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81-547: On 23 July 1938, Sir Kingsley Wood , Secretary of State for Air , announced the creation of the Civil Air Guard scheme. Its intention was to provide pilots who could assist the Royal Air Force in a time of emergency. The scheme was civilian in nature and established in conjunction with local flying clubs. Membership was open to any person between the ages of 18 and 50 years. The Air Ministry already offered

162-486: A Ministry of Health ; after the election he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (an unpaid assistant to a minister, a traditional first rung on the political ladder) to the first Minister of Health, Christopher Addison . After the collapse of the coalition government in 1922, Wood was offered no post in the Conservative government formed by Bonar Law . As a backbencher, Wood successfully introduced

243-649: A privy councillor in 1928. In 1930 he was elected as the first chairman of the executive committee of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations . When the National Government was formed by Ramsay MacDonald in 1931, Wood was made Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education . After the general election of November 1931 he was promoted to the office of Postmaster General . The position did not entail automatic membership of

324-448: A quango , and he set up an independent committee to advise him on this. The committee recommended that the GPO should remain a department of state, but adopt a more commercial approach. Under Wood the GPO introduced reply paid arrangements for businesses, and set up a national teleprinter service. For the telephone service, still mostly dependent on manual operators, the GPO introduced

405-523: A "Bank of England" with a "fund for perpetual Interest" (not yet bonds or bills) that was passed by Parliament, supported by Charles Montagu, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Michael Godfrey, another leading City merchant. The public were invited to invest subscriptions totalling £1.2 million forming the initial capital stock onward loaned to the Government in return for a Royal Charter. At the same time

486-671: A cabinet committee … The Treasury's main jobs were to finance the war with as little inflation as possible, to conduct external financial policy so as to secure overseas supplies on the best possible terms, and to take part in planning for the post-war period." Wood was Chancellor, as Jenkins notes, "for the forty key months of the Second World War". He presented four budgets to Parliament . His first, in July 1940, passed with little notice, and brought into effect some minor changes planned by his predecessor. Of more long-lasting impact

567-621: A few weeks of the Air Ministry July announcement more than 13,350 new people had inquired about joining, although only 6,900 had actually enrolled in a flying club. Later, on 8 October 1938, the Air Ministry announced that over 30,000 applications had been received. The scheme had created a demand for more flying instructors so the Air Ministry created a temporary Assistant Flying Instructor certificate that could be obtained after just 100 hours solo flying, rather than 250 hours for

648-646: A few weeks; the downfall of Chamberlain affected Wood in an unexpected way. In May 1940, as a trusted friend, Wood told Chamberlain "affectionately but firmly" that after the debacle of the British defeat in Norway and the ensuing Commons debate , his position as Prime Minister was impossible and he must resign. He also advised Winston Churchill to ignore pressure from those who wanted Lord Halifax , not Churchill, as Chamberlain's successor. Chamberlain agreed to resign on 9 May, but considered going back on his decision

729-456: A grant of £25 to pilot members of flying clubs who obtained an 'A' type licence. As part of the new scheme, if they volunteered for the Civil Air Guard, the grant would be increased to £50 for those trained on standard types of aircraft or £30 for aircraft that are lighter than 1,200 pounds (544 kg). The renewal grant would be increased from £10 to £15. Members would receive flying training at subsidised rates of either 2s 6d or 5s an hour during

810-565: A long period of price stability. Money flow is based on confidence and is therefore vulnerable to panic shocks. A rescue operation, later termed the BoE's Lifeboat, in the form of syndicated guarantees by leading banks to fund for banks in crisis was established by the Governor of the Bank of England with over £17 million promised. The Bank therefore had to fully accept responsibility for the stability of

891-799: A member of the London County Council (LCC) at a by-election on 22 November 1911, representing the Borough of Woolwich for the Municipal Reform Party . His importance in the field of insurance grew over the next few years; his biographer Roy Jenkins has called him "the legal panjandrum of industrial insurance". He chaired the London Old Age Pension Authority in 1915 and the London Insurance Committee from 1917 to 1918,

