Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr

Herbrand Edward Dundonald Brassey Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr GBE , PC (June 20 1900 - January 28 1976), known as Lord Buckhurst from 1900 until 1915 (and sometimes nicknamed "Buck de la Warr" after that), was a British National Labour politician in the 1930s. The son of a Conservative father and Liberal mother, Herbrand Sackville was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford where he developed trends towards socialism. In 1915 his father was killed in the First World War and Herbrand succeeded to the title. He became the first hereditary peer to join the Labour Party and in 1924 was one of the youngest ever ministers when he was appointed Lord in Waiting in the first Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald. In the second Labour government of 1929-1931 De La Warr served as Under-Secretary of State for War (1929-1930) and Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (1930-1931). In 1931 the Labour government fell and MacDonald formed a "National Government" of politicians drawn from all parties. De La Warr was one of only a tiny handful of Labour ministers to follow MacDonald, and he continued to serve as a junior minister for Agriculture, later transferring to Fisheries, then the Board of Education and the Colonial Office. Prior to the 1931 general election he was instrumental in the formation of the National Labour Party to provide a vehicle of support for MacDonald and other ex-Labour members of the National Government. In 1935 the De La Warr Pavilion was built in Bexhill-on-Sea and named after the 9th Earl. The "De La Warr" in both the pavilion's name and the earl's name is pronounced "Delaware" (as in the American state).^[1] From 1935 until 1937, De La Warr was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education. In 1937 the new Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain gave De La Warr his first Cabinet post as Lord Privy Seal. Like several other younger members of the Cabinet, De La Warr found himself disagreeing over the government's foreign policy and contemplated resigning over the Munich Agreement but declined to. In the aftermath of the agreement he was promoted to the position of President of the Board of Education. During his time in this post it was expected that he would oversee the implementation of the raising of the school leaving age to 15, however the outbreak of World War II prevented this from being implemented at the time. In April 1940 De La Warr was moved to become First Commissioner of Works as part of a series of ministerial changes enacted by Chamberlain. The following month Chamberlain was replaced by Winston Churchill who formed an all party coalition government, and the objections of the Labour Party to National Labour ministers meant that De La Warr was dropped and he did not return to government for eleven years. When in 1951 Churchill formed a peacetime government, he appointed De La Warr as Postmaster General. De La Warr held this post for the next four years, leaving office for the final time in 1955. The Earl was twice married:

• 1) Diana Leigh (1920-1966)
• 2) Sylvia, Countess of Kilmuir (1968-1976)

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