{{Short description|British Liberal Party politician (1893–1980)}} {{More footnotes|date=July 2010}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Use British English|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = Sir Geoffrey Shakespeare | honorific_suffix = Bt | image = Sir Geoffrey Shakespeare.jpg | caption = Shakespeare in 1936 | constituency_MP = Wellingborough | term_start = 15 November 1922 | term_end = 16 November 1923 | predecessor = Walter Smith | successor = William Cove | constituency_MP2 = Norwich | term_start2 = 30 May 1929 | term_end2 = 15 June 1945 | predecessor2 = Hilton Young and<br />J. Griffyth Fairfax | successor2 = Lucy Noel-Buxton and<br />John Paton | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1893|09|23}} | birth_place = Norwich, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1980|09|08|1893|09|23}} | death_place = Bromley, England | father = Rev. John Howard Shakespeare }}
'''Sir Geoffrey Hithersay Shakespeare, 1st Baronet''' (23 September 1893 – 8 September 1980) was a British Liberal and later Liberal National politician.
==Life== Born in Norwich, the second son of Rev. John Howard Shakespeare, secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain,<ref>{{Cite ODNB|last=Pottle |first=Mark |date=September 2004 |title=Shakespeare, Sir Geoffrey Hithersay, first baronet (1893-1980), politician |chapter=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |url=http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/59880 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921020047/http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/59880 |archive-date=21 September 2016 |access-date=25 August 2016 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/59880 }}</ref> he was educated at Highgate School. He was a descendant of Richard Shakespeare, the grandfather of William Shakespeare.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adelson |first=Betty M. |title=The lives of dwarfs : their journey from public curiosity toward social liberation |date=2005 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=0-8135-3548-4 |location=New Brunswick, N.J. |pages=341 |oclc=55981420}}</ref> He served in the First World War. He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated with an MA and an LLB degree. He was president of the Cambridge Union Society in Lent Term 1920.
He was called to the Bar in 1922, was Private Secretary to David Lloyd George in 1921–1923 and worked as a political journalist. As Private Secretary, he attended the peace negotiations leading to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, of which he gave a valuable account in his memoirs, ''Let Candles be Brought In''.
He was National Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Wellingborough, Northamptonshire in 1922–1923 and Liberal Member for Norwich in 1929–1931 and Liberal National member in 1931–1945.
He served in government as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury and Liberal National Chief Whip from November 1931 – October 1932, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health in 1932–1936, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education in 1936–1937, Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty in 1937–1940, Secretary for Overseas Trade from April to May 1940, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs from 1940 to 1942. He was also chairman of the Children's Overseas Reception Board, 1940–1942.
He was a Director of Abbey National Building Society from 1943 to 1977, and was Deputy chairman from 1965 to 1969. He was chairman of the Standing Council of the Baronetage in 1972–1975.
He was created a baronet in 1942 and appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1945. He died in Bromley, Kent, aged 86.
In 1949, he published a memoir, ''Let Candles Be Brought In''. It was of great value to historians of the Anglo-Irish peace negotiations in 1921, to which he was an eyewitness. Particularly useful is his description of the final hours of the talks on 5–6 December 1921 when Lloyd George presented the Irish delegation with the famous ultimatum that they must sign the Treaty at once or face "terrible and immediate war".
His grandson is the sociologist and bioethicist Tom Shakespeare.
{{Infobox COA wide |image = Coat of Arms of Shakespeare baronets of Lakenham.svg |escutcheon = Or on a bend between in chief a portcullis and in base an anchor Sable a spear of the field. |crest = In front of a portcullis Sable an eagle rising grasping with the dexter claw a spear Or barbed Argent.<ref>{{cite book|title=Burke's Peerage |date=1949}}</ref>}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Bibliography==
* {{cite book |last=Craig |first=F. W. S. |author-link= F. W. S. Craig |title=British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 |orig-year=1969 |edition= 3rd |year=1983 |publisher= Parliamentary Research Services |location=Chichester |isbn= 0-900178-06-X}} *Mark Pottle, entry on Shakespeare in ''Dictionary of National Biography'', OUP 2004–08 *{{Rayment-bt|date=March 2012}} *{{Rayment-hc|date=March 2012}}
== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-geoffrey-shakespeare | Sir Geoffrey Shakespeare }}
{{S-start}} {{S-par|uk}} {{Succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Wellingborough | years = 1922–1923 | before = Walter Smith | after = William Cove }} {{s-bef| before = Hilton Young | before2 = J. Griffyth Fairfax}} {{s-ttl|title= Member of Parliament for Norwich | with = Walter Smith 1929–1931 | with2 = George Hartland 1931–1935 | with3 = Henry Strauss 1935–1945 | years = 1929–1945}} {{s-aft|after=Lucy Noel-Buxton | after2 = John Paton}} {{S-reg|uk-bt}} {{S-new|creation}} {{S-ttl|title=Baronet <br />'''(of Lakenham)'''|years=1942–1980}} {{S-aft|after=William Geoffrey Shakespeare}} {{S-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakespeare, Geoffrey}} Category:1893 births Category:1980 deaths Category:Admiralty personnel of World War II Category:Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Category:Foreign Office personnel of World War II Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:Lords of the Admiralty Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Ministers in the Chamberlain peacetime government, 1937–1939 Category:Ministers in the Chamberlain wartime government, 1939–1940 Category:Ministers in the Churchill wartime government, 1940–1945 Category:National Liberal Party (UK, 1922) politicians Category:National Liberal Party (UK, 1931) politicians Category:People educated at Highgate School Category:Politicians from Norwich Category:Presidents of the Cambridge Union 1 Geoffrey Category:UK MPs 1922–1923 Category:UK MPs 1929–1931 Category:UK MPs 1931–1935 Category:UK MPs 1935–1945