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972-499: A programme of building new automated exchanges. For the postal service, the GPO built up a large fleet of motor vehicles to speed delivery, with 3,000 vans and 1,200 motor-cycles. Wood was a strong believer in publicity; he set up an advertising campaign for the telephone system which dramatically increased the number of subscribers, and he established the GPO Film Unit which gained a high aesthetic reputation as well as raising

1053-490: A similar policy innovation, the Office of Budget Responsibility was created to be an authority on macro-economic forecasting by and for Government departments. Central Authorities such as Treasury or Government Finance departments and The Central Banks had to assume responsibility for financial stability. The most glaring example of failure being Germany's currency collapse and Hyper-inflation 1921–23. Monetary stability alone

1134-579: Is however not enough of a guiding principle. As with the French a century before, the First World War saw the link with gold broken and the issue of low denomination notes returned once again. A vain attempt was made in 1925 to return to the discipline of the gold standard and remains handled by the Bank. The gold and foreign exchange reserves passed to the Treasury in 1931. Also in 1931, UK abandoned

1215-468: The Ministry of Health from 11 November 1924 to 4 June 1929, becoming friends and firm political allies. They worked closely together on local government reform, including a radical updating of local taxation, the " rates ", based on property values. Wood's political standing was marked by his appointment as a civil commissioner during the general strike of 1926, and, unusually for a junior minister, as

1296-564: The Phoney War , and during this time he limited RAF activity to dropping propaganda leaflets rather than strategic bombing . When Leo Amery urged him to destroy the Black Forest with incendiary bombs in reaction to the invasion of Poland , he is said to have replied "Are you aware it is private property ?... Why, you will be asking me bomb Essen next!" By early 1940, Wood was worn out by his efforts, and Chamberlain moved him to

1377-734: The Prime Minister . Until 1827, the First Lord of the Treasury, when a commoner, also held the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer , while if the First Lord was a peer, the Second Lord usually served as Chancellor. Since 1827, however, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has always been Second Lord of the Treasury. If important lessons were learnt that the National Debt (and public finances) require prudent management, when

1458-727: The Whole of Government Accounts annual financial statements are produced. The origins of the Treasury of England have been traced by some to an individual known as Henry the Treasurer, a servant to King William the Conqueror . This claim is based on an entry in the Domesday Book showing the individual Henry "the treasurer" as a landowner in Winchester, where the royal treasure was stored. The UK Treasury traces its origins to

1539-471: The 126 years between 1785 and 1911. The UK's 1844 Bank Act even had to be suspended in 1847, 1857 and in 1866 to prevent The Bank of England's own collapse. By the time of the 2007–08 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) The UK Treasury with Bank of England staff were especially innovative in providing off-budget solutions to bank bale-outs by offering The Asset protection Scheme, whereby banks could sell large percentages of their loan-books, heavily risk- discounted, to

1620-449: The 1980s) and a system for fiscal transfers between rich and poor regions (much simplified and abolished in much of its refinements), through high inflation years the 1970s and 1980s (triggered by Middle-East oil wars) led to the rise the national debt (in nominal terms) from about 64% GDP ratio down to £36 billions in 1972 or 49% GDP ratio, then to £197 billion in 1987 or 39% ratio, followed by £419bn or 41% ratio by 1998. Although figures for

1701-506: The Central Bank in exchange for Treasury Bills, kept on deposit as part of the banks' regulatory capital. They therefore did not have to finding funding gap finance in the now very expensive short term Money Markets. When US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen learnt of Alistair Darling 's approach, only then did he realise he had had no need to apply to Congress for TARP or closedown Lehman Brothers ! The Bank's relationship with

