Geoffrey Shakespeare

Sir Geoffrey Hithersay Shakespeare, 1st Baronet PC (23 September 1893 – 8 September 1980) was a British Liberal Party politician.

Born in Norwich, the second son of Rev. John Howard Shakespeare, Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, he was educated at Highgate School. He served in World War I. He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he graduated with an MA and an LLB degree. He was President of the Cambridge Union Society in Lent Term 1920.

He was called to the Bar in 1922, was Private Secretary to David Lloyd George in 1921–1923, and worked as a political journalist. As Private Secretary, he attended the peace negotiations leading to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, of which he gave a valuable account in his memoirs, Let Candles be Brought In.

He was National Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Wellingborough, Northamptonshire in 1922–1923 and Liberal Member for Norwich in 1929–1931 and Liberal National member in 1931–1945.

He served in government as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury and Liberal National Chief Whip from November 1931 – October 1932, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health in 1932–1936, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education in 1936–1937, Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty in 1937–1940, Secretary for Overseas Trade from April to May 1940, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs from 1940 to 1942. He was also Chairman of the Children's Overseas Reception Board, 1940–1942.

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