George Roberts (British politician)
George Henry Roberts (27 July 1868 – 25 April 1928) was a Labour Party politician who switched parties twice.
George Henry Roberts | |
|---|---|
 Roberts in the mid 1900s | |
| Minister of Food Control | |
| In office 10 January 1919 – 19 March 1920 | |
| Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
| Preceded by | John Robert Clynes |
| Succeeded by | Charles McCurdy |
| Minister for Labour | |
| In office 17 August 1917 – 10 January 1919 | |
| Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
| Preceded by | John Hodge |
| Succeeded by | Robert Horne |
| Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade | |
| In office 14 December 1916 – 17 August 1917 | |
| Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
| Preceded by | E. G. Pretyman |
| Succeeded by | George Wardle |
| Chief Whip of the Labour Party | |
| In office 1916–1919 | |
| Leader | Arthur Henderson William Adamson |
| Preceded by | Frank Goldstone |
| Succeeded by | William Tyson Wilson |
| In office 1907–1914 | |
| Leader | Keir Hardie Arthur Henderson George Barnes Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | Arthur Henderson |
| Succeeded by | Arthur Henderson |
| Member of Parliament for Norwich | |
| In office 8 February 1906 – 6 December 1923 | |
| Preceded by | Sir Samuel Hoare |
| Succeeded by | Dorothy Jewson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 27 July 1868 |
| Died | 25 April 1928 (aged 59) |
| Nationality | British |
| Other political affiliations | Labour Coalition Labour |
Biography
He was born on 27 July 1868.
At the 1906 general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Norwich. He was a minister in the Lloyd George Coalition Government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade from 1916 to 1917, Minister of Labour from 1917 to 1919, and Minister of Food Control from 1919 to 1920. He was appointed as a Privy Counsellor in 1917.
Roberts stood in 1918 as a Coalition Labour candidate, opposed by the official Labour Party candidate. After leaving office in 1920, Roberts returned as a director to the firm he had left as works manager upon entering Parliament in 1906. He sat on the back-benches and as an independent retained his seat in the 1922 election but lost it as the Conservative candidate in 1923. Roberts spent the rest of his life in the sugar beet industry.
He died on 25 April 1928.
References
- Brodie, Marc. "Roberts, George Henry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35769. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Bibliography
Meeres, Frank. George Roberts MP. A Life That 'Did Different'. (Poppyland Publishing, 2019)