Viscount John Allsebrook Simon Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

JOHN SIMON (1873-1954), later Viscount Simon, was a Liberal Party MP from 1906 to 1945. He was one of only three men to hold the three key Cabinet posts of Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Simon resigned as Lloyd George's Home Secretary (1915-1916) over the issue of conscription, which he opposed. Later in his career, he opposed Lloyd George's preference for allying the declining Liberal Party with the Labour Party, preferring to support the Conservatives. Still a Liberal, Simon served in Conservative Cabinets as Foreign Secretary (1931-1935), Home Secretary again (1935-1937) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (1937-1940). From 1940 to 1945, he was Lord High Chancellor, a once powerful position which was now largely honorific, its duties including presiding over the House of Lords. Winston Churchill refused to accept Simon in his Cabinet because of the latter's close association with the appeasement policies of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Sir Stanley Mordaunt Leathes was a Cambridge scholar, a contributor to the Cambridge History and the author of books on education.