Sir Rt Hon. Viscount Herbert Samuel OM GCB PC GBE
(1870-1963)

Died aged c. 93

Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, GCB, OM, GBE, PC (6 November 1870 – 5 February 1963) was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931 to 1935. He was the first nominally-practising Jew to serve as a Cabinet minister and to become the leader of a major British political party. Samuel had promoted Zionism within the British Cabinet, beginning with his 1915 memorandum entitled The Future of Palestine. In 1920 he was appointed as the first High Commissioner for Palestine, in charge of the administration of the territory. Samuel was the last member of the Liberal Party to hold one of the four Great Offices of State (as Home Secretary from 1931–32 in the National Government of Ramsay MacDonald). One of the adherents of "New Liberalism", Samuel helped to draft and present social reform legislation while he was serving as a Liberal cabinet member. Samuel led the party in both the 1931 general election and the 1935 general election, during which period the party's number of seats in parliament fell from 59 to 21.

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