Person

Amery, L. S. (Leopold Stennett), 1873-1955

1873-1955

Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery was born on November 22, 1873, in Gorakhpur, India.

He was a British Conservative journalist and politician. He studied at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. He could converse in French, German, Italian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Serbian, and Hungarian. During the Second Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902), Amery was a correspondent for The Times. In the 1911 Birmingham South by-election, he was unopposed as a Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament, and he would hold that seat until 1945. During World War I, Amery's knowledge of Hungarian led to his employment as an Intelligence Officer in the Balkans campaign. He was opposed to the Constitution of the League of Nations. Amery was elected to the seat of Birmingham Sparkbrook in the 1918 general election. He was First Lord of the Admiralty (1922–1924) under Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin. From 1824 to 1929, he served as Colonial Secretary in Baldwin's government and set up the Empire Marketing Board in 1926. Amery spent a lot of time in Germany during the 1930s, where he met with Hitler, Mussolini, and other European leaders. He was a sharp critic of the Munich Agreement with Hitler and Mussolini and was a lifelong anti-communist. During the Churchill war ministry (1940-1945), he served as Secretary of State for India and Burma. Amery, a noted mountaineer, climbed in the Swiss Alps, Bavaria, Austria, Yugoslavia, Italy, and the Canadian Rockies, where Mount Amery is named after him. He published a three-volume autobiography, “My Political Life” (1953–1955).

In 1910, he married Adaliza Florence Louise Hamer Greenwood (1881–1975). He died on September 16, 1955, in London, England.