From Wikipedia:
Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, GCB, OM, GBE, PC (6 November 1870 – 5 February 1963) was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931 to 1935.
He was the first nominally-practising Jew to serve as a Cabinet minister and to become the leader of a major British political party. Samuel had promoted Zionism within the British Cabinet, beginning with his 1915 memorandum entitled The Future of Palestine. In 1920 he was appointed as the first High Commissioner for Palestine. He married Beatrice, daughter of Ellis A. Franklin. Among their children were: Edwin Herbert Samuel and Philipp Ellis Herbert Samuel.
Samuel was the last member of the Liberal Party to hold one of the four Great Offices of State (as Home Secretary from 1931–32 in the National Government of Ramsay MacDonald). One of the adherents of “New Liberalism”, Samuel helped to draft and present social reform legislation while he was serving as a Liberal cabinet member. Samuel led the party in both the 1931 general election and the 1935 general election, during which period the party’s number of seats in Parliament fell from 59 to 21.
Below, Sir Herbert Samuel and Winston Churchill – The Sphere; Dec 19, 1936.
His secon son was Philip Ellis Herbert Samuel (1900-c.1992) …
To be continued ….
As president (1931–59) of the British (later Royal) Institute of Philosophy, Samuel interpreted philosophy to the public in such books as Practical Ethics (1935) and Belief and Action (1937; new ed. 1953).
Dundee Evening Telegraph – Monday 28 November 1927
SIR HERBERT SAMUEL IN DUNDEE
Successes and Stories of His Career.
Sir Herbert Samuel in Dundee to-day in connection with the Scottish Liberal Conference. To-night he will be the chief speaker at a demonstration in the Caird Hall. Sir Herbert Samuel the chairman of the Liberal party organisation and was well known the chairman of the Royal Commission on Coal last year. He has been chosen as the Liberal candidate for the Lord Rectorship of Glasgow University at next election, which takes place in November, 1928. The present Lord Rector is Sir Austen Chamberlain. M.P. for 16 Years. Sir Herbert sat in the House Commons for the Cleveland Division of Yorkshire for sixteen years till 1918, and he was High Commissioner of Palestine from 1920 to 1925. A native of Liverpool, he is 57. Like Lord Oxford, on whom he modelled himself politically, he is a Balliol man. Sir Herbert’s father, Mr Edwin Samuel, a banker in Castle Street, Liverpool, was a prominent member of the Jewish community who married the sister of another Liverpool banker, also a Jew, Mr Edward Yates. The latter took over the business of Mr Edwin Samuel on his death. Herbert Samuel was then only six. Shortly afterwards he removed to London, and came under the guardianship his uncle, Mr Samuel Montagu, who about that time changed his name from that of Montagu Samuel, and who afterwards became the first Lord Swaythling.
Parliamentary Candidate when 25.
Sir Herbert’s connection with politics goes back for 32 years, he having at the age of 25 contested the South Oxfordshire constituency in the interests of Liberalism. He has held many important posts, having been in turn Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Postmaster-General, President of the Local Government Board, Secretary of State for Home Affairs during the war, British Special Commissioner to Belgium in 1919, and for five years, until 1925, High Commissioner for Palestine. It was the late Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman who first recognised the exceptional talents and abilities of the then Mr Samuel, and when came into power at the end of 1905 invited him to join the Government as Under Secretary to the Home Office. He filled this office for four years, when he succeeded Lord Pentland as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the Cabinet. In the following year, 1910, Mr Asquith appointed Mr Samuel Postmaster-General, a post he filled with great discretion and ability till the outbreak of war, when he became Secretary of State for Home Affairs. Sir Herbert was created G.B.E. (Knight Grand Cross Order of the British Empire) 1920, and G.C.B. (Knight Grand Cross of the Bath) in 1926. He married in 1897, and has three sons. Sir Herbert Samuel, who had the distinction of being the first Jew to sit in the British Cabinet—Beaconsfield, who was born Jew, embraced Christianity while a youth—is often referred to as the ” children’s friend,” for it was he who piloted through the House of Commons the Children Bill, which did so much to ameliorate the conditions under which the children of the poorer classes were brought up.
Narrow Escape from Drowning.
In 1909 Sir Samuel had an unpleasant adventure whilst bathing in a rather rough sea at Saltburn. He is an expert swimmer, and whilst still within his depth began to swim back to the shore. A strong current which was running at the time, however, carried him out to sea among the breakers. After trying for some time to make headway against the current, and finding himself in difficulties, he was obliged to signal to the shore for assistance. Before this arrived, however, being unable to maintain his position among the breakers, and not being able to gain land, he turned and swam out to sea beyond rough water. From there he endeavoured to reach the head of the pier, and made good progress, arriving within about a hundred yards of the pier-head, when a boat which had put out to his assistance reached him and took him safely back to land.
Sir Samuel’s Stories.
Many entertaining stories does Sir Samuel tell of his Post Office experiences. His favourite story concerns an example of economy. There was an Archbishop who had a code of his own. He cabled from abroad, “John, Epistle iii., 13 and 14.” His friends looked up the reference in the Bible and found the following words:— ” I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee; but I trust I shall shortly see thee and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends, salute thee. Greet the friends by name.’ The best of Sir Samuel’s stories, perhaps, is that of the woman who had to fill in a claim on behalf of her son, and was asked to state on the form whether she had a husband living. Her answer was, ” Living, but insignificant.”
Dundee Courier – Monday 13 September 1909
BOTH SIDES OF THE BUDGET
WILL BE PRESENTED
DUNDEE THIS WEEK.
Dundee people will have an opportunity of considering the Budget this week from two points of view. Both sides’ political opinion are to be presented at gatherings to be held in the city. The Liberals have their exponent and advocate the new, methods taxation Cabinet Minister in the person of the Right Hon. Herbert Louis Samuel, M.P., Chancellor the Duchy of Lancaster, who is to speak to-night.
The Unionists, who with Lord Rosebery refuse to “march an inch in the direction of Socialism.” have secured the services of Sir Robert Finlay, who, on account his long connection with a Scottish constituency, as well his tenure of the office of Attorney-General, is well able to analyse the Budget proposals as they will affect Scotland. He speaks on Friday night.
Aberdeen Evening Express – Saturday 28 October 1916
MAN OF THE MOMENT.
Right Hon. Herbert Louis Samuel, whose, latest concession to shopkeepers in connection with Early Closing Order had a mollifying effect, is regarded in the House of Commons as one the “smartest” men in the Cabinet. Even clever men make mistakes, and the Home Secretary made a bad blunder lately when he delivered a flippant speech on the subject of electoral registration, asking scornfully whether the Germans would agree to stop fighting until the British soldiers had had time to vote. The tone of that speech was bitterly resented, and Asquith frowned upon his too clever colleague. Mr Samuel made a good recovery, however, and in meeting criticisms his dexterity and tact rarely fail him. Aberdeen shopkeepers are not exactly enamoured of the Home Secretary, but they admit that he “might have been waur’.
Herbert Louis is popular in Israel today as evidenced by this sign on the side of a road:
