Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield

(Redirected from S Webb) "Sidney Webb" redirects here. For the English cricketer, see Sidney Webb (cricketer). For the English footballer, see Sid Webb. English socialist economist (1859–1947)

The Right HonourableThe Lord PassfieldOM PC
Webb in 1893

President of the Board of Trade
In office 22 January 1924 – 3 November 1924
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by	Sir Philip Lloyd-Graeme
Succeeded by	Sir Philip Lloyd-Graeme
Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs
In office 7 June 1929 – 5 June 1930
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by	Leo Amery
Succeeded by	James Henry Thomas
Secretary of State for the Colonies
In office 7 June 1929 – 24 August 1931
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by	Leo Amery
Succeeded by	James Henry Thomas

Personal details
Born	Sidney James Webb (1859-07-13)13 July 1859 London, England
Died	13 October 1947(1947-10-13) (aged 88) Liphook, Hampshire, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Beatrice Potter (m. 1892; died 1943)
Alma mater	Birkbeck, University of London King's College London

Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, OM, PC (13 July 1859 – 13 October 1947) was a British socialist, economist, supporter of Stalinism, and reformer, who co-founded the London School of Economics. He was an early member of the Fabian Society in 1884, joining, like George Bernard Shaw, three months after its inception. Along with his wife Beatrice Webb and with Annie Besant, Graham Wallas, Edward R. Pease, Hubert Bland and Sydney Olivier, Shaw and Webb turned the Fabian Society into the pre-eminent politico-intellectual society in Edwardian England. He wrote the original, pro-nationalisation Clause IV for the British Labour Party.

Background and education

Webb was born at 45, Cranbourn Street, near Leicester Square, London, the second of three children of Charles Webb (1828/9-1891) and Elizabeth Mary (1820/21-1895), née Stacey. His father was "variously described as an accountant, a perfumer, and a hairdresser"; his mother was a "hairdresser and dealer in toiletries". Webb's upbringing was "comfortable", the family employing a live-in servant; his father was "a man of local substance" as a rate collector, guardian, and sergeant in a volunteer regiment. Having attended a "first-class middle class day school" at St Martin's Lane, and his parents having sent him abroad to Switzerland and Germany to extend his education, Webb later studied law at the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution for a degree of the University of London in his spare time, while holding an office job. He also studied at King's College London, before being called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1885.

Professional life

In 1895, Webb helped to found the London School of Economics with a bequest left to the Fabian Society. He was appointed its Professor of Public Administration in 1912 and held the post for 15 years. In 1892, he married Beatrice Potter, who shared his interests and beliefs. The money she contributed to the marriage enabled him to give up his clerical job and concentrate on his other activities. Sidney and Beatrice Webb founded the New Statesman magazine in 1913.

Political career

Webb and Potter were members of the Labour Party and took an active role in politics. Sidney became Member of Parliament for Seaham at the 1922 general election. The couple's influence can be seen in their hosting of the Coefficients, a dining club that drew in some leading statesmen and thinkers of the day. In 1929, he was created Baron Passfield of Passfield Corner in the County of Southampton. He served as Secretary of State for the Colonies and as Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs in Ramsay MacDonald's second Labour Government in 1929.

As Colonial Secretary he issued the Passfield White Paper that revised the government policy on Palestine, previously set by the Churchill White Paper of 1922. In 1930, failing health caused him to step down as Dominions Secretary, but he stayed on as Colonial Secretary until the fall of the Labour government in August 1931.

The Webbs ignored mounting evidence of atrocities being committed by Joseph Stalin and remained supporters of the Soviet Union until their deaths. Having reached their seventies and early eighties, their books, Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation? (1935) and The Truth About Soviet Russia (1942), still gave a positive assessment of Stalin's regime. The Trotskyist historian Al Richardson later dubbed Soviet Communism: A New Civilization? "pure Soviet propaganda at its most mendacious".

Writings

Webb co-authored with his wife The History of Trade Unionism (1894). For the Fabian Society he wrote on poverty in London, the eight-hour day, land nationalisation, the nature of socialism, education, eugenics, and reform of the House of Lords. He also drafted Clause IV, which committed the Labour Party to public ownership of industry.

References in literature

In H. G. Wells' The New Machiavelli (1911), the Webbs, as "the Baileys", are mercilessly lampooned as short-sighted, bourgeois manipulators. The Fabian Society, of which Wells was briefly a member (1903–1908), fares no better in his estimation.

Beatrice Webb in her diary records that they "read the caricatures of ourselves... with much interest and amusement. The portraits are very clever in a malicious way." She reviews the book and Wells's character, summarising: "As an attempt at representing a political philosophy the book utterly fails..."

