Richard Acland

For the Bishop of Bombay, see Richard Acland (bishop).

Richard Acland
Born	26 November 1906(1906-11-26)
Died	24 November 1990(1990-11-24) (aged 83)
Title	Acland Baronet of Columb John
Tenure	9 June 1939 - 24 November 1990 (&1000000000000005100000051 years, &10000000000000168000000168 days)
Predecessor	Francis, 14th Baronet
Successor	John, 16th Baronet
Spouse(s)	Anne Stella Alford

Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet (26 November 1906 – 24 November 1990) was one of the founding members of the British Common Wealth Party. He had previously been a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) and joined the Labour Party in 1945. He was one of the founders of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Career

Acland was the son of Sir Francis Acland, a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP). Born in Broadclyst, Devon, he was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford and became a barrister and architect. He served as a lieutenant in the Royal North Devon Yeomanry.

Acland stood for Parliament without success for Torquay at the 1929 general election. He was elected Liberal MP for Barnstaple at the 1935 election, having first contested the seat in the 1931 general election. He was a junior whip for the Liberals. His politics changed course subsequently, as seen in the various pamphlets he wrote, and in 1942 he broke from the Liberals to found the socialist Common Wealth Party with J. B. Priestley, opposing the coalition between the major parties. He advocated public land ownership and donated his West Country estate at Killerton, Devon to the National Trust.

The Common Wealth Party had shown signs during World War II of a breakthrough, especially in London and Merseyside, and winning three by-elections. However, the 1945 general election was a severe disappointment. Only one Member of Parliament (Ernest Millington) was elected and other figures had left or joined the Labour Party. Acland himself lost in Putney, where he came third. He then joined Labour and was selected to fight the Gravesend seat following the expulsion of Labour MP Garry Allighan for making allegations of corruption. He won the Gravesend by-election in November 1947 with a majority of 1,675.

Back in Parliament, Acland served as Second Church Estates Commissioner 1950–51. In 1955, he resigned from Labour in protest against the party's support for the Conservative government's nuclear defence policy, and lost Gravesend as an independent the same year, allowing the Conservatives to take the seat from the official Labour candidate, Victor Mishcon. He helped form the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1957 and was senior lecturer in education at St. Luke's College of Education, Exeter.

Acland was married to Anne Stella Alford, an architect, with whom he had four sons. He succeeded his father as baronet in 1939. He died in Exeter aged 83.

See also

• Common Wealth Party
• Gravesend by-election, 1947

Key Publications

• Unser Kampf (Our Struggle), Penguin Books, 1940
• The Forward March, Allen & Unwin, 1941
• What Will It Be Like in the New Britain?, Victor Gollancz, 1942
• How Can It Be Done, MacDonald, 1943

References

• Leigh Rayment's List of Baronets
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
• The Acland Papers at the University of Exeter
• Neil Stockley, Richard Acland in Brack & Randall (eds.) Dictionary of Liberal Thought, Politico's 2007, pp3-5

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Richard Acland
• Portraits of Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland, 15th Bt at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• History of St Luke's, Exeter http://education.exeter.ac.uk/pages.php?id=133

Political offices
Preceded by J. B. Priestley	Chairman of the Common Wealth Party 1942–1943	Succeeded by Kim Mackay
Preceded by Kim Mackay	Chairman of the Common Wealth Party 1944–1945	Succeeded by C. A. Smith
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Basil Peto	Member of Parliament for Barnstaple 1935–1945	Succeeded by Christopher Peto
Preceded by Garry Allighan	Member of Parliament for Gravesend 1947–1955	Succeeded by Peter Kirk
Baronetage of England
Preceded by Francis Dyke Acland	Baronet (of Columb John, Devonshire) 1939–1990	Succeeded by John Dyke Acland