Samuel Hoare
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Samuel John Gurney Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood (1880-1959), more commonly known as Sir Samuel Hoare, was a British Conservative politician who served in various capacities in the Conservative and National governments of the 1920s and 1930s.
Hoare was educated at Harrow and New College, Oxford, and was first elected to the House of Commons for Chelsea in 1910. He served in the First World War, and, returning to parliament afterwards, was to become one of the principle Conservatives who revolted against continued participation in the Lloyd George government in 1922. He was rewarded with the position of Secretary of State for Air, which he held in all the various Conservative governments of the 1920s. When the Conservative's joined the National Government in 1931, Hoare became Secretary of State for India.
He was, however, most famous for his role as Foreign Secretary in 1935, when he had to deal with the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Together with French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval, he developed the so-called Hoare-Laval Agreement, which would have granted Italy considerable territorial concessions in Ethiopia, and put the rump of Ethiopia under Italian hegemony. The public uproar against this apparent sell-out of the Ethiopians led to Hoare's resignation as Foreign Secretary at the end of the year. Nevertheless, Hoare continued to serve in important posts in later governments. Upon Winston Churchill's appointment as Prime Minister in 1940, Hoare lost his cabinet position and was sent off as Ambassador to Spain. In this role he sought to encourage Francisco Franco to keep Spain out of the war, in which he was successful. He remained Ambassador until 1944 when he returned to Britain and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Templewood. The title became extinct upon his death in 1959.
| Preceded by: Frederick Guest | Secretary of State for Air 1922–1924 | Succeeded by: The Lord Thomson |
| Preceded by: The Lord Thomson | Secretary of State for Air 1924–1929 | Succeeded by: The Lord Thomson |
| Preceded by: William Wedgwood Benn | Secretary of State for India 1931–1935 | Succeeded by: The Marquess of Zetland |
| Preceded by: Sir John Simon | Foreign Secretary 1935 | Succeeded by: Anthony Eden |
| Preceded by: The Viscount Monsell | First Lord of the Admiralty 1936–1937 | Succeeded by: Duff Cooper |
| Preceded by: Sir John Simon | Home Secretary 1937–1939 | Succeeded by: Sir John Anderson |
| Preceded by: Sir John Anderson | Lord Privy Seal 1939–1940 | Succeeded by: Sir Kingsley Wood |
| Preceded by: Sir Kingsley Wood | Secretary of State for Air 1940 | Succeeded by: Sir Archibald Sinclair |