View source for Joseph Kenworthy, 10th Baron Strabolgi

{{Short description|British politician (1886–1953)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = [[Lieutenant commander (Royal Navy)|Lieutenant Commander]]
| name             = {{nowrap|Joseph Montague Kenworthy}}
| honorific_suffix = 10th Baron Strabolgi
| image            = 1920 Joseph Kenworthy.jpg
| caption          = Joseph Kenworthy (1920)
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=y|1886|3|7}}
| birth_place      = [[Royal Leamington Spa]], [[Warwickshire]], England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=y|1953|10|8|1886|3|7}}
| death_place      =
| resting_place    =
| education        = [[Eastman's Royal Naval Academy]]
| alma_mater       =
| father           = {{nowrap|[[Cuthbert Kenworthy, 9th Baron Strabolgi|Cuthbert Kenworthy]]}}
| mother           = Elizabeth Florence
| spouse           = {{marriage|Doris Whitley|1913|1941|end=divorced}}<br>Geraldine Francis
| children         = 4
| party            = [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]]<br>[[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]
| relatives        = [[David Montague de Burgh Kenworthy, 11th Baron Strabolgi|David Montague de Burgh Kenworthy]] (son)<br>[[Frederick Whitley-Thomson]] (father-in-law)
| office           = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]] for [[Kingston upon Hull Central (UK Parliament constituency)|Kingston upon Hull Central]]
| term_start       = 1919
| term_end         = 1931
| alongside        =
| predecessor      = [[Mark Sykes]]
| successor        = [[Basil Kelsey Barton]]
| module           = {{infobox military person
| embed            = yes
| allegiance       = {{flag|United Kingdom}}
| branch           = {{navy|United Kingdom}}
| serviceyears     = 1901-1920
| unit             = {{HMS|Goliath|1898|6}}
| commands         = {{HMS|Bullfinch|1898|6}}
| rank             = [[Lieutenant commander (Royal Navy)|Lieutenant Commander]]
| awards           =
| battles          = [[World War I]]
}}
}}
'''Joseph Montague Kenworthy, 10th Baron Strabolgi''' (7 March 1886 – 8 October 1953), was a [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] and then a Labour Party [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] in the [[United Kingdom]].
==Education and naval service==
Strabolgi was born at [[Royal Leamington Spa|Leamington]] in [[Warwickshire]] and educated at the [[Eastman's Royal Naval Academy]] at Northward Park in [[Winchester]] and as a cadet on H.M.S. ''Britannia'', joining the [[Royal Navy]] in 1901 and served for seventeen years. His first posting as a [[naval cadet]] was in January 1903 to the [[battleship]] [[HMS Goliath (1898)|HMS ''Goliath'']],<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence |date=2 January 1903 |page=8 |issue=36967}}</ref> serving on the [[China Station]]. During [[World War I]], he was for a short period in the [[Plans Division (Royal Navy)|Plans Division]] of the [[Admiralty War Staff]]. He left for an appointment in the Mediterranean which enabled him to see the latest developments of war on seaborne commerce at close quarters. He returned to the Grand Fleet in time to be present at the final surrender of German sea power. He retired from the Navy in 1920 after entering Parliament.
{{Blockquote
|text=That Kenworthy stayed [at the Naval Staff] for only five months was probably the result of factors beyond the need to employ invalid staff. A reading of his service record and his memoirs suggest that he was a man who was neither easy to work with nor necessarily very competent. His memoirs are particularly unreliable. Of the 244 executive officers for whom it has been possible to find their Sub-Lieutenant examination results, twenty-three failed an exam (9 per cent), and Kenworthy was one of these. From his service record it is possible to see that: in 1907 he was refused permission to qualify for a navigation course; in 1911 he failed the signals course for command of a Torpedo boat; in 1912 HMS ''Bullfinch'', of which he was in command, struck HMS ''Leopard'', and Kenworthy was 'cautioned to be more careful'; in 1914 he was sacked from HMS ''Bullfinch'' 'on account of unsatisfactory conduct'. The Admiral Commanding Orkneys and Shetlands concluded that Kenworthy was 'not a fit person to be in command of a destroyer'. (ADM 196/50, p. 286.) It should be added in mitigation that collision between ships was not that uncommon. In any case, it is not any of these events that is telling, but the combination. Kenworthy's memoirs make no reference to his departure from HMS ''Bullfinch''. (Kenworthy, ''Sailors)'' He merely wrote that when he left the ship the crew cheered. His entry in ''The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' has also failed to address these inconsistencies. (Grove, E., 'Kenworthy, Joseph Montague', in ''ODNB'', Oxford 2004, vol. 31, 337–8.)
