Webb , Sidney James , 1859-1947 , 1st Baron Passfield , social reformer and historian

Webb , Sidney James , 1859-1947 , 1st Baron Passfield , social reformer and historian

Sidney Webb, 1859-1947, the son of an accountant, was born in London on 13 July, 1859. At the age of sixteen Webb became an office clerk but he continued to attend evening classes at the University of London until he acquired the qualifications needed to enter the Civil Service. Webb also contributed to the 'Christian Socialist' and taught at the London Working Men's College. In 1885 he joined the Fabian Society. In 1892 Webb married Beatrice Potter (1958-1943), the social reformer. In the same year he stood as the Fabian Society candidate for Deptford in the London County Council elections. Webb won the seat and he retained it for the next eighteen years. Webb was appointed as Chairman of the Technical Instruction Committee and as a result was known as the Minister of Public Education for London. In 1894 Henry Hutchinson, a wealthy solicitor from Derby, left the Fabian Society £10,000. Sidney and Beatrice Webb suggested that the money should be used to develop a new university in London. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) was founded in 1895.

When the Conservative Party won the 1900 General Election, the Webbs drafted what later became the 1902 Education Act. In 1915 Sidney Webb was appointed to the Labour Party National Executive. By 1922 he was Chairman of the National Executive and the following year, in the 1923 General Election, was chosen to represent the Labour Party in the Seaham constituency. Webb won the seat, and when Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937) became Britain's first Labour Prime Minister in 1924, he appointed Webb as his President of the Board of Trade. Webb left the House of Commons in 1929 when he was granted the title Baron Passfield. Now in the House of Lords, Webb served as Secretary of State for the Colonies in MacDonald's second Labour Government. His publications include: 'The case for an eight hours bill' (1891); 'The History of Trade Unionism' (1894) Co-written with Beatrice Webb; 'Industrial Democracy' (1897) Co-written with Beatrice Webb; 'Facts for Socialists' (1887); 'Facts for Londoners' (1888); 'The Eight Hour Day' (1891); 'English local government' (1906); 'The decline in the birth-rate' (1907); 'The basis & policy of socialism' (1908); 'The Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission' (1909); 'Conscience and the conscientious objector' (1917); 'A constitution for the socialist commonwealth of Great Britain' (1920); 'The decay of capitalist civilisation' (1923); 'English poor law history' (1927); 'Soviet communism: dictatorship or democracy?' (1936).