‘From Bewdley to Downing Street’

An absorbing talk by John Chester mapped the political career of Bewdley’s most distinguished son, Stanley Baldwin.

‘From Bewdley to Downing Street’ traced the rise to power of the three times Prime Minster and first Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, during the fateful inter-war years.

John Chester described how Baldwin stepped into the Bewdley parliamentary seat on the death of his father, Alfred, in 1908.

Alfred had been Bewdley’s MP for 16 years when he died and his son, after an unopposed election just two weeks after his father’s death, continued to represent the constituency for a further 30 years.

The talk highlighted Baldwin’s pivotal role in protecting the nation from extremism, his high moral values and the delicate situations he was required to manage during his premierships, which include the unprecedented challenge of a General Strike in 1926 and the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936.

On his retirement from politics in 1937, Stanley Baldwin’s popularity was especially high although, as a progressive and reforming Conservative premier, he had been vulnerable to malicious attack from both sides of the political spectrum.

The chairman of the Bewdley Civic Society, Richard Perrin, in thanking the speaker, indicated that a national appeal would be launched soon to provide funding for a statue of Stanley Baldwin to be erected in Bewdley in recognition of his contribution to the nation and his lifelong attachment to his place of birth.