13 Facts About Arthur Steel-Maitland

Sir Arthur Herbert Drummond Ramsay Steel-Maitland, 1st Baronet was a British Conservative politician.

Arthur Steel-Maitland was the first Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1911 to 1916 and held junior office from 1915 to 1919 in David Lloyd George's coalition government.

The second son of Mary Emmeline Eden Drummond, daughter of General Henry Drummond, and Colonel Edward Harris Steel, Steel-Maitland was educated at Rugby and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a classical Scholar and Eldon Scholar in 1899.

Arthur Steel-Maitland gained first class honours in classics and law, and became a Fellow of All Souls College in 1900.

Arthur Steel-Maitland was Secretary, Junior Treasurer and President of the Oxford Union Society, and rowed against Cambridge in 1899.

Arthur Steel-Maitland was appointed an assistant private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Ritchie, in October 1902.

Arthur Steel-Maitland unsuccessfully contested Rugby in 1906, and was a Special Commissioner to the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws from 1906 to 1907.

Arthur Steel-Maitland was elected as Member of Parliament for Birmingham East in 1910, a seat he held until 1918, and then represented Birmingham Erdington from 1918 to 1929 and Tamworth from 1929 until 1935.

Arthur Steel-Maitland was the first Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1911 to 1916, and founded the Unionist Social Reform Committee in 1911.

Arthur Steel-Maitland served under David Lloyd George as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1915 to 1917.

Arthur Steel-Maitland then held office under Lloyd George as Secretary for Overseas Trade in his capacity as Head of the Department of Overseas Trade from 1917 to 1919.

Arthur Steel-Maitland married Mary, daughter of Sir James Ramsay-Gibson-Maitland, 4th Baronet, of Barnton and Sauchie, in 1901.

Arthur Steel-Maitland died in March 1935, aged 58, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son, Arthur.