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1782-520: The Chancellor's and therefore The Treasury's behalf. However, a revival of interest in Chicago and Austrian Schools of Monetarism, calling for depoliticised central base-rate policy settings, and claiming much would have been better had that been available during the high inflation 1970s. The re-evaluation of monetary policy roles began in the 1980s but did not result until 1997 in granting The Central Bank sole responsibility for setting interest rates and at

1863-650: The Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt (CRND) were integrated with the DMO. The facility lends to local authorities for capital purposes and the CRND's principal function is to manage the investment portfolios of certain public funds. The PWLB lending facility and CRND continue to carry out their long-standing statutory functions within the DMO. A brief explanation of two terms: "Exchequer" derives from

1944-454: The Commissioners was Lord Londonderry and the Commissioners were: The Commissioners held their first meeting on 29 August 1938 at Ariel House, Strand in London. The organisation already had 23,647 members with the 75 flying clubs in the scheme. The first training flight commenced on 1 September 1938. At the time, 1,500 (6%) of the existing 23,647 members were available for training. Within

2025-457: The Duke of Albemarle, Lord Ashley, (Sir) W. Coventry, (Sir) J. Duncomb, and (Sir) T. Clifford. From the middle of the 17th century the need for a national bank became pressing. England and, in particular, London was greatly changing due to fast expansion of The Empire's trade, not least N.America, but also entrepot trade that grew to over one third of trade and with Continental Europe, however, what

2106-577: The Exchequer , Sir John Simon , whom Churchill detested. Another may have been Wood's record of working well with politicians from other parties. In peacetime, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is often the most important member of the cabinet after the Prime Minister, but the exigencies of the war reduced the Chancellor's precedence. The Treasury temporarily ceased to be the core department of government. In Peden's words, "Non-military aspects of policy, including economic policy , were co-ordinated by

2187-743: The Exchequer , or more informally the Treasury , is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom . It is responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and economic policy . The Treasury maintains the Online System for Central Accounting and Reporting, the replacement for the Combined Online Information System , which itemises departmental spending under thousands of category headings, and from which

2268-521: The Exchequer was abolished in 1833, HM Treasury became the ministerial department under the Chancellor of the Exchequer. When the Treasury was under commission, junior Lords were each paid £1,600 a year. It is insensible to consider the Treasury's history without the Bank of England, set up in the 17th century. The argument for England's bank grew after the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 when William of Orange and Queen Mary ascended to England's throne. London-based Scottish entrepreneur, William Paterson proposed

2349-466: The GPO's profile. Most importantly, Wood transformed the senior management of the GPO and negotiated a practical financial deal with HM Treasury . The civil service post of Secretary to the Post Office was replaced by a director general with an expert board of management. The old financial rules, by which all the GPO's surplus revenue was surrendered to the Treasury had long prevented reinvestment in

2430-800: The Gold Standard for domestic currency redemption. Domestic note issue was no longer backed by gold. It may be remarked, quite fairly, that in the last half century, monetary systems management, financial planning and regulatory oversight, effectively everything but a political-economy policy direction strategy, has come to be applied comprehensively to financial services, all at a time when industrial policy and strategic oversight to all industries making tradable goods, has been discarded. Government can get involved in industrial strategy and public and some private services in response to strikes, closures, or FDI investment flows. Crises of systemic collapses after excessive confidence inevitably continued through

2511-487: The Government or by commerce – rendered itself liable to its depositors wanting all their money returned at once. The Bank therefore, needed to retain a prudent reserve of gold to ensure liabilities could be met on demand. This can be seen as the beginning of a policy of monetary stability. The 1844 bank Charter Act, After the French Wars, sterling's exchange rate was high so that the trade balance with Continental Europe

