1562 Alfred Mond

Constituency : Chester  1906-10, Swansea 1910-18, Swansea  West 1918-23, Carmarthen  1924-6 , 1926-8  (Conservative )

Alfred  took  Chester  from  the  Conservatives  by  47  votes.

Alfred  was  born  in  Widnes, the  son  of  a  German  Jewish  chemist. He  was  educated  at  Cheltenham  College  and  Cambridge. He  then  studied  law  at  Edinburgh  University  and  became  a  barrister. He  then  joined  his  father's  business  Brunner,  Mond  and  Company  and  later  became  its  managing  director. He  also  had  interests  in  nickel  mining  and  he  was  a  director  of  the  National  Westminster  Bank. He  championed  research, amalgamation  and  rationalisation  and  industrial  co-operation.He  stood  in  SAlford  South  in  1900.

Alfred  was  a  supporter  of  the  "New  Liberalism"  and  constructive  social  reform.

Alfred  witched  to  the  less  marginal  seat  of  Swansea  in  January  1910. He  was  created  a  baronet  that  year.

Perhaps  stung  by  scurrilous  suggestions  in  the  Daily  Mail  that  his  pet  pigeons  were  used  as  carrier  pigeons  because  of  his  German  roots, Alfred  joined  the  Liberal  War  Committee  urging  a  more  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war. Alfred  supported  Lloyd  George  and  became  First  Commissioner  of  Works  in  1916, In  1921  he  was  promoted  to  the  Cabinet  as  Minister  of  Health.  He  had  to  jettison  most  of  his  predecessor  Christopher  Addison's  plans  for  housebuilding  and  slum  clearance.He  strongly  opposed  the  idea  of  fusion  between  the  Coalition  Liberals  and  the  Tories. He  urged  Lloyd  George  to  fight  a  radical  campaign  in  1922  and  backed  Liberal  reunion  thereafter.

Alfred  received  the  coupon  in  1918 but  was  still  opposed  by  a  Conservative  as  well  as  Labour. He  won  by  1.181 votes. In  1922  he  was  subjected  to  fierce  anti-semitic  campaigns  by  both  Labour  and  the  Tories  but  held  on  by  802  votes. In  1923  he  was  narrowly  defeated  by  Labour. In  August 1924  Alfred   returned  at  a  by-election  at  Carmarthen. He  offered  himself  as  a  possible  Chancellor  of  Exchequer  if  Asquith  tried  to  form  a  Liberal  government.

In  1921,  Alfred  visited  Palestine  and  became  an  ardent  Zionist.He  gave  money  to  organisations  promoting  Jewish  colonization  and  became  President  of  the  British  Zionist  Foundation. He  sat  on  the  board  of  the  Palestine  Electric  Company  securing  contracts  from  the  British  government. He  founded  the  town  of  Tel  Mond.

In  January  1926,  Alfred  found  Lloyd  George's  plans  to  nationalise  the  land  too  difficult to  square  with   his  anti-socialist  outlook  and  defected  to  the  Conservatives.

That  same  year  Alfred  mastered  the  merger  of  his  company  with  three  others  to  form  Imperial  Chemical  Industries.

Alfred's  last  contribution  to  public  life  was  the  founding  of  the  Mond-Turner  industrial  peace  conferences  which  won  him  some  trade  union  respect.

In  1928  Alfred  was  elevated  to  the  peerage  as  Baron  Melchett.

Alfred  was  rather  blunt  and  tactless  and  a  poor  public  speaker but  impressed  with  his  energy  and  business  acumen.

He  died  in  1930  aged  62.