Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood

The Right Honourable
The Viscount Greenwood
KC PC
Chief Secretary for Ireland
In office
2 April 1920 – 19 October 1922
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd George
Preceded byIan Macpherson
Succeeded byOffice abolished - replaced by Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State
Secretary for Overseas Trade
In office
1919–1920
Board Pres.Sir Auckland Geddes
Preceded bySir Arthur Steel-Maitland
Succeeded byF. G. Kellaway
Member of Parliament
for York
In office
8 February 1906 – 10 January 1910
Serving with Denison Faber
Preceded byJohn Butcher
Denison Faber
Succeeded byArnold Stephenson Rowntree
John Butcher
Personal details
Born7 February 1870 (1870-02-07)
Whitby, Ontario, Canada
Died10 September 1948(1948-09-10) (aged 78)
London, Middlesex, England
PartyLiberal
Conservative
Spouse
Margery Spencer (1886–1968)
​
​
(m. 1911)​
Children4; including Angela
EducationUniversity of Toronto
Lady Greenwood in 1918

Thomas Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood, PC, KC (7 February 1870 – 10 September 1948), known as Sir Hamar Greenwood, 1st Baronet between 1915 and 1929, was a Canadian-born British politician. He served as the last Chief Secretary for Ireland between 1920 and 1922, as which he was responsible for the Black and Tans.

Family and Early Life

Greenwood was born in Whitby, Ontario, Canada,[1] to John Hamar Greenwood (1829–1903), a lawyer who had emigrated from Llanbister, Radnorshire, Wales,[1] and Charlotte Churchill Hubbard, who was from a United Empire Loyalist family that had an ancestor who immigrated to Canada after the American Revolutionary War.[2]

He studied at the University of Toronto, from which he earned a BA in 1895, and subsequently worked for the Canadian Department of Agriculture.[3] He dabbled in the theatre in Canada during his youth.[1]

He worked as a stableman on a cattle-boat to earn his passage to Britain, where he arrived with little money.[1] Winston Churchill’s wife Clementine described Greenwood as “nothing but a blaspheming, hearty, vulgar, brave, knock-about Colonial”.[1] He was a self-made man.[1]

Military career

Greenwood spent seven years as an officer in the Canadian militia.[3] He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in King Edward's Horse (The King's Overseas Dominions Regiment), a London-based Militia unit, in 1902 and was promoted to Captain in 1905. He went onto the Reserve in 1913. On the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, he served in the Department of Recruiting at the War Office, and when David Lloyd George formed the Welsh National Executive Committee to recruit a Welsh Army Corps for 'Kitchener's Army' Greenwood was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel to raise and command the 10th (Service) Battalion, South Wales Borderers (1st Gwent) in December. He took the battalion to the Western Front in December 1915, but was recalled to serve as a Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General at the War Office in April 1916 before the unit saw serious action. He was later appointed Honorary Colonel of the Winnipeg Grenadiers.[4][5]

Career

He spoke at temperance meetings across Britain[1] and qualified as a barrister at Gray's Inn in 1906.[4] He was elected, as Member of Parliament for York for the Liberal Party, in 1906, and held a seat in the House of Commons for most of the next 23 years,[1] including for Sunderland from 1910 to 1922.[6] He advocated Irish home-rule: and said in 1911 “Ireland has been shamefully treated [and] “is justly entitled to local self-government”.[1]

In 1912, he represented the Allan Line and the Canadian Pacific Line during the British inquiry into the sinking of RMS Titanic, watching proceedings on their behalf.[7]

Greenwood's wife Margery Spencer had an affair with Lloyd George that probably contributed to Greenwood's baronetcy, of Onslow Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington,[4][8] of 1915.[1]

He served under David Lloyd George as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department in 1919, as Additional Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Additional Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, as Secretary for Overseas Trade from 1919 to 1920.[4]

Chief Secretary for Ireland

Greenwood was appointed the last Chief Secretary for Ireland, with a seat in the Cabinet, from 1920 to 1922. He had had no Cabinet experience when he was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland in the spring of 1920.[1] He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1920.[4]

As Chief Secretary, Greenwood responsible for the aggressive use of two specially formed paramilitary forces – the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries – during the Irish War of Independence. Greenwood’s claims that the Black and Tans were under control ‘made him a laughing stock and a political pariah’.[1]

Lord Riddell, a friend of Prime Minister Lloyd George, stated that, although Greenwood's life was in constant danger from the Irish rebels, Greenwood "[seemed] to be tackling his job with great fearlessness and to be giving the Sinn Feiners some of their own medicine."[9] After the Burning of Cork by British auxiliary forces in December 1920, Greenwood blamed the "Sinn Féin rebels" and the people of Cork for burning their city.[10] Greenwood was described by a 21st-century Irish journalist as "A Lloyd George loyalist who believed in restoring British rule in Ireland by defeating the IRA, Greenwood’s denials and evasions became so frequent that he was lampooned with the phrase 'to tell a Greenwood'".[11]

Greenwood lost his seat in the 1922 general election. At the 1924 general election, he was one of a small number of Liberals, including Winston Churchill, to stand as Constitutionalist candidates. These were Liberals who advocated closer ties between Liberals and Conservatives. Greenwood's candidature in Walthamstow East was supported by the local Conservative association, but not by the local Liberals, who had their own candidate, and he won the seat. After the election, when it appeared that there was no prospect of closer formal ties between the two parties, Greenwood took the Conservative whip. He continued to represent Walthamstow East until 1929,[12] although he never held government office again.

