Ronald Cartland
London: Collins, 1942. Presumed first edition/first printing. Hardcover. 264 p. Includes: illustrations, index. Frontis. This is perhaps the scarcest work by Barbara Cartland. Preface by Winston Churchill. From Wikipedia: "Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, DBE, CStJ (9 July 1901 21 May 2000) was an English author, one of the most prolific and commercially successful of the twentieth century. Her 723 novels were translated into 36 different languages, and she continues to be referenced in the Guinness World Records for the most novels published in a single year." From Wikipedia: "John Ronald Hamilton Cartland (3 January 1907 30 May 1940) was a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for King's Norton in Birmingham from 1935 until he was killed in action in 1940, aged 33. Ronald Cartland was the son of Major Bertram Cartland and Mary Hamilton Scobell, and the younger brother of novelist Barbara Cartland. Party office, where he managed the election of the Tory MP candidate. After Lionel Beaumont Thomas's decision to retire on health grounds in 1933, Cartland was chosen to replace him in Herbert Austin's former constituency of King's Norton, Birmingham. His selection was supported by the Chamberlain family, long the most powerful force in Birmingham Conservative circles. He won in the 1935 election, becoming one of the youngest MPs in the House of Commons. Cartland's maiden speech to the Commons, in May 1936, attacked the Government of then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, for its less-than-enthusiastic attitude in aiding 'distressed areas' those parts of the UK that were suffering from extreme economic difficulties, with unemployment rates as high as 40%. After Chamberlain succeeded Baldwin as Prime Minister, Cartland earned the wrath of the Conservative Party's hierarchy by taking a stand against the British Government's policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy which brought him to the attention of other Tory dissident backbenchers, as well as Winston Churchill. He served as a back-bench MP in Neville Chamberlain's government. He is most famous for a speech that he gave to the house in August 1939, in which he accused the Prime Minister of having "ideas of dictatorship". Ronald Cartland achieved the rank of Major in the British Army. In 1937, he joined the Territorial Army. By August 1939, he was a lieutenant in the Worcestershire and Oxfordshire Yeomanry. When the Nazis invaded Holland, Belgium and France in May 1940, the now Major Cartland was serving in the 53rd Anti-Tank Regiment, (The Worcestershire Yeomanry) Royal Artillery. The unit was assigned to defend the town of Cassel, a hilltop site near one of the main roads leading to the Channel port of Dunkirk, France. Cartland and his men held off the Germans for nearly four days, from 27 to 29 May. On the evening of 29 May 1940, Cartland and his unit split up, and joined the retreating British Expeditionary Force heading towards Dunkirk. On 30 May 1940, while reconnoitring his position from a ditch, he was shot and killed during the retreat to Dunkirk. Major. Cartland was initially listed as Missing In Action, and his family in England did not learn of his true fate until January 1941. His mother received a letter from one of Cartland's men, now in a German POW camp where the soldier described Cartland's death in detail. " Condition: Good in good dust jacket. Bookplate inside front cover. Part of DJ pasted to fep.
Keywords: Parliament, Neville Chamberlain, WInston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Patrick Hannon, Duncan Sandys, Bolton Monsell, Worcestershire and Oxfordshire Yeomanry
[Book #69110]
Price: $85.00