Personal life

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When his wife, Beatrice, died in 1943, the casket of her ashes was buried in the garden of their house in Passfield Corner, as were those of Lord Passfield in 1947.

Shortly afterwards, George Bernard Shaw launched a petition to have both reburied in Westminster Abbey, which was eventually granted – the Webbs' ashes are interred in the nave, close to those of Clement Attlee and Ernest Bevin.

The Webbs were also friends of philosopher Bertrand Russell.

In 2006, the London School of Economics, alongside the Housing Association, renamed its Great Dover Street student residence Sidney Webb House in his honour.

Bibliography

Works by Sidney Webb

Facts for Socialists (1887)
Fabian Essays in Socialism – The Basis of Socialism – Historic (1889)
"Socialism in England". Publications of the American Economic Association. 4 (2). April 1889.
A plea for an eight hours bill (1890)
English progress towards social democracy (1890)
Practicable land nationalization (1890)
The workers' political programme (1890)
What the farm laborer wants (1890)
A Labour policy for public authorities (1891)
London's neglected heritage (1891)
London's water tribute (1891)
Municipal tramways (1891)
The municipalisation of the gas supply (1891)
The reform of the poor law (1891)
The scandal of London's markets (1891)
The "unearned increment" (1891)
Socialism : true and false (1894)
The London vestries: what they are and what they do: with map, table of vestries, etc. (1894)
The difficulties of individualism (1896)
Labor in the longest reign (1837-1897) (1897)
The economics of direct employment (1898)
Five years' fruits of the Parish Councils Act (1901)
The education muddle and the way out (1901)
Twentieth century politics : a policy of national efficiency (1901)
The Education Act, 1902 : how to make the best of it (1903)
London Education (1904)
The London Education Act, 1903 : how to make the best of it (1904)
Paupers and old age pensions (1907)
The decline in the birth-rate (1907)
Grants in Aid: A Criticism and a Proposal (1911)
The necessary basis of society (1911)
The Economic Theory of a Legal Minimum Wage (1912)
Seasonal Trades, with A. Freeman (1912)
What about the rates? : or, Municipal finance and municipal autonomy (1913)
The War and the workers : handbook of some immediate measures to prevent unemployment and relieve distress (1914)
The Restoration of Trade Union Conditions (1916)
When peace comes : the way of industrial reconstruction (1916)
The reform of the House of Lords (1917)
The teacher in politics (1918)
National finance and a levy on capital (1919)
The root of labour unrest (1920)
The constitutional problems of a co-operative society (1923)
The Labour Party on the threshold (1923)
The need for federal reorganisation in the co-operative movement (1923)
The Local Government Act, 1929 - how to make the best of it (1929)
What happened in 1931: a record (1932)

Works by Sidney and Beatrice Webb

History of Trade Unionism (1894)
Industrial Democracy (1897); translated into Russian by Lenin as The Theory and Practice of British Trade Unionism, St Petersburg, 1900
Problems of Modern Industry (1898)
Bibliography of road making and maintenance in Great Britain (1906)
English Local Government (1906 through 1929) Vol. I–X
The Manor and the Borough (1908)
The Break-Up of the Poor Law (1909)
English Poor Law Policy (1910)
The Cooperative Movement (1914)
Works Manager Today (1917)
The Consumer's Cooperative Movement (1921)
Decay of Capitalist Civilization (1923)
Methods of Social Study (1932)
Soviet Communism: A new civilisation? (1st ed.). 1935 – via Internet Archive. Vol I Vol II) (the 2nd and 3rd editions of 1941 and 1944 did not have "?" in the title)
The Truth About Soviet Russia (1942)

