Review of “Liberal Crusader – The Life of Sir Archibald Sinclair” by Gerard J. De Groot published by Hurst and Company. In a companion post, Sir Ed Davey summarises the role of Sir Archibald.

I have recently read “Liberal Crusader” about the life of Sir Archibald Sinclair. Gerard De Groot provides an engaging tale which leaves one with great admiration for the nobility and hard work of this leader of the Liberal party from 1935 to 1945.

The first chapters give a very personal picture of the subject’s early life – an orphan, on the one hand, and the heir to a large estate, on the other. In particular, Sir Achibald’s romance and marriage to Marigold are related in endearing and poignant detail.

There’s also much about Sir Archibald’s long friendship with Sir Winston Churchill including details of service in the first world war.

The book tells us much about the slow and painful deterioration of the Liberal Party, its division into several parts and long debates over free trade. Sir Achibald emerges as someone who is crystal clear about what being a Liberal means, and prepared to stand up for Liberal values and policies, rather than compromise those ideals in relation to other parties’ stances plus Liberal party internal bickering and cliques.

As such it is clear that we should be grateful to Sir Archibald, with others of course, for keeping the Liberal party going during both the dark days of the party after the First World War but also during the very dark days of the Second World War.

Which leads us to a major chunk of the book which tells the story of Sir Archibald’s noble and tenacious service as Secretary of State for Air during the Second World War. It is clear that he worked extremely hard in the role to the extent that there is some suggestion that his health suffered as a result. The book reveals a somewhat dysfunctional war cabinet built round the character of Churchill. The larger-than-life Lord Beaverbrook was Minister of Aircraft Production reporting directly to Churchill. He was a very assertive figure and was constantly squabbling with Sinclair about where the line between aircraft production and aircraft operation was drawn. In fairness, both Sinclair and Beaverbrook maintained a warm friendship despite this clash of roles.

There is much about the strategy of bombing during the war. Sinclair spends much of his time trying to ensure that there is an effective bombing campaign resulting eventually with the carpet bombing of Dresden and other German cities. Sinclair does not seem to have been bothered by the morality of this, despite it being relatively clear that the allies had already won the war. There certainly seems to have been enormous planning and discussion over the bombing strategy. The personality of Sir Arthur Harris seems to have been a major factor in the campaign’s eventual denouement.

It is a very absorbing book which I personally found very educational. I was certainly left with great admiration for Sir Archibald.

* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.