| 7 September 1893: Born, son of Captain and Mrs J I Belisha June 1894: Belisha's father died 1912: Belisha's mother married Sir Adair Hore, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Pensions. Belisha took name Hore-Belisha. Educated Clifton College, Bristol, Paris, Heidelberg and St John's College, Oxford. President of Oxford Union Society 1914-1918: Served in Royal Fusiliers Public School Battalion and RASC in France, Flanders and Salonika; Major; mentioned in despatches. 1919: Invalided out. Returned to Oxford. MA 1923: Called to the Bar, Inner Temple 1923-1942: MP for Devonport as Liberal Nationalist 1931-1932: Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade 1932-1934: Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1934-1937: Minister of Transport 1935: Privy Councillor October 1936: Seat in Cabinet December 1936: Lady Hore died 1937-1940: Secretary of State for War and President of Army Council 1939-1940: Member of War Cabinet 1942-1945: MP for Devonport as Independent. 1944: Married Cynthia, daughter of Gilbert Elliot of Kent. May-July 1945: Minister of National Insurance 1947: Member of Westminster City Council 1950: Unsuccessfully contested Croydon as Conservative 1954: Created 1st Baron, Hore-Belisha of Devonport 16 February 1957: Died at Rheims Section 1: Diaries Section 2: Liberal-National Parliamentary Party Section 3: Board of Trade and Treasury Section 4: Ministry of Transport Section 5: War Office Section 6: Post-Resignation and Post War Section 7: Personal Correspondence Section 8: Photographs Section 9: Personal Papers Section 10: Hilde Sloane's Papers and Miscellaneous Items Section 11: R J Minney's Book: The Private Papers of Hore-Belisha and Press Cuttings. The collection, though small, is interesting as no other papers appear to have been left by Hore-Belisha. It comprises letters, diaries, some photographs and documents (mainly copies) covering most of Hore-Belisha's career but concentrating on his most important position as War Minister from 1937-1939 and particularly the events surrounding his dismissal by Neville Chamberlain. This collection of the papers of Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1st Baron Hore-Belisha of Devonport was purchased at public auction in March 1985 for Churchill College with the aid of generous grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Friends of the National Libraries and the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund. It would appear that these papers had been gathered, copied and sometimes annotated by Hore-Belisha's Secretary and confidant, Miss Hilde Sloane, for the use of R J Minney in his book "The Private Papers of Hore Belisha", published in New York by Doubleday & Co in 1961. Many of the letters and papers and numerous diary entries are quoted in Minney's book, frequently with Miss Sloane's gloss added as commentary and there is little in the collection which lies outside the scope of Mr Minney's book. The diaries themselves seem to be largely in Miss Sloane's handwriting or to have been compiled from typed extracts of letters sent to her by Hore-Belisha during his journey round North and South America. | ![[Home]](/images/logo.gif){kind=logo}
