View source for James Stanhope, 7th Earl Stanhope

{{short description|British Earl and politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = The Earl Stanhope
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=|KG|DSO|MC|PC}}
| image = Stanhope7.JPG
| imagesize = 200px
| caption =
| order = [[Leader of the House of Lords]]
| term_start = 21 February 1938
| term_end = 14 May 1940
| primeminister = [[Neville Chamberlain]]
| predecessor = [[The Viscount Halifax]]
| successor = [[Thomas Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote|The Viscount Caldecote]]
| order1 = [[Lord President of the Council]]
| term_start1 = 3 September 1939
| term_end1 = 10 May 1940
| primeminister1 = [[Neville Chamberlain]]
| predecessor1 = [[Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford|The Viscount Runciman of Doxford]]
| successor1 = [[Neville Chamberlain]]
| order3 = [[President of the Board of Education]]
| term_start3 = 28 May 1937
| term_end3 = 27 October 1938
| primeminister3 = [[Neville Chamberlain]]
| predecessor3 = [[Oliver Stanley|Hon. Oliver Stanley]]
| successor3 = [[Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr|The Earl De La Warr]]
| order2 = [[First Lord of the Admiralty]]
| term_start2 = 27 October 1938
| term_end2 = 3 September 1939
| primeminister2 = [[Neville Chamberlain]]
| predecessor2 = [[Duff Cooper]]
| successor2 = [[Winston Churchill]]
| order4 = [[First Commissioner of Works]]
| term_start4 = 16 June 1936
| term_end4 = 27 May 1937
| primeminister4 = [[Stanley Baldwin]]
| predecessor4 = [[William Ormsby-Gore, 4th Baron Harlech|Hon. William Ormsby-Gore]]
| successor4 = [[Sir Philip Sassoon, 3rd Baronet|Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt]]
| order5      =[[Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]]
| term_start5 =18 January 1934
| term_end5   =16 June 1936
| primeminister5=[[Ramsay MacDonald]]<br>[[Stanley Baldwin]]
| predecessor5=[[Anthony Eden]]
| successor5  =[[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury|Viscount Cranborne]]
| order6      =[[Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War]]
| term_start6 =10 November 1931
| term_end6   =18 January 1934
| primeminister6=[[Ramsay MacDonald]]
| predecessor6=[[Dudley Aman, 1st Baron Marley|The Lord Marley]]
| successor6  =[[Donald Howard, 3rd Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal|The Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal]]
| order7      =[[Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty]]
| term_start7 =24 August 1931
| term_end7   =10 November 1931
| primeminister7=[[Ramsay MacDonald]]
| predecessor7=[[Charles Ammon]]
| successor7  =[[Edward Stanley, Lord Stanley (died 1938)|Lord Stanley]]
| order8      =[[Civil Lord of the Admiralty]]
| term_start8 =11 November 1924
| term_end8   =7 June 1929
| primeminister8=[[Stanley Baldwin]]
| predecessor8=Frank Hodges
| successor8  =[[George Hall, 1st Viscount Hall|George Hall]]
| order9      =[[Secretary of State for War|Parliamentary Secretary to the War Office]]
| term_start9 =14 December 1916
| term_end9   =10 January 1919
| primeminister9=[[David Lloyd George]]
| predecessor9=''Position established''
| successor9  =''Position abolished''
|office14         = Member of the [[House of Lords]]
|status14         = Lord Temporal
|term_start14     = 20 April 1905
|term_end14       = 15 August 1967
|predecessor14    = [[Arthur Stanhope, 6th Earl Stanhope|The 6th Earl Stanhope]]
|successor14      = [[William Stanhope, 11th Earl of Harrington|The 11th Earl of Harrington]]<br>''(as viscount Stanhope of Mahon)''
|birth_name=James Richard Stanhope
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1880|11|11|df=y}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1967|8|15|1880|11|11|df=y}}
| death_place =
| nationality = [[British people|British]]
| party = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]
| alma_mater =
| spouse = Lady Eileen Browne<br>(1889–1940)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Newspapers&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=63&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=10&docId=GALE%7CCS101267255&docType=Death+notice&sort=Pub+Date+Forward+Chron&contentSegment=ZTMA-MOD1&prodId=TTDA&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CCS101267255&searchId=R1&userGroupName=wikipedia&inPS=true|title=Death notice|publisher=The Times, London, Sept. 23|year=1940}}</ref>
| parents = [[Arthur Stanhope, 6th Earl Stanhope]]<br />Evelyn Pennefather
}}
'''James Richard Stanhope, 7th Earl Stanhope''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|KG|DSO|MC|PC}} (11 November 1880 – 15 August 1967), styled '''Viscount Mahon''' until 1905, was a British [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] politician.
