Constituency : Elland 1899-1918, Newcastle Central 1922-31 ( Labour )
Charles took over at Elland after the retirement of Thomas Wayman.
Charles was the son and heir of the baronet Sir George Trevelyan , former Scottish Secretary under Gladstone and Rosebery. He was educated at Harrow and Cambridge. Charles campaigned for John Morley in Newcastle who in turn found him a post as private secretary to Lord Houghton, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He joined the Fabian Society in 1895 and his views took a socialistic bent influenced by Shaw. He stood for Lambeth North in 1895 and was narrowly defeated. In 1896 he declared "I have the greatest sympathy with the growth of the socialist party.I think they understand the evils that surround us and hammer them into peoples' minds better than we Liberals. I want to see the Liberal party throw its heart and soul fearlessly into reform".
Charles was a dissident Radical intellectual but when Asquith became Prime Minister in 1908 he appointed him Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education. He used his position to argue for completely secular education which angered religious collegues. He himself was an atheist. He was a keen Home Ruler and reported in 1914 that his working class constituents were furious over government attempts to placate the Unionists,
Charles resigned his post when Britain went to war in 1914. He explained his decision in terms of the damage and disruption to commerce which would result from going to war. "We shall suffer a steady impoverishment as the character of our work exchanges".
Charles's response was to found the Union of Democratic Control with Ramsay McDonald calling for greater Parliamentary scrutiny of foreign policy , a reasonable point to make but when it opposed conscription and wartime censorship it became known as a pacifist organisation and was denounced for undermining the war effort. Charles himself gave lectures calling for a negotiated peace with Germany that even his father and brother criticised.
Like all its members Charles paid a political price for his UDC membership. He was repudiated by the local Liberals who selected a different candidate for the 1918 election . Standing as an "Independent Labour" candidate , he came fourth with 5.6% of the vote.
Charles joined Labour reluctantly in 1919 believing that the Liberals were finished and had forfeited working class support for good. He was one of those former Liberal MPs urging support for Asquith's opponent in the 1920 Paisley by-election.
In 1922 Charles won Newcastle Central for Labour and was relatively safe there until heavily defeated by the Conservative candidate in 1931. He was President of the Board of Education in both the Labour governments of Ramsay McDonald. His efforts concentrated on raising the school leaving age.
Charles succeeded his father in 1928.
Charles's Education Bill of 1931 was scuppered in the Lords after amendments secured by the Catholic lobby. Charles himself blamed MacDonald who "detests me because I am always quite definite and won't shirk things in the approved style. He will let me down if he possibly can". He resigned from the government , appalled by Snowden's emphasis on economy, "The very root of our faith is that prosperity comes from the high spending power of the people, and that public expenditure on the social services is always remunerative".
Charles joined the Socialist League after his defeat to win over the party to revolutionary socialism. In 1933 he had a resolution passed at Conference that Labour should call a general strike on the threat of war.
In 1937 Charles was one of those expelled from the Labour party for advocating a "popular front " against the National Government. He retired from politics as a result.
Charles was a friend of Beatrice Webb who described him as " a man who has every endowment - social position, wealth, intelligence, an independent outlook, good looks, good manners". H.G. Wells however said he had "little sense of humour or irony " and was "self-satisfied an unendurably boring".
Charles was a keen supporter of the National Trust and the first aristocrat to bequeath his home to them. This effectively disinherited his son George. He said of his class , "I am not troubled by their thinking me a traitor. Indeed I hate their loyalties. I am much more concerned that the masses understand what I am doing".
Charles fathered an illegitimate child with his mistress Edith Bulmer at 72. In one of his last letters he wrote "If you see what you think is right clearly enough , there is really no difficulty. Most peoples minds are rather mixed and foggy".
He died in 1958 aged 87.
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