Richard Acland

Sir Richard Acland, Bt
Born (1906-11-26)26 November 1906
Broadclyst, Devon
Died 24 November 1990(1990-11-24) (aged 83)
Title Acland Baronetcy of Columb John
Term 9 June 1939 – 24 November 1990
Predecessor Francis, 14th Baronet
Successor John, 16th Baronet
Spouse(s) Anne Stella Alford
Parent(s) Francis Acland

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 in 1942, having previously been a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP). He joined the Labour Party in 1945 and was later a Labour MP.[1] He was one of the founders of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Career

Acland was the eldest son of Sir Francis Dyke Acland, 14th Baronet, a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) and Eleanor Margaret Cropper.[2] Born on 26 November 1906 at Broadclyst, Devon, he was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford, before becoming a barrister (admitted at the Inner Temple in 1930).[2] He served as a lieutenant in the Royal Devon Yeomanry. He married Anne Stella Alford, an architect, and together they had four sons, including John Dyke Acland and Robert D. Acland. He succeeded his father as baronet in 1939.

Acland stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as potential MP 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.[2] He helped launch the Popular Front in December 1936.[3] His politics changed course subsequently, as seen in the various political pamphlets he wrote.

Common Wealth Party

In 1942, Acland broke from the Liberals to found the socialist Common Wealth Party with J. B. Priestley and Tom Wintringham, opposing the coalition between the major parties. During the Second World War, the new party showed signs of a breakthrough, especially in London and Merseyside, 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 left, some joining the Labour Party. Acland himself lost his seat in Putney, where he came third.[4]

Labour MP

He then joined Labour and was selected to fight the Gravesend seat following the expulsion of the Labour member of parliament Garry Allighan from the party for making allegations of corruption. He won the Gravesend by-election of November 1947 with a majority of 1,675.[5]

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 standing as an independent the same year, allowing the Conservatives to take the seat, denying it to the new Labour candidate, Victor Mishcon.

Later career

As an advocate of public land ownership, in 1944 he gave his West Country estates at Killerton in Devon and Holnicote in Somerset to the National Trust, partly out of principle and also to ensure their preservation intact.[6] Soon after leaving parliament he took a job as a maths master at Wandsworth Grammar School in Sutherland Grove, new Southfields, London, with effect from September 1955. He was a successful and charismatic teacher, popular with his pupils. In 1957 he helped to form the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), and was a senior lecturer in education at St. Luke's College of Education, Exeter, between 1959 and his retirement in 1974. Acland died in Exeter in 1990, at the age of 83.

Writings

Acland's book, Unser Kampf, published by Penguin in 1940, containing ideas inspired by a Christian-based moral view of society. It proved immensely popular, going through 5 impressions in six months. His later works, The Forward March (1941) and How it can be done (1943) elaborated on these themes.[7] He advocated common ownership, citing the work of Conrad Noel as well as the Bible to support his views.[8]

See also

Key Publications

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

References

  1. ↑ Chambers Biographical Dictionary, ISBN 0-550-18022-2, page 6
  2. 1 2 3 Stenton and Lees Who's Who of British Members of Parliament vol. iv p. 1
  3. ↑ The Liberal Party and the Popular Front, English Historical Review (2006)
  4. ↑ http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge45/i16.htm
  5. ↑ 1947 By Elections
  6. ↑ Acland, Anne (1981). A Devon Family. The Story of the Aclands. Phillimore. p. 153. ISBN 0-85033-356-3.
  7. ↑ James Obelkevich; Lyndal Roper (5 November 2013). Disciplines of Faith: Studies in Religion, Politics and Patriarchy. Routledge. pp. 447–. ISBN 978-1-136-82079-3.
  8. ↑ Vincent Geoghegan (29 March 2012). Socialism and Religion: Roads to Common Wealth. Routledge. pp. 118–. ISBN 978-1-136-70960-9.
  • Leigh Rayment's list of baronets
  • Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
  • The Acland Papers at the University of Exeter
  • Stenton, M., Lees, S. (1981). Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, volume iv (covering 1945–1979). Sussex: The Harvester Press; New Jersey: Humanities Press. ISBN 0-391-01087-5
  • Neil Stockley, Richard Acland in Brack & Randall (eds.) Dictionary of Liberal Thought, Politico's 2007, pp3–5
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

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