Colonel Josiah Wedgwood’s Questionnaire: Members of Parliament, 1885–1918

In the mid–1930s, Josiah Wedgwood M.P., the main initiator of the History of Parliament project, planned two volumes containing biographies of all those who had been elected to the House of Commons from 1885–1918.  In order to ‘get inside the minds’ of surviving M.P.s of that period, in 1936 he circulated a questionnaire listing topics for their own biographies to 550 colleagues and former colleagues.  355 replies were received and 130 biographies written but Wedgwood stopped work on the project in mid–1937 and the planned volumes never appeared.  Most of the completed questionnaires and biographies have survived.  The questionnaires, which are analysed and summarised in this volume, elicited surprisingly truthful and informative answers about their subjects’ political and parliamentary careers.  With Wedgwood’s often sharply observed biographies (reproduced in an appendix), they provide unique insights into the parliamentary experiences of M.P.s during what Wedgwood had recognised as a crucial period for the House of Commons.

Acknowledgments Note on Sources Chapter 1. Colonel Wedgwood and the History of Parliament Chapter 2. The Questionnaire Chapter 3. ′Getting Inside Their Minds′: Formative Influences and Personal Backgrounds Chapter 4. Political and Parliamentary Careers Chapter 5. Personal and Political Finances Chapter 6. Speeches, Speech–Making and Voting Behaviour  Chapter 7. The Biographies Appendices 1. Respondents to Wedgwood′s Questionnair 2. The Questionnaire 3. Wedgwood’s Own Completed Questionnaire 4. Sir Henry Bowles′ Questionnaire, Biography and Correspondence 5. The Biographies Index

Priscilla Baines was the Librarian of the House of Commons from 2000 to 2004.  She has contributed to various publications of the Study of Parliament Group including The New Select Committees: a study of the 1979 reforms (1985 and 2 nd edition 1988); Parliamentary Accountability: a study of Parliament and Executive Agencies (1995); Westminster and Europe: the impact of the European Union on the Westminster Parliament (1995); and Britain in the European Union: Law, Policy and Parliament (2004).