John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley

The Right Honourable

The Viscount Waverley

GCB OM GCSI GCIE PC PC (Ire) FRS
The Right Honourable; The Viscount Waverley; GCB OM GCSI GCIE PC PC (Ire) FRS
Chancellor of the Exchequer
	In office; 24 September 1943 – 26 July 1945
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	Kingsley Wood
Succeeded by	Hugh Dalton
Lord President of the Council
	In office; 3 October 1940 – 24 September 1943
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	Neville Chamberlain
Succeeded by	Clement Attlee
Home Secretary; Minister of Home Security
	In office; 4 September 1939 – 3 October 1940
Prime Minister	Neville Chamberlain; Winston Churchill
Preceded by	Samuel Hoare
Succeeded by	Herbert Morrison
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
	In office; 27 October 1938 – 4 September 1939
Prime Minister	Neville Chamberlain
Preceded by	Herbrand Sackville
Succeeded by	Samuel Hoare
Member of the House of Lords; Lord Temporal
	In office; 28 January 1952 – 4 January 1958; Hereditary peerage
Preceded by	Peerage created
Succeeded by	The 2nd Viscount Waverley
Member of Parliament ; for Combined Scottish Universities
	In office; 25 February 1938 – 23 February 1950
Preceded by	Ramsay MacDonald
Succeeded by	Constituency Abolished
Governor of Bengal
	In office; 1932–1937
Preceded by	Stanley Jackson
Succeeded by	Michael Knatchbull
Personal details
Born	8 July 1882; Eskbank, Midlothian, Scotland
Died	4 January 1958 (aged 75); Lambeth, London, England
Political party	National
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh; University of Leipzig

John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, PC, PC (Ire), FRS^[1] (8 July 1882 – 4 January 1958) was a British civil servant and politician who is best known for his service in the Cabinet during the Second World War, for which he was nicknamed the "Home Front Prime Minister". He served as Home Secretary, Lord President of the Council and Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Anderson shelters are named after him.

Early life[]

He was born in Eskbank, part of Dalkeith in Midlothian and studied mathematics and geology at the University of Edinburgh and chemistry at the University of Leipzig where he wrote a thesis on the chemistry of uranium. He was a brilliant student, winning numerous prizes, but at the age of 22 he decided to forsake a career in science and sat for the British civil service examinations, coming first, while also taking a degree in economics. In later life he was elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society.^[1]

He was appointed to the Colonial Office in 1905.

Aged only thirty-four, Anderson headed the Civil Service staff of the new Ministry of Shipping in 1917.^[2] Later, he served as Under-Secretary for Ireland, and became Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office in 1922, where he had to deal with the General Strike of 1926. His career in the civil service was capped by a posting as Governor of Bengal from 1932 to 1937. On 15 January 1935 he met with Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

Bhaktisiddhanta and Governor of Bengal John Anderson

Public career[]

In early 1938, Anderson was elected to the House of Commons by the Scottish Universities as a National Independent Member of Parliament, a non-party supporter of the National Government. In October that year he entered Neville Chamberlain's Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal. In that capacity, he was put in charge of air raid preparations. He initiated the development of a kind of air-raid shelter named the "Anderson shelter", a small sheet metal cylinder made of prefabricated pieces which could be assembled in a garden and partially buried to protect against bomb blast.

War time[]

After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Anderson returned to hold the joint portfolio of Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security, a position in which he served under Winston Churchill, often attending his War Cabinet. He retained responsibility for civil defence. In October 1940, he was replaced by Herbert Morrison in a reshuffle precipitated by Chamberlain's resignation over ill-health. He became Lord President of the Council and full member of the War Cabinet.

In July 1941 as Lord President of the Council he was appointed as minister responsible for the British plan to build an atomic bomb, known as the Tube Alloys project.^[3]

In January 1945, the Prime Minister wrote to King George VI to advise that should he and his second-in-command (and heir apparent) Anthony Eden die during the war, John Anderson should become Prime Minister: "it is the Prime Minister's duty to advise Your Majesty to send for Sir John Anderson in the event of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary being killed." Although not a member of a political party, Churchill thought Anderson had the abilities to lead the National Government, and that an independent figure was essential to the maintenance of the coalition.^[4]

Following the unexpected death on 21 September 1943 of Sir Kingsley Wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Anderson was appointed to that office. As Chancellor, in a written Commons answer of 12 June 1945, he announced the creation of the Arts Council of Great Britain, a successor body to the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA).^[5] He remained in the post until the Labour victory in the general election in July 1945.

