.[1] Edward Breese was David Lloyd George's first employer when Lloyd George became a solicitor in Portmadoc, later Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.[2] Edward Breese was Liberal Party agent for Merioneth and South Caernarvonshire[3] and involved Lloyd George in campaigning and canvassing for the Liberal Party in elections after 1880.[4] In 1894 Charles Breese married Janet, daughter of the Reverend Paul Methuen Stedman.[5] Breese was a devout Anglican by religion, even though he went on to represent a strongly nonconformist seat in Parliament.[6] He was also a prominent Freemason.[7]

Career

Charles Breese was admitted as a solicitor in 1889 and, like Lloyd George, worked in the firm of Breese, Jones and Casson in Portmadoc, the practice founded by his father's uncle David Williams, Liberal MP for Merioneth from 1868 to 1869. Breese's cousin Sir Osmond Williams was also Liberal MP for Merioneth from 1900 to 1910. Breese served in the Volunteers and during the First World War, he fought in the European theatre, reaching the rank of Major.[5] Like his father, he was deeply interested in antiquarianism, archaeology and heraldry. He was chairman of the executive committee of the Cambrian Archaeological Association and was one of its vice-presidents in 1930.[1]

Politics

Liberal politics

Breese was drawn into Liberal politics through his strong family association with Liberalism in North Wales. In addition to the Williams connection, there was Breese's father's involvement in Merioneth and South Caernarvonshire.[8] Breese served on the Caernarvonshire County Council and was made an Alderman of the county.[1] He was also sometime secretary of the Welsh National Liberal Council.[9]

Caernarvonshire, 1918

Given the connection between the Breese family and David Lloyd George it is not surprising that Breese was selected as Coalition Liberal Parliamentary candidate for the constituency of Caernarvonshire for the 1918 general election. Caernarvonshire was a new constituency being made up from the merger between two pre-war seats Arfon and Eifion. The former MP for Eifion, Ellis William Davies was a supporter of H H Asquith and strongly opposed to Lloyd George. He tried to manoeuvre his succession to the new Caernarvonshire seat by quickly setting up a combined Arfon and Eifion Liberal Association and packing it with his own supporters to secure the nomination. Many of the local Liberal Clubs refused to acknowledge Ellis' nomination by this route however and chose their own delegates who convened a new adoption process. The three candidates for the nomination were Breese, Ellis Davies and R. T. Jones, the general secretary of the North Wales Quarrymen's Union who was actually the Labour candidate. Breese won the contest and went on to face both men in the general election itself, Jones standing as an Independent Labour candidate and Ellis Davies as a Liberal but in support of the Asquithian party.[10] Breese no doubt received the Coalition Coupon as he stood as a Coalition Liberal and he faced no Conservative Party opposition. He won the election gaining 10,488 votes to Jones' 8,145 with Davies third on 4,937.[11]

1918-1922

In 1921 Breese was appointed by the Minister of Pensions, Ian Macpherson to serve on the Pensions Advisory Committee set up to decide on the final awards to be made to applicants under the War Pensions Act, 1921[12] The following year, he was appointed PPS to HAL Fisher the President of the Board of Education.[13]

At the 1922 general election Breese stood in Caernarvonshire as a Lloyd George National Liberal. He again faced no Tory opponent and this time the Independent Liberals did not put up a candidate. However, in a straight fight with R T Jones for Labour he lost by 14,016 votes to 12,407.[14] He did not stand for Parliament again.

Death

Breese died from heart failure while grouse shooting on Arenig Mountain near Bala on 15 August 1932, aged 65 years.[7] His daughter Beatrice married Lt. Col. John Corbet Yale of the Yale family, parents of Queen's Counsel David Yale.[15]

Works

Breese wrote two books on Welsh political subjects.

  • Welsh Religious Equality: being arguments in favour of disestablishment and disendowment of the Church of England in Wales, D Lloyd, Portmadoc, 1892
  • Welsh Nationality; Welsh National Press, Caernarfon, 1895

Papers

Breese's papers are deposited in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. The collection consists of his own papers and others acquired by him covering the period 1771–1932, including rentals and accounts for the Brithdir area, Merionethshire, 1802–1848; papers relating to the War Agricultural Committee, 1916; materials relating to Kalendars of Gwynedd, 1872–1873, which was written by his father Edward Breese; papers relating to Crown and Common lands in Wales, 1909–1920; correspondence and notes addressed to Charles E. Breese in his capacity as MP for Caernarvonshire, and correspondence submitted to him for reference, 1912–1923; miscellaneous letters, mostly addressed to Charles E. Breese, 1887–1932; correspondence from G. Rutter Fletcher to Robert Isaac Jones ('Alltud Eifion'), 1835–1905, relating to the pedigree of the Rutter family, with a copy of the pedigree; newspaper cuttings, containing articles of Welsh interest, such as Disestablishment of the Church in Wales, Crown lands in Wales etc., 1909–1920; and miscellaneous papers, 1858–1932; together with maps and prints, etc., 1771–1932.[16]

References
  1. "Breese, Edward (1835-1881), antiquary". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales.
  2. M Kinnear, The Fall of Lloyd George:The Political Crisis of 1922; University of Toronto Press, 1973 p193
  3. Frank Owen, Tempestuous Journey: Lloyd George, His Life and Times; Hutchinson, 1954 p34
  4. Peter Rowlands, David Lloyd George; Macmillan, 1976 p24
  5. Who was Who, OUP 2007
  6. Kinnear, The Fall of Lloyd George; p184
  7. The Times, 17 August 1932 p12
  8. Emyr Price, David Lloyd George; University of Wales Press, 2006 pp6-7
  9. K O Morgan, Wales in British Politics 1868-1922; University of Wales Press, 1963 p243
  10. Kinnear, The Fall of Lloyd George pp193-194
  11. The Times House of Commons 1919; Politico’s Publishing, 2004 p67
  12. The Times, 16 December 1921 p12
  13. The Times, 20 March 1922 p13
  14. F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow, 1949 p549
  15. Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families, with Their Collateral, John Edwards Griffith, England, 1914, p. 316
  16. Archive Network Wales: http://www.archivesnetworkwales.info/cgi-bin/anw/search2?coll_id=55&inst_id=1&term=breese
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