Reginald McKenna
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Reginald McKenna (1863-1943) was a Liberal British statesman who has recently achieved a limited amount of noteriety following a recent biography by disgraced heart-throb and former Tory MP Martin Farr [1]. He served in the Liberal governments of Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Herbert Henry Asquith as President of the Board of Education, First Lord of the Admiralty and Home Secretary. As Chancellor of the Exchequer in Asquith's coalition government, he opposed the introduction of conscription, and retired into opposition upon the fall of Asquith at the end of 1916. He lost his seat in the 1918 general election and became Chairman of the Midland Bank. In 1922, the new Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law hoped to persuade him to come out of retirement and serve once again at the Exchequer, but he refused, and remained in private life. The following year Law's successor Stanley Baldwin made the repeated request and McKenna was more agreeable. However he wished to enter Parliament as MP for the City of London and neither of the incumbent MPs would agree to vacate in order to make room. As a result McKenna declined.
It is said that he refused offers of a peerage throughout the rest of his life so as to always be in a position to be offered the Exchequer so he could refuse.
[edit] References
Martin Farr, Reginald McKenna 1863-1916: Financier Among Statemen, New York: Routledge, 2007.
| Preceded by Augustine Birrell |
President of the Board of Education 1907–1908 |
Succeeded by Walter Runciman |
| Preceded by The Lord Tweedmouth |
First Lord of the Admiralty 1908–1911 |
Succeeded by Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by Winston Churchill |
Home Secretary 1911–1915 |
Succeeded by Sir John Simon |
| Preceded by David Lloyd George |
Chancellor of the Exchequer 1915–1916 |
Succeeded by Andrew Bonar Law |
