John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley

The Right Honourable
The Viscount Waverley

GCB OM GCSI GCIE PC
The Right Honourable; The Viscount Waverley ; GCB OM GCSI GCIE PC
Home Secretary
	In office; 4 September 1939 – 3 October 1940
Prime Minister	Neville Chamberlain; Winston Churchill
Preceded by	Samuel Hoare
Succeeded by	Herbert Morrison
Lord President of the Council
	In office; 3 October 1940 – 24 September 1943
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	Neville Chamberlain
Succeeded by	Clement Attlee
Chancellor of the Exchequer
	In office; 24 September 1943 – 26 July 1945
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	Kingsley Wood
Succeeded by	Hugh Dalton
Personal details
Born	8 July 1882; Eskbank, Midlothian, Scotland
Died	4 January 1958 (aged 75)
Political party	National

John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, PC, PC (Ireland) (8 July 1882 – 4 January 1958) was a British civil servant and politician who is best known for his service in the Cabinet during World War II, for which he was nicknamed The Home Front Prime Minister. He served as Home Secretary, Lord President of the Council and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Anderson shelters are named after him.

Early life

He was born in Eskbank, part of Dalkeith in Midlothian and studied mathematics and geology at the University of Edinburgh and chemistry at the University of Leipzig where he wrote a thesis on the chemistry of uranium. He was a brilliant student, winning numerous prizes, but at the age of 22 he decided to forsake a career in science and sat for the British civil service examinations, coming first, while also taking a degree in economics. In later life he was elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society.^[1]

He was appointed to the Colonial Office in 1905. Later, he served as Under-Secretary for Ireland, and became Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office in 1922, where he had to deal with the General Strike of 1926. His career in the civil service was capped by a posting as Governor of Bengal from 1932 to 1937.

Public career

In early 1938, Anderson was elected to the House of Commons for the Scottish Universities as a National Member of Parliament (MP), a nominal non-party supporter of the National Government. In October that year he entered Neville Chamberlain's Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal. In that capacity, he was put in charge of air raid preparations. He initiated the development of a kind of air-raid shelter named the "Anderson shelter", a small sheet metal cylinder made of prefabricated pieces which could be assembled in a garden.

War time

After the outbreak of war in 1939, Anderson returned to hold the joint portfolio of Secretary of State for Home Affairs and Minister of Home Security, a position in which he served under Winston Churchill, often attending his War Cabinet. He retained responsibility for civil defence. In October 1940, he was replaced by Herbert Morrison in a reshuffle precipitated by Chamberlain's resignation over ill-health. He became Lord President of the Council and full member of the War Cabinet.

Post-war

Following the unexpected death of Sir Kingsley Wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Anderson was appointed to that office. As Chancellor, in a written Commons answer of 12 June 1945, he announced the creation of the Arts Council of Great Britain, a successor body to the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA).^[2] He remained in the post until the Labour victory in the general election early in July 1945 (not announced until August) and left the Commons when the University constituencies were abolished at the 1950 general election. Meanwhile he became Chairman of the Port of London authority in 1946 and Chairman of the Royal Opera House in March the same year.^[3] He remained in the latter post for eleven years.

He rejected an offer to join Churchill's peacetime administration when it was formed in October 1951, and was created Viscount Waverley, of Westdean in the County of Sussex, in 1952, dying six years later.

Styles

1882-1918: John Anderson
1918-1919: John Anderson, CB
1919-1920: Sir John Anderson, KCB
1920-1923: Sir John Anderson, KCB, PC (Ire.)
1923-1932: Sir John Anderson, GCB, PC (Ire.)
1932-1937: His Excellency Sir John Anderson, GCB, GCIE, PC (Ire.)
1937-1938: Sir John Anderson, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, PC (Ire.)
1938-1945: The Right Honourable Sir John Anderson, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, PC, PC (Ire.)
1945-1952: The Right Honourable Sir John Anderson, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, PC, PC (Ire.), FRS
1952-1956: The Right Honourable the Viscount Waverley, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, PC, PC (Ire.), FRS
1956-1958: The Right Honourable the Viscount Waverley, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, PC, PC (Ire.), FRS

Biography

John Anderson, Viscount Waverley, 1962 by John Wheeler-Bennett

References

^ Lord Bridges, Henry Dale: "John Anderson, Viscount Waverley. 1882-1958." Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 4, Nov., 1958 pp. 306-325.
^ Hansard, HC Debate 12 June 1945
^ Norman Lebrecht Covent Garden: the Untold Story: Dispatches From the English Culture War, 1945-2000, London: Simon & Schuster, 2000, p.80-81

External links

Government offices
Preceded by James Macmahon Macmahon also remained Joint Under-Secretary	Joint Permanent Under-Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1920–1922	Office abolished
Preceded by Sir Edward Troup	Permanent Under-Secretary for the Home Department 1922–1932	Succeeded by Sir Russell Scott
Preceded by Sir Stanley Jackson	Governor of Bengal 1932–1937	Succeeded by The Lord Brabourne
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Ramsay MacDonald	Member of Parliament for Combined Scottish Universities 1938–1950	Constituency abolished
Political offices
Preceded by The Earl De La Warr	Lord Privy Seal 1938–1939	Succeeded by Sir Samuel Hoare
Preceded by Sir Samuel Hoare	Home Secretary 1939–1940	Succeeded by Herbert Stanley Morrison
Preceded by Neville Chamberlain	Lord President of the Council 1940–1943	Succeeded by Clement Attlee
Preceded by Sir Kingsley Wood	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1943–1945	Succeeded by Hugh Dalton
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Viscount Waverley 1952–1958	Succeeded by David Alastair Pearson Anderson

Template:Persondata

[1] Lord Bridges, Henry Dale: "John Anderson, Viscount Waverley. 1882-1958." Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 4, Nov., 1958 pp. 306-325.

[2] Hansard, HC Debate 12 June 1945

[3] Norman Lebrecht Covent Garden: the Untold Story: Dispatches From the English Culture War, 1945-2000, London: Simon & Schuster, 2000, p.80-81

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