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Arthur Augustus William Harry Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede (16 February 1871 - 23 March 1946) was a British politician, writer, and social activist. He was the son of Sir Henry Ponsonby, Private Secretary to Queen Victoria.
Lord Ponsonby is probably most remembered for the statement: "When war is declared, truth is the first casualty." which he made in his book Falsehood in Wartime: Propaganda Lies of the First World War (1928).
He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, and joined the Diplomatic Service, taking assignments in Constantinople and Copenhagen.
In 1906 he ran unsuccessfully as a member of the Liberal Party, but succeeded in becoming MP for Stirling Burghs in 1908.
He was opposed to Britain's inolvment in World War I, and joined with George Cadbury, Ramsay MacDonald, E. D. Morel, Arnold Rowntree and Charles Trevelyan, to form the Union of Democratic Control (UDC), which became a very prominent anti-war organisation in Britain.
He was defeated in the General Election of 1918, but joining the Labour Party became the MP for the Brightside division of Sheffield in 1922.
Ramsay MacDonald appointed him to be Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport in 1929. He became a Baron in 1930 and served as a leader in the House of Lords until 1935.
In 1940 Ponsonby resigned from the Labour Party, opposing its decision to join the National Government.
He died on 23 March 1946.
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Arthur Augustus William Harry Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede
- Review of Falsehood in Wartime (http://www.wintersonnenwende.com/scriptorium/english/pages/e0401fals.html)
- Two pictures (http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp03605) of Ponsonby at The National Portrait Gallery (UK)
- Brief bio (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUponsonby.htm) at Spartacus Schoolnet
- Introduction to Falsehood in Wartime (http://www.heretical.com/miscella/ponsonby.html) online
- The Corpse Factory (http://www.vho.org/GB/Journals/JHR/1/2/Ponsonby121-130.html) at The Journal of Historical Review
- The Ponsonby Rule (http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:9gEM00DqgnsJ:www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/ponsonbyrule,0.pdf+%22Arthur+Ponsonby%22&hl=en) Google HTML of a PDF document.
- Arthur Ponsonby's Dream (http://www3.sympatico.ca/sr.gowans/ponsonby.html)
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