Jebb, Richard (1874-1953)

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): ICS 116

Title: Jebb, Richard (1874-1953)

Date(s): 1885 - 1953

Level of description: Fond

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 30 boxes (0.35 cubic metres)

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s): Jebb, Richard, 1874-1953, politician, journalist and author

Administrative/Biographical history: Richard Jebb was born in 1874. His father was a landowner in Wales and Shropshire and his uncle, Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb, was a renowned classical scholar, historian and MP - the identities of the two Richards were sometimes confused. Educated at Marlborough College and New College, Oxford, he was going to enter the Indian Civil Service but the deaths of his father and brother made him financially independent. He had demonstrated an early interest in the Empire and, following a period (1897-1901) travelling overseas, visiting many of the colonies, he began his career as an Empire ‘publicist’ and journalist on his return home in 1902.
Though originally a Free Trader and advocate of Imperial Federation, his first major article, ‘Colonial Nationalism’ in Empire Review (Aug 1902) rejected both in favour of a system of mutual preference in trade and a political arrangement that recognised the colonies’ own sense of nationhood and for autonomy. He continued this theme, calling for ‘alliance’ rather than federation, in his first and most influential book, Studies in Colonial Nationalism (1905), which aimed to give Britons a true account of opinion in the self-governing colonies. The book was enthusiastically received in Australia and Canada. Jebb declared himself a follower of Joseph Chamberlain and Tariff Reform and became increasingly involved in this cause.

He wrote on imperial matters for the Morning Post, and developed contacts with Conservative and colonial politicians. Both activities continued during his second tour of the empire in 1905-06; interest in the ideas put forward in Studies in Colonial Nationalism brought Jebb meetings with senior figures in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. On his return, he continued writing and campaigning, and visited the West Indian colonies in 1909. In the general election of January 1910 he fought a bitter campaign in East Marylebone, London, as a Tariff Reform candidate against the official Unionist Conservative candidate. Despite support from Dominion politicians, Jebb came last amid a degree of public ridicule, from the Daily Express in particular. He withdrew from party politics, convinced that ‘influence’ was a more effective means of advancing his views. In 1911 he resigned from the Morning Post following its decision to pursue a less pro-Tariff Reform line.

In 1911 Jebb published the two-volume The Imperial Conference (the Jebb Papers include a draft of a third volume), in which he argued for the need to turn the conference into a permanent body to develop foreign and economic policy. In his next book, The Britannic Question (1913), he countered the idea of an Empire Parliament, suggested by Lionel Curtis’sRound Table Group, with his own proposal for a ‘Britannic Alliance’ managed through a permanent Imperial Conference.

The outbreak of war in 1914 effectively ended Jebb’s career in public life. A new system of imperial arrangements was quickly developed and Jebb had no opportunity for involvement. He served in Britain as an instructor for most of the war, following which he returned to live in the family home in Ellesmere, Shropshire, taking an active role in local affairs. He continued to write on imperial matters, especially at the time of Imperial Conferences. In The Empire in Eclipse (1926) he reiterated his views, but they were no longer influential. Richard Jebb died in Ellesmere on 25 June 1953.

Archival history: Some of Richard Jebb’s books and papers were given to ICS by his son, Richard L. Jebb, following his father’s death in 1953. Lionel R. Jebb made a further, larger deposit of his grandfather’s papers in 1986. In 1987 the Royal Commonwealth Society donated a series of letters from Richard Jebb to Evans Lewin, librarian at the Royal Commonwealth Society between 1919 and 1934.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: Correspondence 1884-1953 (correspondents include Leopold Stennett Amery, Lionel Curtis, Lord Grey, Sir Edward Grigg, W. Mackenzie King, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Lord Milner, Sir Charles Tupper, Fabian Ware); notebooks, journals of tours of colonies in 1898-1900 and 1905-06, and diaries; photograph albums, mostly relating to tours of colonies; printed articles by Richard Jebb; drafts of Studies in Colonial Nationalism and a third volume of The Imperial Conference; carbon copies of Jebb’s speeches and articles; reviews of publications; cuttings of Morning Post leaders and articles and of other newspaper articles and articles by Jebb; materials relating to the East Marylebone election, 1910; accounts; press cuttings.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

System of arrangement: Correspondence is arranged chronologically; other materials are arranged by record types, as listed above.

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access:

Conditions governing reproduction:

Language/scripts of material: English

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies: National Library of Australia: Australian Joint Copying Project microfilm of items relating to Australia and of general Imperial interest.

Related units of description: The University of Melbourne, Australia holds Jebb's correspondence with Alfred Deakin; The National Library of Australia holds Jebb's correspondence with Alfred Deakin, 1906-1923 (Ref MS 339), correspondence with various figures in Australia, 1905-1916 (MS 813), the papers of Walter Murdoch, 1905-1916 (Ref MS 2897), . Papers of John Andrew La Nauze (MS 5248); British Library of Political and Economic Science, London School of Economics holds Jebb's correspondence with the Tariff Commission, 1908-1921.

Publication note: J.D.B. Miller, Richard Jebb and the Problem of Empire (University of London, Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Athlone Press, 1956) J. Eddy & D. Schreuder ed., The Rise of Colonial Nationalism (Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1988) D. Ward ed., 'Words from the Archives: the Jebb Papers' in ICS Newsletter 17 (August 1997).

DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA

Recorder's note:

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: February 2002

Interest: Carribean, Black, Asian

Specific group:

Subjects

Trade

Trade policy

Free trade

Political doctrines

Imperialism

Colonialism

Political systems

Colonial countries

Personal/Corporate names

Amery, Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett, 1873-1955, statesman

Curtis, Lionel George, 1874-1955, public servant

Grigg, Edward William Macleay, 1879-1955, 1st Baron Altrincham, administrator and politician x Altrincham, 1st Baro

Jebb, Richard, 1874-1953, politician, journalist and author

King, William Lyon Mackenzie, 1874-1950, Canadian statesman

Laurier, Sir, Wilfrid, 1841-1919, Canadian statesman

Milner, Alfred, 1854-1925, 1st Viscount Milner, statesman x Milner, 1st Viscount

Tupper, Sir, Charles, 1821-1915, 1st Baronet, Canadian statesman

Ware, Sir Fabian Arthur Goulstone, 1869-1949, Major General

Places

South Asia

Sri Lanka

Southern Africa

South Africa

New Zealand

Caribbean

Jamaica