Hugh Dalton Case

Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton came into this work in 1887, in Wales. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, his father being a chaplain to Queen Victoria and tutor to the future king. Dalton attended Summer Fields School before going to Eton College, where he was head of his house. He then went on to attend Kings College, Cambridge, where he was active in student politics. His strong socialist views, which were very rare, then amongst his peers, earned him the name ‘Comrade Hugh'. He even joined the Fabion Society and that was a taste of life in a party. Dalton stood for President of the Cambridge Union Society, despite 3 unsuccessful attempts to be elected secretary. He then progressed to study at the London School of Economics, where he succeeded thoroughly. He was also married and had had a daughter, who sadly died in infancy in the 1920's.

Dalton was an extremely intelligent individual, and this gained him respect within the Labour Party. However, he didn't have that great of a reputation. His biographer, Ben Pimlott describes him as ‘peevish, irritable, loud-voiced, rude, quick tempered, given to poor judgement and lacking administrative talent'. The Labour Party thought he was ‘shifty' and ‘self serving'. This may be the reason why Dalton never succeeded in administrative position. He loved the rough and tumble of politics but had a reputation for insincerity whilst being positively sly. This may be why he had a poor relationship with Atlee. Pimlott also suggested that Dalton was a repressed homosexual. As a young man, he was close to the poet Rupert Brook who died in 1915, and in later years, he acted as a mentor to various handsome young men.

Dalton was interested and active in politics throughout his education and regularly expressed his socialist views. He opposed pacifism and promoted re-armament against German threat. He was a bitter enemy of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and strongly opposed Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. Dalton supported labour but wasn't a strong supporter of Atlee, describing him as a ‘little mouse' that wasn't capable of leading the country. Many conservatives