Post-Government

In the 1929 Dissolution Honours, Greenwood was raised to the peerage as Baron Greenwood, of Llanbister in the County of Radnor.[4][13] In 1937, he was created Viscount Greenwood, of Holbourne in the County of London.[4][14] He was president of the British Iron and Steel Federation from 1938 to 1939, chairman of the Pilgrims Society from 1945 to 1948, and president of the Pilgrims Society in 1948.

He died on 10 September 1948 in London, England.[4][15]

Family

His wife was Margery Spencer, daughter of The Rev. Walter Spencer of Fownhope Court, Herefordshire, and the same's wife Anne "Annie" Elizabeth Hudson. She was 17 years Greenwood's junior.[1] She was made a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1922.[4]

They had two sons and two daughters. Their elder son, David Henry Hamar Greenwood, succeeded his father as second Viscount.[4][16][3] He died unmarried and was succeeded as third Viscount by his younger brother, Michael George Hamar Greenwood, who also died unmarried in 2003, when the title of Viscount Greenwood therefore became extinct.[17][18]

Their elder daughter, Angela, married Edward Dudley Delevingne and was the paternal grandmother of model sisters Poppy and Cara Delevingne. Their younger daughter, Deborah Hamar Greenwood, married Patrick David de László, son of painter Philip de László.[19][20][21]

Arms

Coat of arms of Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood
Crest
A Demi Lion per fess Gules and Sable resting the sinister paw on a Portcullis Or
Escutcheon
Gules on a Chevron Ermine between three Saltires as many Portcullises Or
Supporters
On either side a Lion rampant per fess Gules and Sable supporting a Staff Or flowing therefrom a Banner Argent that on the dexter charged with a Rose Gules barbed and seeded proper and that on the sinister charged with a Maple Leaf also proper
Motto
Law and Loyalty [22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 The Irish Times, Review of Roy McLaren’s The Transatlantic Career of the Canadian Imperialist Hamar Greenwood, 1870-1948, by Dean Jobb, of University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 2016
  2. ↑ Profile Archived 24 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine, nationalarchives.ie; accessed 21 March 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Seedorf, Martin F. (2004). "Greenwood, Hamar, first Viscount Greenwood (1870–1948), politician and businessman". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33545. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 100th Edn, London, 1953: 'Greenwood'.
  5. ↑ C.T. Atkinson, The History of the South Wales Borderers 1914–1918, London: Medici Society, 1931, pp. 69, 177–8.
  6. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 6)
  7. ↑ "British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry: List of Counsel Present". Titanic Inquiry Project.
  8. ↑ "No. 29070". The London Gazette. 16 February 1915. p. 1553.
  9. ↑ Riddell, George (1934), Lord Riddell's Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and After, Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, pg 239.
  10. ↑ "BLAME CORK FIRES ON MILITARY ALONE; Irish Labor Party and Trades Union Congress Issue Results of Their Inquiry.WITNESSES' NAMES SECRETBut Report Says 70 Were Examined, Including Men froman American Ship. CONTRADICTS GREENWOOD Challenges Government to IssueStrickland Report--Now Official Inquiry Likely". New York Times. 20 January 1921. Archived from the original on 26 October 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2008.
  11. ↑ Ó Corráin, Daithí (13 November 2020). "The strange, gruesome murder of a Galway priest 100 years ago". RTÉ. Archived from the original on 7 October 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
  12. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 1)
  13. ↑ "No. 33532". The London Gazette. 6 September 1929. p. 5772.
  14. ↑ "No. 34375". The London Gazette. 26 February 1937. p. 1324.
  15. ↑ "Hamar Greenwood, Treasurer Conservative Party, Dies". New York Times. 11 September 1948. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  16. ↑ "Sous-Fonds: Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood (WA2012-01D), Whitby Archives – Greenwood Family Collection" (PDF). Whitby Public Library. February 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 March 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  17. ↑ "Colleges". Oxford University Gazette. 133. 31 July 2003. Archived from the original on 29 July 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2014. THE HON. MICHAEL GEORGE HAMAR GREENWOOD, 7 July 2003; commoner 1942. Aged 80.
  18. ↑ "Viscount". Debretts. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2014. Since 1989 eight viscountcies have become extinct: Muirsheil, Furness, Watkinson, Lambert, Leverhulme, Greenwood, Cross and Ingleby, and Barrington is dormant or extinct.
  19. ↑ "Hon. Angela Margo Hamar Delevingne (née Greenwood) (1912-), Daughter of 1st Baron Greenwood; wife of (Edward) Dudley Delevingne". National Portrait Gallery. Archived from the original on 9 August 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  20. ↑ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's peerage, baronetage & knightage, clan chiefs, Scottish feudal barons (107th ed.). Wilmington: Burke's Peerage & Gentry. ISBN 9780971196629. Archived from the original on 15 July 2007. Retrieved 18 December 2021. Search website for "Delevingne" for snippet view.
  21. ↑ Fox, Imogen (7 September 2013). "Six degrees of Cara Delevingne". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
  22. ↑ "Greenwood, Viscount (UK, 1937-2003)". Cracroft's Peerage. Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
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