Walter Cunliffe, 1st Baron Cunliffe
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The Right Honourable The Lord Cunliffe GBE |
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|---|---|
| Governor of the Bank of England | |
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In office 1913–1918 |
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| Preceded by | Alfred Clayton Cole |
| Succeeded by | Sir Brien Cokayne |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Walter Cunliffe 3 December 1855 London, England |
| Died | 6 January 1920 (aged 64) Headley Court, Surrey, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Profession | Banker |
Walter Cunliffe, 1st Baron Cunliffe GBE (3 December 1855 – 6 January 1920) established the merchant banking business of Cunliffe Brothers (after 1920, Goschens and Cunliffe) in London, and who was Governor of the Bank of England from 1913 to 1918, during the critical World War I era. He was created 1st Baron Cunliffe in 1914. He chaired the Cunliffe Committee which reported in 1918 with a plan for the monetary policy of the central bank and government after the war, which helped to shape fiscal policy.
Cunliffe was born in London in 1855, the eldest of four brothers and two sisters. His father, James Cunliffe, helped to finance and negotiate the development of the North Eastern Railway, and became a merchant banker in the 1860s. He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge.
His brother, Alan Percy Cunliffe (1864-1942) was a landowner and racehorse-owner, who late in life married the film actress Malvina Longfellow.
Walter Cunliffe entered the banking industry in 1880. Together with his two brothers Arthur Robert and Leonard Daneham, he founded the merchant bank Cunliffe Brothers in 1890. On 1 January 1920 it became Goschen and Cunliffe, which failed in December 1939.
Cunliffe became a director of the Bank of England in 1895, becoming Governor in 1913 and working under Chancellors of the Exchequer David Lloyd George and Bonar Law. Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, he calmed the money markets after preventing the suspension of gold payments and preventing the removal of foreign securities. He was created Baron Cunliffe, of Headley in the County of Surrey, in December 1914. In April-May 1917 he was a member of the Balfour Mission, intended to promote cooperation between the US and UK during World War I.
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