| AdminHistory | Born 9 April 1906; educated, Winchester and New College Oxford, First Class Hons Philosophy, Politics and Economics, 1927; Workers'; Educational Association lecturer, 1927; Assistant, Department of Political Economy, University College London, 1928; joined 1917 Club, 1929; founded Tots & Quots, a left-wing discussion group, 1930; Assistant Honorary Secretary and Chairman of the Economics Section of the New Fabian Research Bureau, 1931; awarded Rockefeller Foundation Scholarship and spent next academic year studying in Vienna, Austria, 1933; Secretary, XYZ Club, 1934; stood as a Labour Party candidate in Chatham, Kent, in General Election, defeated by Conservative, 1935; adopted as prospective candidate for Leeds South, 1937; promoted to Readership at University College London, 1937; co-opted onto National Executive Committee, Finance and Trade Sub-committee, 1937; joined war-time Civil Service at newly founded Ministry of Economic Warfare, 1939; Principal Private Secretary to Hugh Dalton, Minister of Economic Warfare, 1940-1942; Principal Assistant Secretary to Dalton at Board of Trade, 1942-1945; elected as member for Leeds South, General Election, 1945-1963; Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Fuel and Power, 1946-1947; Minister of Fuel and Power, 1947-1950; Minister of State for Economic Affairs, 1950; Chancellor of Exchequer, 1950-1951; Treasurer of Labour Party, 1954-1956; Leader of Labour Party, 1955-1963; Vice-Chairman, Labour Party Executive Committee, 1962; died, 18 January 1963. Publications: 'Chartism' (Longmans & Co, London, 1929); 'Money and everyday life' (Labour Book Service, London, 1939); 'In defence of politics' (London, 1954); 'The high cost of Toryism' (Labour Party, London, 1955); 'Recent developments in British Socialist thinking' (Co-operative Union, London, 1956); 'The challenge of co-existence' (Methuen & Co, London, 1957); 'Britain and the common market' (Labour Party, London, 1962); various articles written for publications such as 'New York Times Magazine', 'Reynolds News', 'The Birmingham Post', 'Leeds Weekly Citizen', 'The Observer', 'Daily Mail', 'Daily Mirror', 'Social Commentary' and 'New Statesman and Nation'. |
| CustodialHistory | After Gaitskell's death, his papers passed to the care of his widow, until the early 1970s when they were loaned to Nuffield College, Oxford, to assist Philip Williams' research for the official biography of Gaitskell. |
| Arrangement | The list, to some extent, follows the arrangement adopted by Philip Williams whilst the papers were in his care at Nuffield College, Oxford. Williams divided the archive into seven artificial groups: family, economic, political, visits, appointments, constituency, utterances and pamphlets, but there is no evidence of disturbance by Williams of documents within individual folders and original series of files appear to be intact. The collection has been slightly rearranged, and is now under the headings: family and personal papers, early life and career, political career, engagements, constituency visits and cases, general correspondence, and pamphlets and printed papers. |