==Background==
Stanhope was the eldest son of [[Arthur Stanhope, 6th Earl Stanhope]], and Evelyn Henrietta (née Pennefather), daughter of Richard Pennefather of Knockeevan, [[County Tipperary]] and Lady Emily Butler. The Hon. [[Edward Stanhope]] and [[Philip Stanhope, 1st Baron Weardale]], were his uncles.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}
Lord Mahon was commissioned a [[second lieutenant]] in the [[Grenadier Guards]] on 5 January 1901,<ref>Hart′s Army list, 1903</ref> and went with his battalion to serve in South Africa during the [[Second Boer War]]. Following the end of this war in June 1902, he returned with a large contingent of men from the guards regiments on board the SS ''Lake Michigan'', which arrived in Southampton in October 1902.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The Army in South Africa – Troops returning home|date=18 September 1902 |page=5 |issue=36876}}</ref>
==Political career==
Stanhope entered the [[House of Lords]] on the death of his father in 1905, and made his maiden speech in November 1909.<ref name="api.parliament.uk">[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/mr-james-stanhope-2/index.html hansard-millbanksystem.com James Stanhope, 7th Earl Stanhope].</ref> He held his first office as [[Parliamentary Secretary to the War Office]] under [[David Lloyd George]] between 1918 and 1919. In 1924 he was appointed [[Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty|Civil Lord of the Admiralty]] under [[Stanley Baldwin]], a post he held until the Conservatives lost power in 1929. The latter year he was also sworn of the [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|Privy Council]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33492 |date=7 August 1929 |page=3003 }}</ref> After the formation of the National Government in 1931 he served under [[Ramsay MacDonald]] as [[Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty]] in 1931, as [[Under-Secretary of State for War]] between 1931 and 1934 and as [[Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]], the last year under the premiership of Stanley Baldwin. In 1934 he was made a [[Order of the Garter|Knight Companion of the Garter]].
He entered the cabinet in June 1936 when Baldwin appointed him [[First Commissioner of Works]]. When [[Neville Chamberlain]] became Prime Minister in May 1937 Stanhope was made [[President of the Board of Education]], and in February 1938 he also succeeded [[Edward Wood, 3rd Viscount Halifax]], as [[Leader of the House of Lords]]. In October 1938 he became [[First Lord of the Admiralty]] while continuing as Leader of the House of Lords. After the outbreak of the [[Second World War]] in September 1939, he was succeeded as First Lord of the Admiralty by [[Winston Churchill]] and appointed [[Lord President of the Council]]. He remained as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President until Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940. However, he did not serve in the [[Coalition Government 1940–1945|Churchill coalition government]] and never returned to ministerial office. He made his last speech in the House of Lords in December 1960.<ref name="api.parliament.uk"/>
In July 1940, Stanhope and several other national politicians—including Baldwin and Chamberlain—were targeted in the polemic ''[[Guilty Men]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Guilty Men|last=Cato|publisher=Victor Gollancz|year=1940|location=London|oclc=301463537}}</ref> This publication accused these men of failing to prepare Britain for the looming [[World War II|war]], and of appeasing [[Nazi Germany]] during the 1930s.<ref>{{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-70401 |title=Guilty men (act. 1940) |first=D. J. |last=Dutton |year=2006 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/70401 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |access-date=2013-10-05}}</ref> The accusations made in ''Guilty Men'' have subsequently been questioned by some critics.<ref>Scott Kelly, [http://www.conservativehistory.org.uk/graphics/issue5.pdf "The Ghost of Neville Chamberlain: Guilty Men and the 1945 Election"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927121037/http://www.conservativehistory.org.uk/graphics/issue5.pdf |date=2007-09-27 }}, ''Conservative History Journal'', Autumn 2005</ref><ref>[[Geoffrey Mander]], ''We were not all wrong – How the Labour and Liberal Parties (& also the anti-Munich Tories) strove, pre-war, for the policy of collective security against aggression – with adequate armaments to make that policy effective: the truth about the peace ballot: etc, etc.'' (London: Victor Gollancz, 1944)</ref>
==Family==
Lord Stanhope married Lady Eileen Browne (1889–1940), the eldest daughter of [[George Browne, 6th Marquess of Sligo]], and Agatha Stewart Hodgson, granddaughter of [[William Forsyth (barrister)|William Forsyth]]. They had no children. She died in September 1940, aged 51. With the death of [[Edward Scudamore-Stanhope, 12th Earl of Chesterfield]], in 1952, Lord Stanhope inherited the peerage titles [[Earl of Chesterfield]] and [[Baron Stanhope]], but did not apply for a [[writ of summons]] for the more senior Earldom of Chesterfield, and continued to be known as The Earl Stanhope. Stanhope died in August 1967, aged 86. On his death both earldoms and the barony of Stanhope became extinct, whereas the viscountcy of Stanhope of Mahon and the barony of Stanhope of Elvaston passed to his nearest heir, [[William Stanhope, 11th Earl of Harrington]].{{citation needed|date=October 2020}} Lord Stanhope left his country seat [[Chevening]] to the nation.
