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Henry Betterton, 1st Baron Rushcliffe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Right Honourable
The Lord Rushcliffe
GBE PC
by Walter Stoneman, 1930
Minister of Labour
In office
25 August 1931 – 29 June 1934
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald
Preceded byMargaret Bondfield
Succeeded byHon. Oliver Stanley
Personal details
Born15 August 1872
Died18 November 1949 (aged 77)
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)(1) Violet Gilliat (d. 1947)
(2) Inez Lubbock (d. 1955)
Alma materChrist Church, Oxford

Henry Bucknall Betterton, 1st Baron Rushcliffe, GBE, PC (15 August 1872 – 18 November 1949), known as Sir Henry Betterton, Bt, between 1929 and 1935, was a British barrister and Conservative politician. He served as Minister of Labour under Ramsay MacDonald between 1931 and 1934.

Background and education

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Betterton was the son of Henry Inman Betterton, of Woodville, Leicestershire, and Agnes, daughter of Samuel Bucknall. He was educated at Rugby and Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1896.[1] He practiced for some years at the Chancery Bar.

Political career

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Henry Betterton 1929

Betterton was elected Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe in Nottingham in 1918.[1][2] He served under Stanley Baldwin as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour between 1923 and 1924 and again between 1924 and 1929.[1] When the National Government was formed in 1931 he was sworn of the Privy Council[3] and made Minister of Labour under Ramsay MacDonald,[4] a post he held until 1934,[1] when he left the House of Commons after appointment as the chair of the Unemployment Assistance Board.[5]

Betterton was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1918[6] and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1920.[7] He was made a Baronet, of Blackfordby in the County of Leicester,[8] in 1929 and raised to the peerage as Baron Rushcliffe, of Blackfordby in the County of Leicester, in 1935.[9] In 1941 he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire.[10]

Nurses Salaries Committee

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Rushcliffe, as he was now known, chaired the Nurses Salaries Committee which was established in October 1941.[11] It was the first official body to fix salary scales and conditions for nursing in England.

The Committee consisted of two panels, each of twenty members, one panel representing employers, the other employees.

The employers panel consisted of the British Hospitals Association (in association with King Edward's Hospital Fund for London and the Nuffield Trust) 6 seats; County Councils Association 4 seats; Association of Municipal Corporations 4 seats; London County Council 4 seats; Urban District Councils Association 1 seat; Rural District Councils Association 1 seat; Queen's Institute of District Nursing 1 seat.[12]

The employees panel consisted of the Royal College of Nursing 9 seats; Trades Union Congress 5 seats; National Association of Local Government Officers (NALGO) 3 seats; Royal British Nurses' Association 1 seat; British College of Nurses 1 seat; Association of Hospital Matrons 1. A parallel committee was set up in Scotland, alongside the creation of a Nursing Division in the Ministry of Health, UK in 1941.[13]

Family

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Lord Rushcliffe was twice married. He married firstly Violet, daughter of J. G. Gilliat, in 1912. They had two daughters. After her death in October 1947 he married secondly Inez Alfreda, daughter of Alfred Lubbock and widow of Sir Harold Edward Snagge, in 1948. Rushcliffe died in November 1949, aged 77, when the baronetcy and barony became extinct. His second wife died in May 1955.[1]

Arms

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Coat of arms of Henry Betterton, 1st Baron Rushcliffe
Notes
Granted livery badge: A cinquefoil slipped ermine between two ears of wheat in saltire proper enfiled by a circlet Or.
Crest
Between the attires of a stag Or a pheon Sable.
Escutcheon
Argent three pheons Sable on a chief Gules a portcullis chained Or between two cinquefoils ermine.
Motto
Constantia Et Labore[14]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Henry Bucknall Betterton, 1st and last Baron Rushcliffe". Thepeerage.com. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
  2. ^ "House of Commons: Rochester to Ryedale". Leighrayment.com. Archived from the original on 19 December 2012. Retrieved 7 January 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. ^ "No. 33770". The London Gazette. 10 November 1931. p. 7239.
  4. ^ "No. 33748". The London Gazette. 28 August 1931. p. 5617.
  5. ^ "No. 34067". The London Gazette. 6 July 1934. p. 4334.
  6. ^ "No. 30460". The London Gazette. 4 January 1918. p. 374.
  7. ^ "No. 31840". The London Gazette. 26 March 1920. p. 3761.
  8. ^ "No. 33523". The London Gazette. 6 August 1929. p. 5144.
  9. ^ "No. 34128". The London Gazette. 29 January 1935. p. 693.
  10. ^ "Issue 35184 page 3286". The London Gazette. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
  11. ^ Abel-Smith, Brian (1960). A History of the Nursing Profession. London: Heinemann. p. 167.
  12. ^ "Topical Notes". Nursing Times. 37 (1904). 25 October 1941.
  13. ^ McGann, Susan (2009). A History of the Royal College of Nursing: 1916-1990 - A Voice for Nurses. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719077966.
  14. ^ "Grant of Arms: Sir Henry Bucknall Betterton Bt 1929". Heraldry Online. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe
1918 – 1934 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour
1923–1924 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour
1924–1929 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Labour
1931–1934 		Succeeded by
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baronet
(of Blackfordby)
1929–1949 		Extinct
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Rushcliffe
1935–1949 		Extinct
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