George Henry Roberts (27 July 1868 – 25 April 1928) was a Labour Party politician who switched parties twice.

Biography

He was born on 27 July 1868. At the

1906 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1906. Asia * 1906 Persian legislative election Europe * 1906 Belgian general election * 1906 Croatian parliamentary election * Denmark ** 1906 Danish Folketing election ** 1906 Danish Landsting e ...

, he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

. He was a minister in the

Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...

Coalition Government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade in the United Kingdom was a member of Parliament assigned to assist the Board of Trade and its President with administration and liaison with Parliament. It replaced the Vice-President of the Board ...

from 1916 to 1917,

Minister of Labour Minister of labour (in British English) or labor (in American English) is typically a cabinet-level position with portfolio responsibility for setting national labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, traini ...

from 1917 to 1919, and

Minister of Food Control The Minister of Food Control (1916–1921) and the Minister of Food (1939–1958) were British government ministerial posts separated from that of the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Minister of Agriculture. In the Great War the Minist ...

from 1919 to 1920. He was appointed as a

Privy Counsellor The Privy Council, formally His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its members, known as privy counsellors, are mainly senior politicians who are current or former ...

in 1917. Roberts stood in

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

as a

Coalition Labour Coalition Labour was a description used by candidates in the 1918 United Kingdom general election who identified with trade unionism and supported the outgoing coalition government, which retained power at the election. The Labour Party had left ...

candidate, opposed by the official Labour Party candidate. After leaving office in 1920, Roberts returned as a director to the firm he had left as works manager upon entering Parliament in

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

. He sat on the back-benches and as an independent retained his seat in the 1922 election but lost it as the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

candidate in

1923 In Greece, this year contained only 352 days as 13 days was skipped to achieve the calendrical switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar. It happened there that Wednesday, 15 February ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Thursday, 1 March ' ...

. Roberts spent the rest of his life in the

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and that is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together with ...

industry. He died on 25 April 1928.

References

Bibliography

Meeres, Frank. ''George Roberts MP. A Life That 'Did Different. (Poppyland Publishing, 2019)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, George Henry 1868 births 1928 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Norwich Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Typographical Association-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1906–1910 UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 Coalition Labour MPs Chairs of the Labour Party (UK) Conservative Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Parliamentary Secretaries to the Board of Trade Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Food ministers of the United Kingdom