Charles Ammon, 1st Baron Ammon

The Right Honourable The Lord Ammon PC DL JP
Charles Ammon in 1929, by Lafayette
Chief Whip of the House of Lords Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms
In office 4 August 1945 – 18 October 1949
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	The Earl Fortescue
Succeeded by	The Lord Shepherd
Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty
In office 11 June 1929 – 24 August 1931
Prime Minister	Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by	Cuthbert Headlam
Succeeded by	The Earl Stanhope
In office 23 January 1924 – 4 November 1924
Prime Minister	Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by	Archibald Boyd-Carpenter
Succeeded by	J. C. C. Davidson
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 31 January 1944 – 2 April 1960 Hereditary Peerage
Preceded by	Peerage created
Succeeded by	Peerage extinct
Member of Parliament for Camberwell North
In office 14 November 1935 – 30 January 1944
Preceded by	Arthur Bateman
Succeeded by	Cecil Manning
In office 20 February 1922 – 7 October 1931
Preceded by	Henry Newton Knights
Succeeded by	Arthur Bateman
Personal details
Born	22 April 1873
Died	2 April 1960 (aged 86)
Political party	Labour

Charles George Ammon, 1st Baron Ammon, PC, DL, JP (22 April 1873 – 2 April 1960) was a British Labour Party politician.

Background and education

The son of Charles George and Mary Ammon, he was educated at public elementary schools. He was active in the Independent Labour Party and was a conscientious objector in the First World War, becoming chief lobbyist at Parliament for the No-Conscription Fellowship.

Career

Ammon worked with the Post Office for twenty-four years. He became active in the Fawcett Association, and was then secretary of the Union of Post Office Workers from 1920 to 1928. He was also the first General Secretary of the National Union of Docks, Wharves and Shipping Staffs, and the Organising Secretary of the Civil Service Union.

Local politics

Ammon was London County Councillor for Camberwell North from 1919 to 1925 and from 1934 to 1946, and Chairman of London County Council from 1941 to 1942. He was an Alderman on Camberwell Borough Council from 1934 to 1953 and Mayor of Camberwell from 1950 to 1951. He received the Freedom of Borough of Camberwell in 1951.

Parliament

Ammon was Member of Parliament (MP) for Camberwell North 1922–1931 and 1935–1944, unsuccessfully contesting the seat in 1918 and 1931. He was Labour Party whip in 1923 and a member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, 1921–1926. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty in 1924 and again in 1929-1931 and was a member of the West African Mission of 1938-1939 and of the Select Committee on National Expenditure, 1939–1944. He was temporary Chairman of Committees in 1943 and the same year served as Chairman of a Parliamentary Commission to investigate the future of the dominion of Newfoundland; the other members were A. P. Herbert and Derrick Gunston.

He was raised to the peerage as Baron Ammon, of Camberwell in the County of Surrey, in 1944 and appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1945. In the House of Lords he was Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms (Chief Whip) 1945–1949, and a Deputy Speaker of the House 1945–1958. In 1947 he was Chairman of a Parliamentary Mission to China. He was first Chairman of the National Dock Labour Board 1944–1950. His political career was effectively ended when he clashed with the government over the 1949 London dock strike.

Other public appointments

Outside Parliament, he was President of the UK Band of Hope Union and a Methodist Local Preacher. He was President of the International Arbitration League, vice-president of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a governor of the London School of Economics and Dulwich College and chairman of the trustees of Crystal Palace. He was a member of the Channel Islands Commission in 1947.

Personal life

Lord Ammon was predeceased by his only son Charles Kempley Ammon (1907–1909) and the peerage became extinct on his death in April 1960, aged 86.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Portraits of Charles Ammon at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Charles Ammon