Notes

Murphy, Mary E. (1948). "In Memoriam: Sidney Webb, 1859-1947". American Journal of Sociology. 53 (4): 295–296. doi:10.1086/220176. ISSN 0002-9602. JSTOR 2771223.
Davis, John (2004). "Webb [née Potter], (Martha) Beatrice (1858–1943), social reformer and diarist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36799. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
"Sidney and Beatrice Webb | British economists". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
The world movement towards collectivism, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, New Statesman, 12 April 1913;
Bending the arc of history towards justice and freedom, New Statesman, 12 April 2013, retrieved 13 May 2014.
The History of the Fabian Society, Edward R. Pease, Frank Cass and Co. LTD, 1963
"No. 33509". The London Gazette. 25 June 1929. p. 4189.
Al Richardson, "Introduction" to C. L. R. James, World Revolution 1917–1936: The Rise and Fall of the Communist International. Humanities Press (reprint), 1994; ISBN 0-391-03790-0
Webb, Sidney (1889), "Facts for Londoners: An exhaustive collection of statistical and other facts relating to the metropolis: with suggestions for reform on socialist principles", Fabian Tract, 8
Webb, Sidney (May 1890), "An Eight Hours Bill in the form of an amendment of the Factory Acts, with further provisions for the improvement of the conditions of labour", Fabian Tract, 9
Webb, Sidney (1891), "The case for an Eight Hours Bill", Fabian Tract, 23
Webb, Sidney (1890), "Practicable land nationalization", Fabian Tract, 12
Webb, Sidney (21 January 1894), "Socialism: true and false. A lecture delivered to the Fabian Society", Fabian Tract, 51
Webb, Sidney (1901), "The education muddle and the way out: a constructive criticism of English educational machinery", Fabian Tract, 106
Webb, Sidney (1907), "The decline in the birth-rate", Fabian Tract, 131
"Eugenics: the skeleton that rattles loudest in the left's closet | Jonathan Freedland". The Guardian. 17 February 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
Webb, Sidney (1917), "The reform of the House of Lords", Fabian Tract, 183
"Webbs on the Web | LSE Digital Library".
"Explore our collection | Beatrice Webb's typescript diary, 2 January 1901 – 10 February 1911". LSE Digital Library.
"Explore our collection | Beatrice Webb's typescript diary, 2 January 1901 – 10 February 1911". LSE Digital Library.
Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (London: Allen and Unwin, 1969).
"Collection Browser".
Out of the box.
Webb, Sidney; Webb, Beatrice (1897), Industrial Democracy, vol. I (1 ed.), London, New York, Bombay: Longmans, Green & Co, retrieved 5 October 2014; Webb, Sidney; Webb, Beatrice (1897), Industrial Democracy, vol. II (1 ed.), London, New York, Bombay: Longmans, Green & Co, retrieved 5 October 2014
"Full text of "Bibliography of road making and maintenance in Great Britain"". Internet Archive. Retrieved 21 March 2022. A sixpenny pamphlet for the Roads Improvement Association.

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded byEvan Hayward	Member of Parliament for Seaham 1922–1929	Succeeded byRamsay MacDonald
Party political offices
Preceded byFred Jowett	Chair of the Labour Party 1922–1923	Succeeded byRamsay MacDonald
Political offices
Preceded bySir Philip Lloyd-Greame	President of the Board of Trade 1924	Succeeded bySir Philip Lloyd-Greame
Preceded byLeo Amery	Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs 1929–1930	Succeeded byJames Henry Thomas
Preceded byLeo Amery	Secretary of State for the Colonies 1929–1931	Succeeded byJames Henry Thomas

v t e Secretaries of state for dominion affairs
Leo Amery Sidney Webb, Lord Passfield J. H. Thomas Malcolm MacDonald Edward, Lord Stanley Malcolm MacDonald Sir Thomas Inskip (later Viscount Caldecote) Anthony Eden Thomas Inskip, Viscount Caldecote Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne Clement Attlee Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne Christopher Addison, Viscount Addison

v t e Cabinet of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald (1924)
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Leader of the House of Commons Foreign Secretary	Ramsay MacDonald
Lord Chancellor Leader of the House of Lords	The Viscount Haldane
Lord President of the Council	The Lord Parmoor
Chancellor of the Exchequer	Philip Snowden
Home Secretary	Arthur Henderson
First Lord of the Admiralty	The Viscount Chelmsford
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries	Noel Buxton
Secretary of State for Air	The Lord Thomson
Secretary of State for the Colonies	J. H. Thomas
Lord Privy Seal Deputy Leader of the House of Commons	J. R. Clynes
President of the Board of Education	Charles Trevelyan
Secretary of State for India	Sydney Olivier
Secretary of State for War	Stephen Walsh
Minister of Health	John Wheatley
Secretary for Scotland	William Adamson
Minister of Labour	Tom Shaw
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster	Josiah Wedgwood
Postmaster General	Vernon Hartshorn
President of the Board of Trade	Sidney Webb
First Commissioner of Works	Frederick William Jowett

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Governance	The Princess Royal (Chancellor) Eric Neumayer (Director (interim)) Dame Shirley Pearce (Chair of Court and Council) Lord President of the Council (Visitor)
Other	Sidney Webb Beatrice Webb George Bernard Shaw Graham Wallas H. G. Wells List of London School of Economics people Montague Burton Professor of International Relations

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