1865–1932
○ Died
Conservative Home Secretary who banned The Well of Loneliness and cracked down on “indecency”
As Home Secretary in 1924–1929 he cracked down on nightclubs and “indecent” books, and in 1928 personally started the proceedings against The Well of Loneliness.
A British solicitor and Conservative politician from an evangelical Anglican merchant family in London. He entered Parliament by defeating Churchill at a by-election in 1908, earning the nickname “Jix”, and as a “die-hard” defended General Dyer over the Amritsar massacre. After serving as Postmaster General, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Minister of Health in 1923, he was Home Secretary in Baldwin’s government in 1924–1929, putting communist leaders on trial, cracking down on nightclubs and “indecent” books and leading the ban on The Well of Loneliness. Made a viscount in 1929, he died in 1932.
Also known as: Jix · Viscount Brentford · Lord Brentford
Activities and affiliations
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1908–1929
United Kingdom state institutionsMember of Parliament
Legislature and state representation -
1908–1932
Conservative Party (United Kingdom)
Legislature and state representation -
1923–1929
United Kingdom state institutionsHome SecretaryMain
Government and administration
Related historical events
“Jix” and public morals
Having taken the pledge at fourteen and kept it all his life, he was articled to a London solicitor in 1881–1887 and set up his own practice in 1888. In 1895 he married Grace Lynn Joynson, daughter of a Manchester silk manufacturer, and added her name to his. At the 1908 Manchester North West by-election he defeated Churchill, who had to stand again on appointment to the Cabinet; the nickname “Jix” dates from this contest, in which Jewish voters opposed him for his support of the Aliens Act 1905 restricting Jewish immigration. He called the Labour leader Keir Hardie “a leprous traitor”, prompting H. G. Wells to call him “the worst element in British political life”.
Losing his seat in 1910, he returned for Brentford in 1911 and Twickenham in 1918; during the First World War he called for the internment of enemy aliens and the bombing of German cities. Opposing Indian Home Rule, he defended General Dyer over the Amritsar massacre in 1920, establishing himself as a party “die-hard”. From 1922 he was Secretary for Overseas Trade, and in 1923 Postmaster General and Financial Secretary to the Treasury before becoming Minister of Health.
As Home Secretary in Baldwin’s government in 1924–1929, vowing to stem “the flood of filth coming across the Channel”, he clamped down on D. H. Lawrence, books on birth control and a translation of The Decameron, ordered raids on nightclubs and took a personal interest in banning The Well of Loneliness. In 1925 he put Harry Pollitt and other communist leaders on trial under the Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797, organised supplies and order during the general strike of 1926 and in 1927 ordered the police raid on the Soviet trade agency ARCOS. He also played an important part in lowering the voting age for women from 30 to 21. Made Viscount Brentford in 1929, he died on 8 June 1932.