Laming Worthington-Evans

Sir Worthington Laming Worthington-Evans, 1st Baronet GBE (23 August 1868 – 14 February 1931) was a British Conservative politician.

Born Laming Evans, he was the son of Worthington Evans and Susanah Laming. He married Gertrude Hale in 1898 and had one son and one daughter. He assumed the prefix surname of Worthington by Royal Licence in 1916, although he had been calling himself Worthington Evans (without a hyphen) for many years. He trained as a solicitor and served as temporary Major in World War I. He was commissioned into the 2nd Middlesex Artillery Volunteers in 1891 and was promoted Lieutenant in 1893 and Captain in 1897.

Political career

Worthington-Evans contested the Colchester constituency unsuccessfully in 1906. He won the seat in 1910, holding it until 1929, when he transferred to the London seat of Westminster St George's. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions, 1916-1918; Minister of Blockade, 1918; Minister of Pensions, 1919-1920; Minister without Portfolio 1920-1921; Secretary of State for War, 1921-1922, and 1924-1929; and Postmaster General, 1923-1924. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1919. As with many Cabinet Ministers in the Lloyd George Coalition, Worthington-Evans declined office in Andrew Bonar Law's new government when Lloyd George fell in October 1922. However alone amongst the "Coalition Conservatives" he accepted an invitation the following May when Law retired and was succeeded by Stanley Baldwin.

Whilst Worthington-Evans was Secretary of State for War he famously said "If the Arab population realised that the peaceful control of Mesopotamia (Iraq) ultimately depends on our intention of bombing women and children, I’m very doubtful if we shall gain that acquiescence of the fathers and husbands of Mesopotamia to which the Secretary of State for the Colonies (Winston Churchill) looks forward."

Sir Laming was one of the British delegates to the International Economic Conference at Genoa in 1922. He was a member of several Conservative and Unionist Party committees including the Policy committee which he chaired in 1927. He also served on various Cabinet Committees, including those relating to Northern Ireland, and Unemployment. He became chairman of the latter in August 1923. He was a member of the British delegation that negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

Worthington-Evans was made a Baronet in 1916 and awarded the GBE in 1922. He was succeeded by his son, William Shirley Worthington-Evans, born 9 June 1904.

Personal Papers

The papers of Sir Laming Worthington-Evans (from 1895-1931) are held at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.

Sources

• Who Was Who
• Dictionary of National Biography

External links

• Portraits of Laming Worthington-Evans at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Bodlein Library, holdings of personal papers