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2592-1039: The Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland had been united by the Acts of Union 1800 , the exchequers of the two kingdoms were not consolidated until 1817 under the Consolidated Fund Act 1816 ( 56 Geo. 3 . c. 98). For the holders of the Irish office before this date, see Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland . As of 5 July 2024, the Treasury Ministers are as follows, with cabinet ministers in bold: National Infrastructure Strategy, National Infrastructure Commission; Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA, joint with Cabinet Office); Public – Private Partnerships; (PPPs) and Private Finance Initiatives (PFI/PFI2); parliamentary deputy on public spending issues. Parliamentary deputy on economy issues. Some of

2673-653: The Lords of the Treasury and were given a number based on their seniority. In 1720 the South Sea bubble burst and thousands of investors were affected; such was the outrage that the Chancellor of the Exchequer was sent to the Tower of London. Eventually the First Lord of the Treasury came, however, to be seen as the natural head of government, and from Robert Walpole on, the holder of the office became known, unofficially, as

2754-530: The National Debt was born, paper money came into existence. From the start, complementing the Treasury's policy-setting and oversight role, the Bank became the Government's banker; managing the Government's Treasury bank accounts, providing and arranging loans, maintaining cash-flow as required. It is also a commercial bank, dealing in bills and bonds (its own are called Gilts) sold to fund government borrowing, sometimes The Great Trading Franchises such as East India or Royal Africa and South Sea Companies. Involvement

2835-558: The Stuarts failed to enforce limits on inflation, war, corruption and extravagant tendencies and were forced into debt again. In 1667, King Charles II was responsible for appointing George Downing , the builder of Downing Street , to radically reform the Treasury and the collection of taxes. The Treasury was first put in commission (placed under the control of several people instead of only one) in May or June 1660. The first commissioners were

2916-642: The Summer Time Bill of 1924. This measure, passed in the teeth of opposition from the agricultural lobby, provided for a permanent annual summer time period of six months from the first Sunday in April to the first Sunday in October. When Baldwin succeeded Law in 1924, Wood was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health , as junior minister to Neville Chamberlain . The two served at

2997-528: The Treasury are sinecure positions which allow the whips to be paid ministerial salaries. This has led to the Government front bench in the Commons being known as the Treasury Bench. However, since the whips no longer have any effective ministerial roles in the Treasury, they are usually not listed as Treasury ministers. The position of Permanent Secretary to the Treasury is generally regarded as

3078-558: The Treasury changed several times, and continues no less intimate than that between US Treasury and The Federal Reserve. The funds which the Bank deploys, including note sat issue, specie in circulation, securities, Gold and foreign exchange reserves. Nationalisation in 1946, after WWII, made little immediate practical difference to the Bank. It remained the Treasury's partner, adviser, agent and debt manager. During War years and after it, and or they together, determined and administered exchange controls and various borrowing restrictions, often on

3159-819: The Treasury of the Kingdom of England , founded by 1126, in the reign of King Henry I . The Treasury emerged from the Royal Household . It was where the king kept his treasures, such as in The King's Chamber. The head of the Treasury was called the Lord Treasurer . Starting in Tudor times, the Lord Treasurer became one of the chief officers of state, and competed with the Lord Chancellor for

3240-478: The USA's Marshall Plan and other plans and focus on growing and trading out of debt while also de-colonising and honouring intra-Empire debt such as owed to India. The 1950s and early 1960s saw an increase in authority delegated to departments to spend within predetermined totals. with awareness of the net costs after tax generated and recovered (a practise stopped after 1979) and national industrial planning (abolished in

3321-575: The amount of money involved. The stick was cut in two and one half given to the Sheriff as receipt for the money. They were in use until 1834 when a fire destroyed the Palace of Westminster. By 1584, the deficit had been turned into a surplus equivalent to one year's revenue. Monarchs tended to bypass the Exchequer because of its ineffectiveness until it was reformed by Lord Treasurer Winchester and his successor, Lord Burghley, under Elizabeth I. In contrast,

