William Peel
British politician
Died when: 70 years 264 days (848 months)Star Sign: Capricorn
William Robert Wellesley Peel, 1st Earl Peel, GCSI, GBE, TD, PC, DL (7 January 1867 – 28 September 1937), known as The Viscount Peel from 1912 to 1929, was a British politician, as a local councillor, a Member of Parliament and a member of the House of Lords.
After an early career as a barrister and journalist, he entered first local, then national politics.He rose to hold a number of ministerial positions, but is probably best remembered for chairing the Peel Commission in 1936–37, which recommended for the first time the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.
The grandson of a Conservative prime minister, he was unusual even for his period in the number of political parties he was elected for.
He began as a member, later the leader, of the London locally organised Municipal Reform Party, before being elected as an MP for the Liberal Unionists, then for the Conservative Party, before inheriting his seat in the Lords in 1912.
He also served as a minister in governments led by Liberal, Conservative and Labour prime ministers.His ministerial career began as Under-Secretary of State for War in 1919, and he entered the cabinet in 1922 as Secretary of State for India, holding a number of other ministerial positions.
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