Constituency : Wellingborough 1922-23, Norwich 1929-45 ( from 1931 Liberal National )
Geoffrey took Wellingborough for the National Liberals, unseating the Labour incumbent in a straight fight.
Geoffrey was the son of a Baptist minister from Norwich. He was a distant relative of the playwright. He was educated at Highgate School. He served in World War One before going to Cambridge. He became a barrister but served as Lloyd George's private secretary from 1921 to 1923. He gave a valuable account of the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations in his memoir, Let the Candles Be Brought In, published in 1949.
In 1923 , Geoffrey was defeated by Labour due to Unionist intervention. He became a political journalist.
In 1929 Geoffrey succeeded Hilton Young at Norwich where he topped the poll. He was one of the first Liberal MPs to give public support to Simon's call for an emergency tariff. He did so again as a Liberal National in 1931 and 1935.
Geoffrey became the Liberal National chief whip in 1931. In 1932 he began a ministerial career taking in Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health ( 1932-6 ), Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education ( 1936-7 ), Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty ( 1937-40 ), Secretary for Overseas Trade (1940) and Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Dominion Affairs ( 1940-42 ). He also chaired the body responsible for evacuating children in World War Two. He was created a baronet in 1942.
In 1945, Geoffrey was pushed into third place as Labour took both seats.
Geoffrey was a director of the Abbey National Building Society from 1942 to 1977 and Deputy Chairman in the late sixties.
He died in 1980 aged 86.
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