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3402-568: The banking system as a whole. This is now generally accepted duty by all central banks, each of whom issue annual Solvency and Financial Condition Reports of their national banking sectors. The threat of World War One pushed Government finance and the banking system into a short and medium term, then a longer run ongoing embarrassment of unprecedented high national debt (measured as a ratio to national income) overseen by both The Treasury and The Bank together. This crisis arguably pre-dates major world wars, and began by when half of world trade by value

3483-484: The business; Wood negotiated a new arrangement under which the GPO would pay an agreed annual sum to the Treasury and keep the remainder of its revenue for investment. When MacDonald was succeeded as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by Baldwin in 1935, Wood was appointed Minister of Health . Despite its title, the Ministry was at that time at least as concerned with housing as with health. Under Wood, his biographer G. C. Peden writes, "the slum clearance programme

3564-504: The cabinet, but Wood was made a cabinet member in 1933. As minister in charge of the General Post Office (GPO), Wood inherited an old-fashioned organisation, not equipped to meet the needs of the 1930s. In particular its management of the national telephone system, a GPO monopoly, was widely criticised. Wood considered reconstituting the whole of the GPO, changing it from a government department to what would later be called

3645-516: The chequered abacus table used from about 1110 for summing income and expenditure. Exchequers were held twice yearly when the Chief Justice, Lord Chancellor, Treasurer and others sat round the chequer board, to audit and agree accounts of each local sheriff who collected taxes and duties and spent money on behalf of the crown. The word "budget" derives from the term "bougette"- a wallet in which either documents or money could be kept. Although

3726-615: The existence of an international network of mutually-trusting Governments' Departments of Finance, Treasuries and or Central Banks that in turn accredit and guarantee commercial banks. During the 18th and early 19th centuries great demands were placed on Treasury and the Bank for funding-gap finance; the National Debt grew from £12 million in 1700 to £850 million by 1815, the year of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. However, in creating credit-issuing notes not fully backed by cash (gold) in hand, but were partly supported by credit given to

3807-491: The first move towards nationalisation, the 1844 Bank Charter Act was also the key move towards the monopoly of banknote issue. The crucial clause of the Act was a monetary one; it provided that, beyond the Bank's capital of £14 million, its notes were to be backed by gold or bullion. This, together with a fixed price for standard gold, laid the foundation for the gold standard, which during the 19th century, spread world-wide and created

3888-453: The full certificate. On 24 January 1939, as the prospect of war became more imminent, Civil Air Guard licence holders were classed into three groups: Members who could not classed in any of these groups were advised to look for some other form of national service. Selected members of all three groups would get additional subsidised training and were known as starred groups. Class A starred members would also get Royal Air Force medicals. As

3969-576: The government whips are also associated in name with the Treasury: the Chief Whip is nominally Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and traditionally had an office in 12 Downing Street . Some of the other whips are nominally Lords Commissioners of the Treasury , though they are all members of the House of Commons . Being a whip is a party, rather than a government, position; the appointments to

4050-442: The majority of the medieval period the office of the Treasury was within the Exchequer (responsible for managing the royal revenue in addition to collecting and issuing money). As is often the case, wars are expensive and in 1433 war with France led to a deficit of £30,000 – the equivalent of over £100 billion today. Money that the Treasury received was recorded by using tallies. These were sticks with notches marked on them according to

4131-425: The majority of the population was liable to income tax . Keynes convinced Wood that he should abandon the orthodox Treasury doctrine that Chancellors' budgets were purely to regulate governmental revenue and expenditure; Wood, despite some misgivings on Churchill's part, adopted Keynes's conception of using national income accounting to control the economy. With the hugely increased public expenditure necessitated by

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4212-474: The management of the post-war economy. The long slump of the 1930s Great Recession necessitated the restructuring of the economy, first by Command Economy necessitated by World War, then following World War II when the National Debt stood at £21 billions by 1945, or 219% ratio to GDP, emphasis on peacetime planning to avoid the slump after WWI when agricultural market prices collapsed. With better international financial relations following 1944 Bretton Woods and

