Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (1867-1947), was three times prime minister of Great Britain. He was involved in the settlement of the general strike of 1926 and in the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936.

Stanley Baldwin was born on Aug. 3, 1867, at Lower Park, Bewdley, Worcestershire. An only child, he was the son of Alfred Baldwin, an ironmaster, and Louisa Macdonald, the daughter of a Wesleyan minister. Baldwin attended Harrow and then Trinity College, Cambridge, where his record was undistinguished. He entered his father's business and, characteristically, came to know every workman in the foundry. He became a magistrate and a member of local councils. In 1892 he married Lucy Ridsdale of Rottingdean; to them seven children were born.

In 1908 Baldwin entered Parliament as a Conservative from the Bewdley division of Worcestershire, succeeding his father. Baldwin spoke infrequently and attracted little attention. When the new War Cabinet was formed...