17 Facts About Arthur Griffith-Boscawen

Sir Arthur Sackville Trevor Griffith-Boscawen PC was a British politician in the Conservative Party whose career was cut short by losing a string of Parliamentary elections.

Sir Arthur was born at Trevalyn Hall, Denbighshire, into a distinguished family of Welsh, Cornish, and Scottish lineage.

Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen was educated at Rugby School and Queen's College, Oxford.

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen lost his Tonbridge seat in the 1906 general election.

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen unsuccessfully contested East Denbighshire at a by-election in August that year, and Dudley, Worcestershire at the first general election held in 1910, before being returned for the latter seat later that year.

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen sat as a member of the London County Council from 1910 to 1913; he was knighted in 1911.

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen had a special interest in working class housing throughout his career.

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen was a Tariff Reformer who admired Joseph Chamberlain because he became a very influential Conservative even though he was not from an aristocratic background.

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen carved out a niche for himself as a parliamentary Churchman and strongly opposed moves to disestablish the Welsh Church; following its disestablishment and the end of his parliamentary career, he chaired the Welsh Church Commissioners from 1923 to 1945.

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen was mobilised with the battalion at the outbreak of World War I, later commanding a garrison battalion of the Hampshire Regiment at Saint-Omer in France from 1914 to 1916, for which he was mentioned in dispatches.

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen was recalled to become Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Pensions in December 1916, then served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of the Board of Agriculture from 1918 to 1921.

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen was appointed to the Privy Council in the 1920 New Year Honours, entitling him to the style "The Right Honourable".

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen lost the ensuing by-election, in part because of Lord Beaverbrook's Canadian Cattle campaign, but another seat was found for him at a by-election in Taunton and he continued his career in government.

When Lloyd George's government fell in October 1922, Arthur Griffith-Boscawen was one of only a few members of the outgoing Cabinet who agreed to serve under the new Prime Minister, Bonar Law, who promoted him to Minister of Health.

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen remained in government and set about producing a bill on local government rating which provoked fierce controversy in the country at large.

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen was forced to retire from politics as a result.

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen wrote Fourteen Years in Parliament in 1907 and his Memoirs in 1925.