4293-520: The marriage, but the couple adopted a daughter. Wood established his own law firm in the City of London , specialising in industrial insurance law. He represented the industrial insurance companies in their negotiations with the Liberal government before the introduction of Lloyd George 's National Insurance Bill in 1911, gaining valuable concessions for his clients. Wood was first elected to office as

4374-402: The meteoric rise of the banking and financial markets, with the emerging stock market revolving around government funds. The ability to raise money by means of creating debt through the issue of bills and bonds heralded the beginning of the National Debt. Improved controls over public spending ensured that creditors were more willing to lend money to the government. By the 1730s an early version of

4455-967: The morning of the day on which he was due to announce PAYE in the House of Commons. He was 62. Wood was referred to in the book Guilty Men by Michael Foot , Frank Owen and Peter Howard (writing under the pseudonym "Cato"), published in 1940 as an attack on public figures for their failure to re-arm and their appeasement of Nazi Germany . HM Treasury King Charles III [REDACTED] William, Prince of Wales [REDACTED] Charles III ( King-in-Council ) [REDACTED] Starmer ministry ( L ) Keir Starmer ( L ) Angela Rayner ( L ) ( King-in-Parliament ) [REDACTED] Charles III [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Lord Reed The Lord Hodge Andrew Bailey Monetary Policy Committee His Majesty's Treasury ( HM Treasury ), occasionally referred to as

4536-420: The national debt are rising after inflation they fell as GDP % ratios from a peak of about 250% of GDP at the end of World War II to 1/6 that by century end. The decision in 1997 to transfer monetary policy setting responsibility to the Bank of England, alongside maintaining responsibility for financial system stability while relegating-out operational banking risk management, oversight and rule-enforcement, to

4617-549: The new Financial Services Authority while the Treasury retained control of fiscal policy led to the creation of the United Kingdom Debt Management Office (DMO) as an executive agency of the Treasury. Since April 1998, gilts have been issued by the DMO. Other than gilts (and Treasury bills, see below) the National Debt also includes the liabilities of National Savings & Investments and other public sector debt and foreign currency. In 2010, in

4698-534: The next day as the German attack on the Western Front had begun; Wood told him that he had to go through with his resignation. Both men acted on Wood's advice. Churchill became Prime Minister on 10 May 1940; Wood was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer on 12 May. One of the reasons for Wood's appointment to the Treasury seems to have been Churchill's urgent desire to be rid of the incumbent Chancellor of

4779-449: The nineteenth, twentieth and into the twenty-first centuries, some 2 years apart, sometimes ten. Apart from cycle downturns or recessions that linked the US and UK economies especially up until WWI because large amounts of capital flowed annually from USA to London after each Autumn Harvest and flowed back again in time for Spring planting. There were recessions, often called panics, in 60 out of

4860-632: The non-departmental office of Lord Privy Seal , switching the incumbent, Sir Samuel Hoare , to the Air Ministry in Wood's place. Wood's job was to chair both the Home Policy Committee of the cabinet, which considered "all social service and other domestic questions and reviews proposals for legislation" and the Food Policy Committee, overseeing "the problems of food policy and home agriculture". He held this position for only

4941-406: The principal place. Thomas Cromwell transformed the financial administration of the country, restoring authority to the Exchequer and making the King's Chamber, of central importance under Henry VII, back into a small spending department overseeing the Royal Household. The fact that Cromwell had a key post in the old Chamber system as well as being Chancellor of the Exchequer shows how he did this. For

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5022-453: The public spending survey and the annual Budget had been established. In its evolution the Treasury had to learn some valuable lessons. In 1711, the Treasury established a scheme whereby it secured government debt by the authorisation of its subscription into the capital of the South Sea Company, with government creditors in return holding stock in the company. After 1714, the Treasury was always in commission. The commissioners were referred to as

