Hugh Dalton
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The Right Honourable The Lord Dalton PC |
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| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
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In office 31 May 1948 – 28 February 1950 |
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| Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
| Preceded by | The Lord Pakenham |
| Succeeded by | A. V. Alexander |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
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In office 27 July 1945 – 13 November 1947 |
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| Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
| Preceded by | John Anderson |
| Succeeded by | Stafford Cripps |
| President of the Board of Trade | |
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In office 22 February 1942 – 23 May 1945 |
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| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | John Llewellin |
| Succeeded by | Oliver Lyttelton |
| Minister of Economic Warfare | |
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In office 15 May 1940 – 22 February 1942 |
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| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | Ronald Cross |
| Succeeded by | Roundell Palmer |
| Chairman of the Labour Party | |
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In office 9 October 1936 – 8 October 1937 |
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| Leader | Clement Attlee |
| Preceded by | Jennie Adamson |
| Succeeded by | George Dallas |
| Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | |
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In office 11 June 1929 – 3 September 1931 |
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| Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | Anthony Eden |
| Succeeded by | James Stanhope |
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Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland |
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In office 14 November 1935 – 8 October 1959 |
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| Preceded by | Aaron Curry |
| Succeeded by | James Boyden |
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In office 30 May 1929 – 27 October 1931 |
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| Preceded by | Ruth Dalton |
| Succeeded by | Aaron Curry |
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Member of Parliament for Peckham |
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In office 29 October 1924 – 30 May 1929 |
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| Preceded by | Collingwood Hughes |
| Succeeded by | John Beckett |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
26 August 1887 Neath, Wales, UK |
| Died | 13 February 1962 (aged 74) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge, London School of Economics and Political Science |
Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton PC (16 August 1887 – 13 February 1962) was a British Labour Party economist and politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945 to 1947. He shaped Labour Party foreign-policy in the 1930s, opposed pacifism, promoted rearmament against the German threat, and strongly opposed the appeasement policy of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938. He served in Churchill's wartime coalition cabinet. As Chancellor, he pushed his cheap money policy too hard, and mishandled the sterling crisis of 1947. Dalton's political position was already in jeopardy in 1947, when, he, seemingly inadvertently, revealed a sentence of the budget to a reporter minutes before delivering his budget speech. Prime Minister Clement Attlee accepted his resignation, but he later returned to the cabinet in relatively minor positions.
His biographer Ben Pimlott characterised Dalton as peevish, irascible, given to poor judgment and lacking administrative talent. He also recognised that Dalton was a genuine radical and an inspired politician; a man, to quote his old friend and critic John Freeman, 'of feeling, humanity, and unshakeable loyalty to people which matched his talent.'
Born in Neath, in Wales, his father, John Neale Dalton, was a Church of England clergyman who became chaplain to Queen Victoria, tutor to princes Albert Victor and George, later King George V, and a canon of Windsor.
Dalton was educated at Summer Fields School and then at Eton College, where he was head of his house, but was disappointed not to be elected to "Pop". He went up to King's College, Cambridge, where he was active in student politics and his socialist views, then very rare amongst undergraduates, earned him the nickname "Comrade Hugh". Whilst at Cambridge he was President of the Cambridge University Fabian Society. He did not succeed in becoming President of the Cambridge Union Society, despite three unsuccessful attempts to be elected Secretary.
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