John James Lawson
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The Right Honourable The Lord Lawson PC |
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|---|---|
| Secretary of State for War | |
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In office 3 August 1945 – 4 October 1946 |
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| Monarch | George VI |
| Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
| Preceded by | Sir P. J. Grigg |
| Succeeded by | Frederick Bellenger |
| Financial Secretary to the War Office | |
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In office 23 January 1924 – 11 November 1924 |
|
| Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | Rupert Gwynne |
| Succeeded by | Douglas King |
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Member of Parliament for Chester-le-Street |
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In office 13 November 1919 – 19 December 1949 |
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| Preceded by | John Wilkinson Taylor |
| Succeeded by | Patrick Bartley |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
16 October 1881 Whitehaven, Cumberland |
| Died | 3 August 1965 (aged 83) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | Ruskin College, Oxford |
John James Lawson, 1st Baron Lawson, PC (16 October 1881 – 3 August 1965) was a British trade unionist and a Labour politician. A miner and later Member of Parliament in County Durham, he served in the governments of Ramsay MacDonald and Clement Attlee. In 1950 he was ennobled as Baron Lawson, of Beamish in the County of Durham, and is sometimes referred to as Lord Lawson of Beamish.
Lawson was born in the port town of Whitehaven, Cumberland, and grew up in the nearby village of Kells. His father John Lawson was a sailor and miner who had begun working in a colliery by the age of nine, sailed round the world by eleven, and later served in the Royal Naval Reserve. His mother, Lisbeth Savage, was a strict disciplinarian. Both parents were illiterate and the family lived in extremes of poverty common at the time. At the age of three, Lawson was sent to the local National School, Glass House School. Here, he learned to read, developing an avid interest in popular fiction as a boy, and moving on to literary fiction and poetry in later years. When he was six his family moved to the village of Flimby, near the towns of Maryport and Workington. The family now included ten children: five boys and five girls. Two of his elder brothers worked with his father at the local colliery and the family was no longer on the breadline. A year later, they moved to County Durham, where the working members were employed at Boldon Colliery. The family joined the Co-operative Society, and were committed trade unionists, active in the Durham miners' strike of 1892. Outside of school, Jack Lawson's time was consumed with chores and he often looked after his youngest brother, Will, born in 1890.
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