5103-411: The reason for the conferring of an honour, but Jenkins writes that Wood's knighthood was essentially for his work in the insurance field. Wood was elected to Parliament as a Conservative in the " khaki election " of 1918. His constituency, Woolwich West , was marginal , but he represented it for the rest of his life. Before being elected, he had attracted notice by advocating the establishment of

5184-435: The role of HM Treasury from custodian of government income and expenditure to steering the entire British economy. One of Wood's last innovations was the creation of Pay As You Earn , under which income tax is deducted from employees' current pay, rather than being collected retrospectively. This system remains in force in Britain. Wood died suddenly on the day on which the new system was to be announced to Parliament. Wood

5265-486: The same time no longer be responsible for Government debt management, or, as it turned out, the National Gold Reserve. In 1997 the Government transferred for monetary policy claiming this meant The Bank of England was now a truly fully independent central bank. The Debt Management Office United Kingdom was created in April 1998 as an executive agency of HM Treasury to take over responsibility for debt management. In April 2000, responsibilities for Exchequer cash management

5346-699: The second most influential in the British Civil Service ; two recent incumbents have gone on to be Cabinet Secretary , the only post outranking it. From October 2022, the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury is James Bowler and there are two Second Permanent Secretaries: Cat Little and Beth Russell . The previous Permanent Secretary, Sir Tom Scholar , was sacked by Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Prime Minister Liz Truss shortly after they took office. The Treasury publishes cross-government guidance including Managing Public Money and The Green Book: Central Government Guidance on appraisal and evaluation , current version dated 2020. Managing Public Money includes

5427-450: The war approached, civil flying ceased and most members of the Civil Air Guard enlisted in either the Royal Air Force or the Fleet Air Arm . Some of the women Civil Air Guard members went on to join the Air Transport Auxiliary . Other members were used for special duties in both military and civil aviation, or moved on to other non-aviation war duties. Kingsley Wood Sir Howard Kingsley Wood (19 August 1881 – 21 September 1943)

5508-519: The war – it increased sixfold between 1938 and 1943 – inflation was always a danger. Wood sought to head off inflationary wage claims by subsidising essential rationed goods , while imposing heavy taxes on goods classed as non-essential. The last change he pioneered as Chancellor was the system of Pay As You Earn (PAYE), by which income tax is deducted from current pay rather than paid retrospectively on past years' earnings. He did not live to see it come into effect; he died suddenly at his London home on

5589-406: The week, and 5s or 10s at weekends. The maximum subsidy of £2000 for each club would not apply to those in the Air Guard. The Air Ministry also lifted a restriction on the use of foreign aircraft for training by the flying clubs. Previously, only British-built aircraft could be used if the club wanted Ministry subsidies. To control the organisation, five commissioners were appointed. The Chairman of

5670-466: Was Postmaster General , in which he transformed the British Post Office from a bureaucracy to a business. As Secretary of State for Air in the months before the Second World War he oversaw a huge increase in the production of warplanes to bring Britain up to parity with Germany. When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940, Wood was made Chancellor of the Exchequer , in which post he adopted policies propounded by John Maynard Keynes , changing

5751-416: Was a British Conservative politician. The son of a Wesleyan Methodist minister, he qualified as a solicitor, and successfully specialised in industrial insurance. He became a member of the London County Council and then a Member of Parliament . Wood served as junior minister to Neville Chamberlain at the Ministry of Health , establishing a close personal and political alliance. His first cabinet post

5832-624: Was a long series of deficits, for which in addition to the offsets of the Empire's entrepot trade, Gold was needed, such as from Canada, Australia, USA, and South Africa, culminating too in the Boer War . Prudence and discretion alone almost always proved insufficient. The Treasury and The Bank faced many crises regarding gold reserve needed for domestic, British Empire, and foreign trade and policy purposes, not all good, practical or merely pragmatic, some undoubtedly nefarious? Considered by some as

