Valentine Crittall, 1st Baron Braintree

The Right Honourable The Lord Braintree Kt JP
By Elliot & Fry, 1948
Member of Parliament for Maldon
In office 7 December 1923 – 9 October 1924
Preceded by	Edward Ruggles-Brise
Succeeded by	Edward Ruggles-Brise
Personal details
Born	28 June 1884
Died	21 May 1961 (aged 76)

Valentine George Crittall, 1st Baron Braintree Kt JP (28 June 1884 – 21 May 1961) was a British politician and businessman who served briefly as a Labour Member of Parliament before later joining the Conservatives.

Background[]

Crittall was born at Braintree,^[1] the son of Essex businessman Francis Henry Crittall, founder of the Crittall window company, and Ellen Laura Carter. Crittall was educated at Framlingham College in Suffolk.

Political career[]

Crittall was elected as Labour Member of Parliament for the Essex constituency of Maldon in the 1923 general election by a majority of only 49 votes over the sitting Conservative MP Lt Col Edward Ruggles-Brise, and served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lord Thomson, the Minister of Air. He was defeated by Ruggles-Brise in the 1924 general election, and knighted in 1930. He was elevated to the peerage in 1948, as Baron Braintree, of Braintree in the County of Essex,^[2] and was a director of the Bank of England from 1948 to 1955. He was also a justice of the peace (magistrate) for Essex.

Silver End[]

In 1926, Crittall founded the model Village of Silver End, near Braintree in Essex. Built as a "garden village" to provide accommodation for the people who worked in the Crittall family's growing factories, the village has been described as "a wonder of its time"[1]: its motto is "Why not?"

Family[]

Crittall was married three times: to Olive Lillian MacDermott, in 1915; to Lydia Mabel Revy in 1933; and to Phyllis Dorothy Cloutman, in 1955. He died aged 76 in 1961, without male children, and his barony therefore became extinct.

Arms[]

Coat of arms of Valentine Crittall, 1st Baron Braintree

Crest Within a mascle Sable a sun in splendour Or. Escutcheon Argent fretty Sable on a chief Gules two fleurs-de-lys of the first. Supporters Dexter a blacksmith holding in the exterior hand a hammer; sinister a glazier holding in the exterior hand a file all Proper. Motto Why Not?[3]

References[]

• 'Class Traitors': Conservative Recruits to Labour, 1900-30
• ThePeerage.com: Sir Valentine George Crittall, 1st and last Baron Braintree
• Portraits of Valentine George Crittall, Baron Braintree at the National Portrait Gallery, London

External links[]

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Valentine Crittall

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