Background
Lees-Smith was from an Army family. His father was a Major in the Royal Artillery, and he was born in British India.
Lees-Smith was from an Army family. His father was a Major in the Royal Artillery, and he was born in British India.
He was educated Aldenham School, as a cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and Queen"s College, Oxford. Rejecting a military career for himself he chose academia and was appointed as a Lecturer in Public Administration at the London School of Economics in 1906. He remained there throughout his political career.
He was the acting Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the (as chairman of the Parliamentary ) from 1940 during the time Clement Attlee was in government. He was also Chairman of the Executive Committee of Ruskin College, Oxford, from 1907 to 1909. He resigned on appointment as Professor of Public Administration at the University of Bristol.
In 1909 he went on an extended tour of India to lecture at Bombay on economics and advise on economics teaching.
As a result of his experiences he wrote Studies in Indian Economics. At the January 1910 general election Lees-Smith was elected as a Liberal for the two-member Northampton constituency.
Unlike his fellow Northampton Member of Parliament Charles McCurdy, Lees-Smith allied with H. H. Asquith rather than David Lloyd George in the Liberal split during the First World War, and as a consequence was not offered support by the Coalition in the 1918 general election. Indicating his estrangement from the Liberal Party, he fought as an "Independent Radical" although he had been adopted by the local Liberal association.
In 1919 Lees-Smith joined the He was a noted speaker on banking and on reform of the House of Lords about which he wrote several books including Second Chambers in Theory and Practice (1923).
Unfortunately for Lees-Smith, the Conservatives stood down in the 1923 general election and he was defeated by the Liberal candidate. This defeat prevented him from being appointed as a Minister in the first Labour government. In a reshuffle in March 1931 he was promoted to President of the Board of Education and sworn of the Privy Council.
He had only a brief time in office before the government fell, and Lees-Smith refused to follow Ramsay Macdonald into the National Government.
He served on the front bench but was not invited by Winston Churchill to join the Coalition government in 1940. As one of the most senior Labour figures not in office, the responsibilities of running the party were given to him.
In his partisan role he strongly supported Churchill"s conduct as war leader at a time when the war did not always run in the Allies" favour.
Rather than defend Northampton (which had been reduced to one member), he moved to the new Don Valley constituency but lost to a Coalition-supported National Democratic and candidate. When Labour returned to office in 1929 he was made Postmaster-General where he defended the nationalised Post Office and tried to smarten up the Post Office counters.
29th United Kingdom Parliament. 30th United Kingdom Parliament. 32nd United Kingdom Parliament.
34th United Kingdom Parliament.
35th United Kingdom Parliament]
He was the member of Parliament who in July 1917 read Siegfried Sassoon"s declaration that World War I had continued too long and should be ended.