|author=Nicholas Black
|title=''The British Naval Staff in the First World War''
|source=p. 34
}}
==Politician==
Kenworthy first tried to enter Parliament at the [[1918 United Kingdom general election|1918 general election]] contesting [[Rotherham (UK Parliament constituency)|Rotherham]] as a Liberal but finished in third place. He was soon given another chance though when he was selected to contest [[Kingston upon Hull Central (UK Parliament constituency)|Central Hull]] at [[1919 Kingston upon Hull Central by-election|a by-election in 1919]]. Anti-Coalition government sentiment was riding high and he was duly elected [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberals]]. Kenworthy was one of the more energetic supporters of [[H. H. Asquith]] in Parliament and never lost his hostility to [[David Lloyd George|Lloyd George]]. During the 1924-29 parliament which was dominated by a Conservative majority, he worked closely with a group of radical Liberal MPs that included: [[William Wedgwood Benn]], [[Percy Harris (politician)|Percy Harris]], [[Frank Briant]] and [[Horace Crawfurd]] to provide opposition to the government.<ref>Forty Years in and out of Parliament by Sir Percy Harris</ref>
When Lloyd George became Leader of the Liberal Party in 1926, despite the party taking on a more radical hue, Kenworthy resigned from the party and joined [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]. He also resigned his seat in the House of Commons and fought and won a by-election in Central Hull, standing for Labour. He retained the seat until 1931.
He was an active supporter of the movement for the independence of [[India]]. In 1934, he succeeded his father as [[Baron Strabolgi|Lord Strabolgi]] and was the opposition chief whip in the [[House of Lords]] from 1938 to 1942. He was disappointed not to be given a position in the [[Attlee ministry|postwar Labour government]] (1945–51).
==Personal life==
Lord Strabolgi married twice. Firstly, in 1913, he married Doris Whitley, daughter of his fellow Liberal MP, [[Frederick Whitley-Thomson]]. They had four children, and divorced in 1941. Later that year, he married Geraldine Francis.
When he died in 1953 aged 67, he was succeeded by his eldest son, [[David Montague de Burgh Kenworthy, 11th Baron Strabolgi]], another left-wing politician and member of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]].
==Writer==
During [[World War II]], he wrote numerous articles on the war, especially the war at sea. These include ''Secret Weapons'' in ''Modern World'' (27 April 1940) and ''What's Wrong with the British Army?'' in ''Colliers magazine'' (22 August 1942).
===Books by Lord Strabolgi===
His books include –
*''Peace or war?'' (with a foreword by [[H. G. Wells]], Boni & Liveright, New York, 1927)
*''India, A Warning'' (E. Mathews & Marrot, London, 1931)
*''The Campaign in the Low Countries: the first full-length account of the epic struggle in Holland and Belgium'' (London 1940)
*''The Battle of the River Plate'' (Hutchinson & Co., London, 1940)
*''Freedom of the Seas'' (jointly with Sir George Young)
*''Our Daily Pay: the Economics of Plenty''
*''Sailors, Statesmen and Others: an Autobiography''
*''The Real Navy''
*''Narvik and After''
*''From Gibraltar to Suez: a study of the Italian Campaign''
*''Singapore and After''
*''Sea Power in the Second World War''
==Appointments==
* Chairman of the [[English-Speaking Union]]
* Vice-president of ''The Air League of The British Empire''
==Sources==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040928042258/http://www.hindu.com/2003/10/10/stories/2003101000320800.htm Obituary in The Hindu]&nbsp;– 10 October 1953
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061113055752/http://www.empireclubfoundation.com/details.asp?SpeechID=902&FT=yes Speech at the Empire Club of Canada, 1947]
*{{cite book |last1=Black |first1=Nicholas |title=The British Naval Staff in the First World War |date=2009 |publisher=Boydell Press |location=Woodbridge |isbn=9781843834427}}
Entry by Eric J Grove in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', OUP 2004–08
== References ==
<references />
== External links ==
* {{Hansard-contribs | commander-hon-joseph-kenworthy | Lord Strabolgi }}
{{S-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{succession box
| title  = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Kingston upon Hull Central (UK Parliament constituency)|Kingston upon Hull Central]]
| years  = [[1919 Kingston upon Hull Central by-election|1919]] – [[1931 United Kingdom general election|1931]]
| before = [[Mark Sykes]]
| after  = [[Basil Kelsey Barton]]
}}
{{s-reg|en}}
{{succession box
| title  = [[Baron Strabolgi]]
| years  = 1934–1953
| before = [[Cuthbert Kenworthy, 9th Baron Strabolgi|Cuthbert Matthias Kenworthy]]
| after  = [[David Kenworthy, 11th Baron Strabolgi|David Montague de Burgh Kenworthy]]
}}
{{S-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strabolgi, Joseph Kenworthy, 10th Baron}}
[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1953 deaths]]
[[Category:Barons Strabolgi|10]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies|Kenworthy, Joseph]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies|Kenworthy, Joseph]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1918–1922|Kenworthy, Joseph]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1922–1923|Kenworthy, Joseph]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1923–1924|Kenworthy, Joseph]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1924–1929|Kenworthy, Joseph]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1929–1931|Kenworthy, Joseph]]
[[Category:UK MPs who inherited peerages]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) hereditary peers]]
[[Category:Royal Navy officers]]
[[Category:British non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:People educated at Eastman's Royal Naval Academy]]
[[Category:British male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century British non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:British male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English nobility]]
[[Category:People from Leamington Spa]]