Cripps was born in London, the son of Charles Cripps, a barrister and later Conservative MP, and the former Theresa Potter, the sister of Beatrice Webb and Catherine Courtney. His mother died when he was four years old. His stepmother, Marian Ellis, had a profound influence on him.
Cripps grew up in a wealthy family and was educated at Winchester College, where the Headmaster described him as "a thoroughly good fellow" and at University College London, where he studied Chemistry. He left science for the law, and in 1913 was called to the bar by the Middle Temple.
He served in the First World War as a Red Cross ambulance driver in France, and then managed a chemical factory producing armaments. He remained a barrister during the 1920s, where he specialised in patent cases, and was reported to be the highest paid lawyer in England.
Cripps was elected to Parliament as a member of the Labour Party in 1931, and in 1934 he became a member of the party's national executive council. A left-wing socialist, he was expelled from the party in 1939 for advocating cooperation with Great Britain's Communist Party. Cripps also advocated the formation of a military alliance with the Soviet Union. When Winston Churchill became prime minister in 1940, he appointed Cripps ambassador to the Soviet Union, in which capacity Cripps was instrumental in negotiating the British-Soviet alliance of 1941, during World War II.
Upon his return from the Soviet Union in 1942, Cripps entered Churchill's war cabinet and became leader of the House of Commons. The same year he was sent to India to negotiate a plan for Indian independence; it was hoped that this would end the political unrest that was interfering with India's cooperation in the war effort. Despite Cripps' efforts the mission was unsuccessful. Late in 1942 Cripps became minister of aircraft production.
Cripps was readmitted to the Labour Party in 1945 and was appointed president of the Board of Trade when the party won the general election that year. To deal with Great Britain's postwar economic crisis Cripps was appointed to head the ministry of economic affairs in October 1947. On November 13 he became chancellor of the exchequer. In this capacity he was faced with the problem of putting British finances in order by increasing industrial production, stabilizing the pound sterling, and aiding in the Labour Party's plan of socializing public utilities and major industries. He was handicapped by high costs of production, by the immense losses of British overseas investments used to finance the war, and by the resulting drain on British gold and dollar reserves. Cripps instituted an austerity program of reduced consumption and increased taxes; and he advocated industrial modernization to reduce production costs, thereby enabling British manufacturers to compete successfully in world markets.
Physical Characteristics: Cripps had suffered for many years from colitis, inflammation of the lower bowel, a condition aggravated by stress. In 1950 his health broke down and he was forced to resign his office in October. He resigned from Parliament the same month, and at the resulting by-election on 30 November he was succeeded as MP for Bristol South East by Tony Benn. Cripps died two years later of cancer.
He was married to Isobel, Lady Cripps, better known as Dame Isobel Cripps (1891–1979), and had four children.
Born at Denham, Buckinghamshire, she was the second daughter and the youngest of three children of Commander Harold William Swithinbank, DL (1858 – 1928), a landowner of Denham Court, and his wife, Amy, the daughter of James Crossley Eno, inventor of Eno fruit salts. Through her grandfather Admiral George Winthrop she was descendant from the Winthrop family of New England in British North America. She was educated privately and at the Heathfield School, near Ascot.
He was married in 1937 to Ursula Davy, and had four sons and two daughters. His oldest son, David Stafford Cripps, died in 1990. His second son, Francis Cripps, is an economist and lives in Thailand. His third son, Christopher Cripps, is an architect and lives in Ghana. His fourth son, Andrew Cripps, is a tenant on the family farm. His older daughter, Judith Heyer, is an economist, Emeritus Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford. His younger daughter, Rachel Rosedale, is married to Barney Rosedale.
She died unmarried.
She was married 1945 to Sir Robert Cornwallis Gerald St. Leger Ricketts, 7th Bt, and had two sons and two daughters. The elder son Sir Tristram Ricketts, 8th Bt. succeeded his father, died in 2007, and has been succeeded by his own son, Sir Stephen Ricketts, 9th Bt.
Born under name Enid Margaret Cripps, children's author and philanthropist. Peggy Cripps shocked much British opinion by marrying the black African aristocrat Nana Joseph Emmanuel Appiah (1918–1990), a relative of the Ashanti king of Ghana, in June 1953. Peggy Appiah had one son and three daughters. Her son is the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah (b. May 1954 London), the Laurance S. Rockefeller professor of philosophy at Princeton University. Her three daughters live in Namibia, Nigeria, and Ghana and have eight children among them
