Stanley Baldwin Gallery

In the Lobby of the House of Commons

Some prominent Parliamentary personalities pictured in the lobby of the House of Commons. In the left foreground are Messrs.A. Maclaren, J. R. Clynes and Philip Snowden. Behind them looms the massive bulk of the genial Tom Shaw (who was Labour Minister in the Socialist Government), talking to Ramsay Macdonald and Mr J. H. Thomas. In the centre Sir Robert Horne discusses finance with Stanley Baldwin and Sir William Joynson-Hicks discusses anything but D.O.R.A with Mr Winston Churchill. In the right foreground, the volatile Mr David Lloyd George and the immaculate Mr. E. Rosslyn Mitchell engage Sir Oswald Mosley, the Little Lord Fauntleroy of the Socialist Party in polite conversation. Behind them, Mr W. C. Bridgeman and Lord Eustace Percy talk together. Date: 1929

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

National Government composed of members from the three main political parties, 1931 (1937)

National Government composed of members from the three main political parties, 1931 (1937). An economic crisis in 1931 led to the resignation of Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government. After talks with the King and the leaders of the Conservative and Liberal parties, MacDonald agreed to lead a National Government with ministers drawn from all three parties in order to balance the budget and restore confidence in the economy. The Labour Party was firmly opposed to the National Government and expelled all its members who joined and supported it, including MacDonald. A print from The Story of Seventy Momentous Years, the Life and Times of King George V, 1865-1936, editor Harold Wheeler, Odhams Press Ltd, London, 1937

© The Print Collector / Heritage-Images

The investiture of the Prince of Wales, Carnarvon Castle, 1911-1912.Artist: Marshall Herskovitz

The investiture of the Prince of Wales, Carnarvon Castle, 1911-1912. Reproduced from a Kinemacolor film. On the death of his father, King George V, in January 1936, Prince Edward (1894-1972) was proclaimed King Edward VIII. Before long, rumours circulated about his alleged romance with an American, Mrs Wallis Warfield Simpson, then married to her second husband, a London shipping broker. On October 20, 1936, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin counselled Edward, as king and head of the Church of England, to remove all cause for the rumours. A week later Mrs. Simpson was granted a divorce, to become final in six months. In November the king confided to Baldwin that he intended to marry Mrs Simpson even if it meant his abdication. A morganatic marriage was proposed, but the cabinet was unwilling to accept this compromise. On December 11 1936, therefore, the king abdicated in favour of his brother, the duke of York, who became King George VI. Edward received the title duke of Windsor and married Mrs. Simpson in June 1937. From Penrose's Pictorial Annual 1911-1912, The Process Year Book, volume 17, edited by William Gamble and published by AW Penrose (London, 1911-1912). A print from Penrose's Pictorial Annual, The Process Year Book, Volume 17, William Gamble (editor), A W Penrose, London, 1911-1912

© The Print Collector / Heritage-Images