Ramsay MacDonald

Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937), Britain's first Labour prime minister (1924, 1929-1935). MacDonald was born in Lossiemouth and Branderburgh, Scotland and was largely self-educated. He moved to London about 1884 and thereafter was active in the labor movement and in socialist organizations. He helped found the Labour Party in 1900 and was elected to the House of Commons in 1906. He became party chairman in 1911 but resigned three years later, when the Labourites refused to support his opposition to the entry of Britain into World War I. He lost his seat in the House in 1918 but regained both the seat and the party leadership in 1922. From January 24, 1924, to November 4, 1924, he was prime minister and foreign secretary of the first Labour government in British history. The fall of his ministry stemmed from unresolved domestic problems such as high unemployment and charges that he was too friendly with the leaders of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Subsequently, at the Labour Party conference of 1925, he helped bring about the emphatic repudiation of Communism by the Labourites.

When his party secured a majority in the elections of May 1929, MacDonald formed his second ministry. Later that year, he became the first British prime minister to visit the United States. On his return to England, he was confronted with the growing difficulties of a severe economic depression. Rather than adopt the remedies suggested by his own party, on August 23, 1931, he resigned as prime minister. The next day, however, at the request of King George V, he formed a coalition government comprised of all three parties: Liberal, Conservative, and Labour. The Labourites deprived MacDonald of the party chairmanship. MacDonald's defection to the coalition government undermined the cohesiveness of the Labour Party, which was out of office until 1940. MacDonald's new government abandoned the gold standard, instituted economic reform measures, and began a program of rearmament as the military strength of Germany increased. MacDonald resigned because of ill health in June 1935 and thereafter served as lord president of the Council in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.