==Arms==
{{Emblem table
|image = Shield of Arms of James Stanhope, 7th Earl Stanhope, KG, DSO, MC, PC.png
|crest = A Tower Azure issuant from the battlements a Demi Lion Or ducally crowned Gules holding between the paws a Grenade fired proper
|coronet = A [[Coronet|Coronet of an Earl]]
|escutcheon = Quarterly Ermine and Gules
|supporters = Dexter: a Wolf Or ducally crowned Gules; Sinister: a Talbot Ermine
|motto = ''A Deo et rege'' ([[Latin]] for 'From God and the King')
|orders = [[Order of the Garter]]
}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* {{PM20|FID=pe/016970}}
{{S-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box | title = [[Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty|Civil Lord of the Admiralty]] | years = 1924–1929 | before = [[Frank Hodges (trade unionist)|Frank Hodges]] | after = [[George Hall, 1st Viscount Hall|George Hall]]}}
{{succession box | title = [[Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty]] | years = 1931 | before = [[Charles Ammon]] | after = [[Edward Stanley, Lord Stanley (died 1938)|Lord Stanley]]}}
|-
{{s-vac}}
{{s-ttl
| title  = [[Under-Secretary of State for War]]
| years  = 1931–1934
}}
{{s-aft | after  = [[Donald Howard, 3rd Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal|The Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal]]}}
{{s-bef | before = [[Anthony Eden]]}}
{{s-ttl | title  = [[Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]]
| years  = 1934–1936
| with   = [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury|Viscount Cranborne]] (1935–1936)}}
{{s-aft | after  = [[Ivor Windsor-Clive, 2nd Earl of Plymouth|The Earl of Plymouth]]}}
{{succession box | title=[[First Commissioner of Works]] | before=[[William Ormsby-Gore, 4th Baron Harlech|Hon. William Ormsby-Gore]] | after=[[Sir Philip Sassoon, 3rd Baronet|Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt]] | years=1936–1937}}
{{succession box | title=[[Secretary of State for Education and Skills|President of the Board of Education]] | before=[[Oliver Stanley|Hon. Oliver Stanley]] | after=[[Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr|The Earl De La Warr]] | years=1937–1938}}
{{succession box | title=[[Leader of the House of Lords]] | before=[[The Viscount Halifax]] | after=[[Thomas Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote|The Viscount Caldecote]] | years=1938–1940}}
{{succession box | title=[[First Lord of the Admiralty]] | before=[[Duff Cooper]] | after=[[Winston Churchill]] | years=1938–1939}}
{{succession box | title=[[Lord President of the Council]] | before=[[Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford|The Viscount Runciman of Doxford]] | after=[[Neville Chamberlain]] | years=1939–1940}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[The Viscount Halifax]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)|Leader of the Conservative Party]] in the [[House of Lords]]|years=1938–1940}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Thomas Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote|The Viscount Caldecote]]}}
{{s-reg|en}}
{{s-bef | before = [[Edward Scudamore-Stanhope]]}}
{{s-ttl | title  = [[Earl of Chesterfield]]
| years  = 1952–1967 }}
{{s-non | reason = Extinct}}
{{s-reg|gb}}
{{s-bef | before = [[Arthur Stanhope, 6th Earl Stanhope|Arthur Stanhope]]
| rows   = 2 }}
{{s-ttl | title  = [[Earl Stanhope]]
| years  = 1905–1967 }}
{{s-non | reason = Extinct}}
|-
{{s-ttl | title  = [[Viscount Stanhope of Mahon]]
| years  = 1905–1967}}
{{s-aft | after  = [[William Stanhope, 11th Earl of Harrington|William Stanhope]]}}
{{S-end}}
{{First Lords of the Admiralty}}
{{Secretaries of State for Education}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanhope, James Stanhope, 7th Earl}}
[[Category:1880 births]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
[[Category:British Secretaries of State for Education]]
[[Category:Earls Stanhope]]
[[Category:Knights of the Garter]]
[[Category:First Lords of the Admiralty]]
[[Category:Lord Presidents of the Council]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Members of London County Council]]
[[Category:Leaders of the House of Lords]]
[[Category:Stanhope family|James]]
[[Category:Admiralty personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Earls of Chesterfield|13]]
[[Category:Ministers in the Chamberlain wartime government, 1939–1940]]
[[Category:Ministers in the Chamberlain peacetime government, 1937–1939]]
[[Category:People from Chevening, Kent]]
[[Category:20th-century English nobility]]
[[Category:Lords of the Admiralty]]