Leslie Hore-Belisha

Isaac Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha (; 7 September 1893 – 16 February 1957) was a British politician, at first a member of the Liberal Party, later of the Liberal Nationals, and eventually of the Conservative Party, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) and Cabinet Minister. He proved highly successful in modernising the British road system between 1934 and 1937 as Minister of Transport.

As War Secretary from 1937 to 1940, he feuded with the commanding generals and was removed in 1940. Some writers believe that anti-semitism played a role in both his dismissal and in blocking his appointment as Minister of Information.

One historian compares his strong and weak points:

His name is still widely associated in the UK with the flashing amber "Belisha beacons" that were introduced at pedestrian crossings while he was Minister of Transport.

Background and education

Isaac Leslie Belisha was born into a Jewish family in Hampstead, London, on 7 September 1893. He was the only son of Jacob Isaac Belisha and his wife Elizabeth Miriam (née Miers). His father died when he was less than one year old. In 1912 his widowed mother married Adair Hore, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Pensions. Belisha then adopted the double-barrelled surname. where he was in Polack's House. He continued his studies in Paris and Heidelberg, before attending St John's College, Oxford, where he was president of the Oxford Union Society. While in Heidelberg, he became a member of Burschenschaft in 1912. During the First World War he joined the British Army and served in France, Flanders and Salonika, finishing the war with the rank of major in the Army Service Corps. After leaving the army, he returned to Oxford and, in 1923, qualified as a barrister.

Political career

At the 1922 general election, Hore-Belisha was an unsuccessful candidate for the Liberal Party in the Plymouth Devonport constituency. However, thanks to his new political agent, Benjamin Musgrave, he won the seat at the general election the following year, and became known in Parliament as a flamboyant and brilliant speaker.

He generally allied himself with right-wing Liberals critical of their party's support for the Labour minority governments, joining with Sir John Simon in becoming a Liberal National upon the formation of the National Government in 1931. After the 1931 general election, Hore-Belisha was appointed a junior minister at the Board of Trade.

He remained in government when the official Liberals withdrew in September 1932 over the issue of free trade, and was promoted to Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Hore-Belisha showed considerable intelligence and drive in government, although his intense energy tended to alienate traditionalist elements who resented his status as an "outsider".

Transport minister, 1934–1937

Hore-Belisha was appointed Minister of Transport in 1934 coming to public prominence at a time when motoring was becoming available to the masses. All speed limits for motor cars had controversially been removed by the Road Traffic Act 1930 during the previous administration. There was, in 1934, a record number of road casualties in the UK, with 7,343 deaths and 231,603 injuries being recorded, with half of the casualties being pedestrians and three-quarters occurring in built-up areas.

Shortly after being appointed, he was crossing Camden High Street when a sports car shot along the street without stopping, nearly causing him "serious injury or worse". He became involved in a public-relations exercise to demonstrate how to use the new "uncontrolled crossings".

left|thumb|upright|Belisha Beacon, New Bond Street, London

Hore-Belisha's Road Traffic Act 1934 introduced a speed limit of 30 mph for motor cars in built-up areas. The new act was vigorously opposed by many, who saw the new regulations as a removal of "an Englishman's freedom of the highway". The earlier 20 mph speed limit had been abolished in 1930 because it was universally flouted. A large backlog of court cases had made the law unenforceable. In addition, The Automobile Association (AA) and the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) had frequently been successful in defending their members against evidence from primitive speed traps.

Hore-Belisha rewrote the Highway Code and was responsible for the introduction of two innovations that led to a dramatic drop in the number of road accidents: the driving test and the Belisha beacon, named after him by the public. On his retirement, he was made vice-president of the Pedestrians' Association and, the organisation adopted a logo (since replaced) of a walking zebra crossing with Belisha Beacon.

Secretary of State for War, 1937–1940

His success at the Ministry of Transport, in 1937, led to an appointment by Neville Chamberlain as Secretary of State for War replacing the popular Alfred Duff Cooper, who later resigned from the government over Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. There were voices within the Conservative majority that such a high-profile appointment should not have gone to a Liberal National, and Hore-Belisha's Conservative colleagues labelled him a warmonger. Many took to nicknaming him "Horeb-Elisha" or "Horeb" as an antisemitic pun on his race. (Horeb is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the place where the golden calf was made and to which Elijah fled.)

Upon appointing Hore-Belisha as Secretary of State, Chamberlain advised him to read B. H. Liddell Hart's book Europe in Arms, which advocated that Britain should avoid becoming involved in a continental land war and rely on the Royal Air Force as its offensive arm.

Impressed by the book's arguments and under Cabinet pressure to control expenditure, Hore-Belisha formed a close partnership with Liddell Hart and sought to refocus the British Army away from the aim of raising a second British Expeditionary Force to fight in France.

Unhappy with the Army Council's opposition to his policies, Hore-Belisha sacked Field Marshal Cyril Deverell, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, along with the Adjutant General and Master-General of the Ordnance in December 1937. By 1940, his relations with Lord Gort, commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, had deteriorated to the point that neither man had confidence in the other. Gort and other generals disliked Hore-Belisha's showmanship, but their main disagreements had stemmed from the Pillbox affair, concerning the defence of France along the border with Belgium. Hore-Belisha was unpopular amongst his fellow ministers, with meetings of the War Cabinet said to be regularly tense and loud. As a result, Chamberlain agreed to replace him as Secretary of State for War. or even due to pressure by King George VI upon Chamberlain because of Hore-Belisha's previous support for Edward VIII during the abdication crisis, although the offer of alternative office and Hore-Belisha's original appointment argue against this latter motive. Harry Defries argues that anti-semitism was the root cause of the dismissal.

Personal life

In 1944, aged 51, he married Cynthia Elliot, who was a relative of the Earl of Minto.

The cause of death was given as a cerebral haemorrhage. The barony died with him, for he had no children. Lady Hore-Belisha died in July 1991, aged 75.

Fictional role

H. G. Wells in The Shape of Things to Come, published in 1934, predicted a Second World War in which Britain would not participate but would vainly try to effect a peaceful compromise. In this vision, Hore-Belisha was mentioned as one of several prominent Britons delivering "brilliant pacific speeches" which "echo throughout Europe" but fail to end the war. The other would-be peacemakers, in Wells' vision, included Duff Cooper, Ellen Wilkinson and Randolph Churchill.

References

External links

The Papers of Leslie Hore-Belisha held at Churchill Archives Centre