Post-war[]

He left the Commons when the University constituencies were abolished at the 1950 general election. Meanwhile, he became Chairman of the Port of London Authority in 1946 and Chairman of the Royal Opera House in March the same year.^[6] He remained in the latter post for eleven years.

He rejected an offer to join Churchill's peacetime administration when it was formed in October 1951, and was created Viscount Waverley, of Westdean in the County of Sussex, in 1952. He died six years later at the age of 75 in St Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth, London.^[7]

Personal life[]

Anderson's first marriage was in 1907 to Christina Mackenzie. The couple had two children:

David Alastair Pearson Anderson, 2nd Viscount Waverley (1911–1990)
Mary Mackenzie Anderson (1916–2006)

Christina died in 1920.

In 1941, he married Ava (Bodley) Wigram, daughter of John Edward Courtenay Bodley.^[8] She was the widow of Ralph Wigram, a senior civil servant who had provided Winston Churchill with confidential military information during the 1930s.

Arms[]

Coat of arms of John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley hide
	Crest A Demi Lion rampant Or armed and langued Azure holding in his dexter forepaw a Branch of Olive proper Escutcheon Argent a Saltire engrailed between a Mullet in chief and a Lotus Flower in base and in each flank a Crescent Gules on a Chief Sable three Martlets of the field Supporters On either side a Horse Argent crined and unguled Or Motto Beati Pacifi (Blessed are the peacemakers) ^[9]

References[]

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Bridges, L.; Dale, H. (1958). "John Anderson, Viscount Waverley 1882-1958". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 4: 306. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1958.0024.
^ Grigg, John (2002). Lloyd George: War Leader, 1916–1918. London: Allen Lane. pp. 45–9. ISBN 0-713-99343-X.
^ Gowing 1964, pp. 106–111.
^ Wheeler-Bennet, J. (1958). King George VI: His Life and Reign. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 544–46. OCLC 334913.
^ Hansard, HC Debate 12 June 1945
^ Lebrecht, Norman (2000). Covent Garden: the Untold Story: Dispatches From the English Culture War, 1945–2000. London: Simon & Schuster. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-0-684-85143-3.
^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
^ "Ava (née Bodley), Viscountess Waverley". National Portrait Gallery.
^ "Waverley, Viscount (UK, 1952)". Cracroft's Peerage.

Sources[]

Gowing, Margaret (1964). Britain and Atomic Energy 1939–1945. London: Macmillan. OCLC 3195209.

External links[]

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Anderson
"Archival material relating to John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley". UK National Archives.
Newspaper clippings about John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

Government offices
Preceded by James Macmahon Macmahon also remained Joint Under-Secretary	Joint Permanent Under-Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1920–1922	Office abolished
Preceded by Sir Edward Troup	Permanent Under-Secretary for the Home Department 1922–1932	Succeeded by
Preceded by Sir Stanley Jackson	Governor of Bengal 1932–1937	Succeeded by The Lord Brabourne
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Ramsay MacDonald	Member of Parliament for Combined Scottish Universities 1938–1950	Constituency abolished
Political offices
Preceded by The Earl De La Warr	Lord Privy Seal 1938–1939	Succeeded by Sir Samuel Hoare
Preceded by Sir Samuel Hoare	Home Secretary 1939–1940	Succeeded by Herbert Morrison
Preceded by Office created	Minister of Home Security 1939–1940	Succeeded by Herbert Morrison
Preceded by Neville Chamberlain	Lord President of the Council 1940–1943	Succeeded by Clement Attlee
Preceded by Sir Kingsley Wood	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1943–1945	Succeeded by Hugh Dalton
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Viscount Waverley 1952–1958	Succeeded by David Alastair Pearson Anderson

[frs-1] Jump up to: ^a ^b Bridges, L.; Dale, H. (1958). "John Anderson, Viscount Waverley 1882-1958". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 4: 306. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1958.0024.

[2] Grigg, John (2002). Lloyd George: War Leader, 1916–1918. London: Allen Lane. pp. 45–9. ISBN 0-713-99343-X.

[FOOTNOTEGowing1964106–111-3] Gowing 1964, pp. 106–111.

[4] Wheeler-Bennet, J. (1958). King George VI: His Life and Reign. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 544–46. OCLC 334913.

[5] Hansard, HC Debate 12 June 1945

[6] Lebrecht, Norman (2000). Covent Garden: the Untold Story: Dispatches From the English Culture War, 1945–2000. London: Simon & Schuster. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-0-684-85143-3.

[7] "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 12 May 2016.

[8] "Ava (née Bodley), Viscountess Waverley". National Portrait Gallery.

[9] "Waverley, Viscount (UK, 1952)". Cracroft's Peerage.

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