Valentine Crittall, 1st Baron Braintree

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Valentine George Crittall, 1st Baron Braintree, JP (28 June 1884 – 21 May 1961) was a British politician and businessman who served briefly as a Labour Member of Parliament before later joining the Conservatives.

The Lord Braintree
By Elliot & Fry, 1948
Member of Parliament for Maldon
In office
6 December 1923 – 9 October 1924
Preceded byEdward Ruggles-Brise
Succeeded byEdward Ruggles-Brise
Personal details
Born28 June 1884
Died21 May 1961 (aged 76)

Background

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Crittall was born at Braintree,[1] the son of Essex businessman Francis Henry Crittall, founder of the Crittall window company, and Ellen Laura Carter. Crittall was educated at Framlingham College in Suffolk.

Political career

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Crittall was elected as Labour Member of Parliament for the Essex constituency of Maldon in the 1923 general election by a majority of only 49 votes over the sitting Conservative MP Lt Col Edward Ruggles-Brise, and served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lord Thomson, the Minister of Air. He was defeated by Ruggles-Brise in the 1924 general election, and knighted in 1930. He was elevated to the peerage in 1948, as Baron Braintree, of Braintree in the County of Essex,[2] and was a director of the Bank of England from 1948 to 1955. He was also a justice of the peace (magistrate) for Essex.

Silver End

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In 1926, Crittall founded the model Village of Silver End, near Braintree in Essex. Built as a "garden village" to provide accommodation for the people who worked in the Crittall family's growing factories, the village has been described as "a wonder of its time"[1]: its motto is "Why not?"

Family

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Crittall was married three times: to Olive Lillian MacDermott, in 1915; to Lydia Mabel Revy in 1933; and to Phyllis Dorothy Cloutman, in 1955. He died aged 76 in 1961, without male children, and his barony therefore became extinct.

Arms

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Coat of arms of Valentine Crittall, 1st Baron Braintree
 
 
Crest
Within a mascle Sable a sun in splendour Or.
Escutcheon
Argent fretty Sable on a chief Gules two fleurs-de-lys of the first.
Supporters
Dexter a blacksmith holding in the exterior hand a hammer; sinister a glazier holding in the exterior hand a file all Proper.
Motto
Why Not?[3]

References

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  1. ^ 1911 England Census
  2. ^ "No. 38203". The London Gazette. 10 February 1948. p. 957.
  3. ^ Burke's Peerage. 1959.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Maldon
19231924
Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Braintree
1948–1961
Extinct