5913-616: Was a member of the National Insurance Advisory Committee from 1911 to 1919, chairman of the Faculty of Insurance from 1916 to 1919 and president of the faculty in 1920, 1922 and 1923. At the LCC he was a member of the council committees on insurance , pensions and housing . He was knighted in 1918 at the unusually early age of 36. It was not then, as it later became, the practice to state in honours lists

5994-575: Was after the Great Depression . When Anthony Eden resigned from Chamberlain's government in March 1938, Wood moved to be Secretary of State for Air in the ensuing reshuffle. The UK was then producing 80 new warplanes a month. Within two years under Wood the figure had risen to 546 a month. By the outbreak of the Second World War, Britain was producing as many new warplanes as Germany. Wood's tenure as Secretary of State for Air coincided with

6075-580: Was born in Hull , eldest of three children of the Rev. Arthur Wood, a Wesleyan Methodist minister, and his wife, Harriett Siddons, née Howard. His father was appointed to be minister of Wesley's Chapel in London, where Wood grew up, attending nearby Central Foundation Boys' School . He was articled to a solicitor , qualifying in 1903 with honours in his law examinations. In 1905 Wood married Agnes Lilian Fawcett (d. 1955); there were no biological children of

6156-586: Was financed by British banks and when as a consequence the circulation of international payments became less liquid i.e. dried up. In response to this crisis, John Maynard Keynes (renowned economist), persuaded Chancellor Lloyd George to use the Bank of England's gold reserves to support banks. This ended the immediate crisis. Keynes stayed on as adviser to the Treasury until 1919. The war of 1914–18 saw National Debt rise from £650 million to £7,500 million by 1919. The Treasury developed new expertise in foreign exchange, currency, credit and price control skills in

6237-489: Was his creation in the same month of a council of economic advisers, the most notable of whom, John Maynard Keynes , was quickly recruited as a full-time adviser at the Treasury. Jenkins detects Keynes's influence in Wood's second budget, in April 1941. It brought in a top income tax rate of 19s 6d (97½ pence in decimal currency ) and added two million to the number of income tax payers; for the first time in Britain's history

6318-883: Was indirect as well as direct, personal as well as institutional, in slavery and other heinous trades. The Bank's main roles were, however, more equivalent to that of overdraft finance or factoring, with responsibilities for external account or trade finance. Like all banks, assets and liabilities must always balance. The Bank and took the Government's Treasury deposits, including specie and precious metals, and issued notes. With paper money and debt securities and credit notes, it became widely better understood, especially internationally, that money had taken on many new forms or denominations, possess no intrinsic market value like Gold and yet still retain qualities of creditworthiness or trust to fulfil money payment obligations. But money in its various forms also meant money that can only be used in certain contexts or place and or types of business, requiring

6399-464: Was needed was a "fund of money," or a term familiar today, but by which is really meant either precious metals or 'hard' currency such as US dollars mainly that grew in importance after WW1 to pay external trade bills i.e. questions of financial liquidity or circulation needed to maintain and grow the nation's national income and trade, but above all to honour the nation's foreign obligations. Failures to do so can lead to casus belli . The early 1700s saw

6480-488: Was pursued with energy, and overcrowding was greatly reduced. There was also a marked improvement in maternal mortality, mainly due to the discovery of antibiotics able to counteract septicaemia , but also because a full-time, salaried midwifery service was created under the Midwives Act of 1936." Jenkins comments that the housing boom of the 1930s was one of the two main contributors to such economic recovery as there

6561-556: Was transferred to the DMO and represented the conclusion of the Government's restructuring of the management of monetary and debt policy launched by the Exchequer in May 1997. The DMO assumed responsibility for issuing Treasury bills (very short–dated securities) from this date. In July 2002 the operations of the Public Works Loan Board – now referred to as the PWLB lending facility and operated on behalf of HM Treasury; and

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