Charles Key
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The Right Honourable Charles Key |
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| Minister of Works | |
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In office 10 February 1947 – 28 February 1950 |
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| Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
| Preceded by | George Tomlinson |
| Succeeded by | Richard Stokes |
| Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health | |
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In office 4 August 1945 – 12 February 1947 |
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| Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
| Preceded by | Hamilton Kerr |
| Succeeded by | John Edwards |
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Member of Parliament for Poplar Bow and Bromley (1940–1950) |
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In office 12 June 1940 – 15 October 1964 |
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| Preceded by | George Lansbury |
| Succeeded by | Ian Mikardo |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 8 August 1883 |
| Died | 6 December 1964 (aged 81) |
| Political party | Labour |
Charles William Key, PC (8 August 1883 – 6 December 1964) was a British schoolmaster and Labour Party politician. Coming from a very working-class background, the generosity of a family friend made it possible for him to get a start in life and train as a teacher; he entered politics through Poplar Borough Council, and was elected to Parliament to replace George Lansbury. Serving in junior posts during the Attlee government, he remained in Parliament until the age of 81.
Key was born in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, where his father worked in the brickfields. At the age of six, his father died and he was brought up by his mother alone; the family were very poor and not only did his mother have to work as a charlady, Key himself was needed to work on deliveries for a local draper. The family were largely dependent on poor relief under the Poor Law: in later life Key often remembered collecting 1s. 6d. and two quartern loaves of bread, being two-fifths of a pound. He claimed to have promised his mother at the age of nine that he would get into Parliament and repeal the Poor Law.
While Key was attending the village school, and doing well, his mother took in lodgers to help make ends meet. One of the lodgers was a young chemist, who decided to take responsibility for helping him develop his talent, and provided enough funds for Key to continue his education at the Mile End Pupil Teachers' Centre and to get practical training at a school in South Hackney. Key then won a Queen's Scholarship to go to the Borough Road Teacher Training College. There he qualified as a teacher and went into work in a school in Mile End.
During the First World War, Key served in the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Corporal. After the war, he became Headmaster of schools in Hoxton and Poplar. While working in Poplar in 1919, Key (who had joined the Labour Party in 1906) was elected to Poplar Borough Council from Bromley North West ward, part of a Labour majority on the council.
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Wikipedia