J. E. B. Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone

Seely was born at Brookhill Hall in the village of Pinxton in Derbyshire on 31 May 1868. He was the seventh child, and fourth son, of Sir Charles Seely, 1st Baronet (1833–1915). Seely was a member of a family of politicians, industrialists and significant landowners. His grandfather Charles Seely (1803–1887) was a noted Radical Member of Parliament and philanthropist and was famous for hosting Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian revolutionary hero, in London and the Isle of Wight in 1864. Seely's father as well as his brother Sir Charles Seely, 2nd Baronet, were also MPs, as would later be his nephew Sir Hugh Seely, 3rd Baronet and 1st Baron Sherwood, who became Under-Secretary of State for Air during the Second World War. The family had homes in Nottinghamshire and the Isle of Wight as well as extensive property in London. He is still associated with the Isle of Wight, where he spent his holidays whilst growing up. His aunt's husband, Colonel Henry Gore-Browne, won the Victoria Cross during the Indian Mutiny. Gore-Browne was manager of the extensive Seely estates on the Isle of Wight. ==Early life==

He was educated at Harrow School, where he fagged for Stanley Baldwin. He was promoted to lieutenant on 23 December 1891 and to captain on 31 May 1892. He joined the Inner Temple and was called to the Bar in 1897. ==Second Boer War==

Following the outbreak of the Second Boer War he was commissioned as a captain in the Imperial Yeomanry on 7 February 1900, having succeeded in arranging transport to South Africa for his squadron the same week, with the assistance of his uncle Sir Francis Evans, 1st Baronet, chairman of the Union Castle Line. He served bravely, if a little insubordinately. ==Early political career==

Whilst still on active service in South Africa during the Boer War, Seely was elected Member of Parliament for the Isle of Wight as a Conservative at a by-election in May 1900 and re-elected at the "Khaki" General Election that autumn. Seely was appointed a deputy lieutenant of the Isle of Wight in 1902., 1905|left Along with Winston Churchill and Lord Hugh Cecil he attacked the Balfour government's neglect of the Army. ==Under-Secretary of State==

In 1908, the new Prime Minister H. H. Asquith appointed him Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, in place of Winston Churchill who had been promoted to the Cabinet. together with other social reforms carried out by the government such as old-age pensions. Seely was defeated for Abercromby at the January 1910 general election and returned to Parliament for Ilkeston in Derbyshire at a by-election in March 1910, holding that seat until 1922. ==Secretary of State for War==

Appointment and policies Seely then served as Under-Secretary of State for War from 1911 to 1912. As a yeomanry colonel he did not support conscription, which the Director of Military Operations, Brigadier-General Henry Wilson, favoured. "Ye Gods" was how Wilson greeted Seely's appointment in his diary. Seely was already a member of the Committee of Imperial Defence (CID). In June 1912, apparently on Churchill's suggestion, Seely was promoted to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for War, in succession to Haldane. He held the post until 1914. With Sir John French (Chief of the Imperial General Staff) he was responsible for the invitation to General Foch to attend the Army Manoeuvres of 1912 and was active in preparing the army for war with Germany. Curragh incident With Irish Home Rule due to become law in 1914, and the Cabinet contemplating some kind of military action against the Ulster Volunteers who wanted no part of it, French and Seely summoned Paget (Commander-in-Chief, Ireland) to the War Office for talks, whilst Seely wrote to the Prime Minister (24 October 1913) about the potential use of General Macready, who had experience of peacekeeping in the South Wales coalfields in 1910, and had been consulted by Birrell (Chief Secretary for Ireland) about the use of troops in the 1912 Belfast riots. In October 1913 Seely sent him to report on the police in Belfast and Dublin. There was more discussion about the Army's stance over Home Rule outside the Army than within it. This did not stop tensions about the Army's role from growing. General Paget, who was reluctant to move in case it exacerbated the crisis, was summoned to London. No trace of Seely's intelligence survives. It has been suggested, e.g. by Sir James Fergusson, that the move to deploy troops may have been a "plot" by Churchill and Seely to goad Ulster into a rebellion which could then be put down, although this view is not universally held. Carson departed London for Ulster on 19 March, amidst talk that he was to form a provisional government. The peccant paragraphs On the morning of Monday 23 March, Seely had a meeting with Gough, with Paget, French and Spencer Ewart in attendance. Seely took over a draft document to a Cabinet meeting for approval. Seely had to leave the meeting for an audience with the King, and in his absence the Cabinet agreed a text, stating that the Army Council were satisfied that the incident had been a misunderstanding, and that it was "the duty of all soldiers to obey lawful commands". Seely had not been consulted about this second assurance. Talk of a government "plot" was now widespread amongst the Opposition. Seely accepted the blame in the House of Commons on 25 March and offered to resign to protect French and Ewart; Asquith initially refused to accept his resignation, despite writing to Venetia Stanley that he blamed the crisis on "Paget's tactless blundering" and "Seely's clumsy phrases". By 30 March it was clear that Asquith, to his regret, would now have to insist that Seely resign, along with French and Ewart. Seely remained a member of the CID, and it is unclear whether or when he might have been restored to the Cabinet had war not soon broken out. ==First World War==

Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, Seely was recalled to active duty as a special-service officer. Seely served for near the entirety of the First World War, with few breaks, leaving London on 11 August 1914 to take up a post on Sir John French's staff. In October 1914, Seely was dispatched to Belgium to participate in the Siege of Antwerp. Initially acting as an observer, Seely temporarily joined the staff of Archibald Paris, the commander of the British Royal Naval Division, which had been deployed to the city under orders from First Lord Winston Churchill. Seely's Orderly Officer in the Siege of Antwerp was Archibald Alexander Gordon, alias Major Gordon, who with him surveyed the British and Belgian frontlines. When the situation became critical, Seely contacted Lord Kitchener by phone and later received orders for a massive evacuation of the British forces to Ostend. Once it became clear Antwerp was going to capitulate to the Germans, Seely assisted with the evacuation of the Royal Naval Division. On 28 January 1915, Seely was given command of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade, with the temporary rank of brigadier-general and the substantive rank of colonel. He was mentioned in despatches five times, further enhancing his reputation for bravery. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) on 1 January 1918. After being gassed in 1918, he returned to England, He was angry about the move. Seely had remained an MP throughout his military service in the First World War, and as a member of the Liberal faction which supported Lloyd George's coalition government, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions on 10 July 1918, serving under Churchill (then Minister of Munitions). Belgium appointed him a Commander of the Order of the Crown, and France both appointed Seely a Commander of the Légion d'honneur and awarded him the Croix de guerre. ==Later career==

Seely relinquished his temporary rank of major-general on 14 January 1919. He was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Air and President of the Air Council in 1919, again under Winston Churchill (Secretary of State for War). However, he resigned both posts at the end of 1919 after the Government refused to create a Secretary of State for Air (as it later did). In 1920 then-Major-General the Right Honourable J. E. B. Seely, CB, CMG, DSO was appointed Honorary Colonel of the Canadian Militia regiment, the 7th Hussars (Canada). It is unclear if he visited Canada in person to accept the office. Like many Lloyd George Liberals, Seely lost his seat at Ilkeston at the November 1922 general election. which had been granted to him on 17 December 1919. Seely was also a Colonel of the Territorial Army, an Honorary Colonel of 72nd (Hampshire), an Honorary Air Commander Auxiliary Air Force. Seely returned to Parliament as a member of the reunited Liberal Party for the Isle of Wight at the December 1923 general election, which saw a hung parliament in which the Liberals supported the first Labour Government under Ramsay MacDonald. In May 1924, however, Churchill (then out of Parliament, and who had recently left the Liberal Party to become an independent "Constitutionalist", prior to rejoining the Conservatives after his return to the Commons in 1924) listed Seely in a letter to Conservative leader Stanley Baldwin as one of his group of Liberal MPs who would vote against the Labour government, and a month later mentioned Seely as a likely Liberal Conservative. Indeed, according to historian Chris Wrigley, Seely's political trajectory was similar to that of Churchill's (i.e. a Conservative in 1900, joining the Liberals a few years later, then becoming a Conservative again in the 1920s). Seely lost his seat again at the 1924 general election, at which the Liberals suffered heavy losses. Seely vehemently opposed the general strike of 1926. He was made Chairman of the National Savings Committee in 1926, a post he served in until 1943, the same year he became vice-president until his death. During this time he was asked by the Government to conduct the publicity in regard to the conversion of the 5% war loan. According to The Times, "in the Second World War the activities of the National Savings Committee were largely extended and became a vital part of the national war effort." He continued to have an influential role in domestic politics. Seely was granted the Freedom of the City of Portsmouth in 1927. ==Appeasement==

On 21 June 1933, Seely was raised to the peerage as Baron Mottistone, of Mottistone in the County of Southampton. In 1933, Lord Mottistone visited Berlin in his capacity as Chairman of the Air League, as a guest of Joachim von Ribbentrop. In 1935, he visited Nazi Germany again in his boat Mayflower. In 1937 Mottistone published Mayflower Seeks the Truth in Germany, which "became a vehicle for Nazi propaganda" according to Mark Pottle in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Plans for a British edition were shelved in 1938 as tensions mounted over Czechoslovakia. ==Legacy==

Seely was a popular figure in the House of Commons. The Times called him a "Gallant Figure in War and Politics" and Lord Birkenhead wrote, "In fields of great and critical danger he has constantly over a long period of years displayed a cool valour which everybody in the world who knows the facts freely recognizes." Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies in the final year of the First World War, gave him a cigarette case inscribed, Au Ministre de 1912: au Vaillant de la Grande Guerre. A screen was erected in St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Mottistone in his memory. ==Marriages and descendants==

Seely married Emily Florence, daughter of Colonel Sir Henry George Louis Crichton (son of John Crichton, 3rd Earl Erne), on 9 July 1895. They had three sons and four daughters. She died in August 1913. Seely's son from his second marriage, David Seely, 4th Baron Mottistone (1920–2011), was the last Governor of the Isle of Wight; he was baptised with Winston Churchill and the then Prince of Wales (subsequently Edward VIII and then later the Duke of Windsor) as his godparents. Seely's grandson Brough Scott, who presented horseracing television programmes, wrote a biography of Seely, Galloper Jack (2003). Seely was a maternal great-great-grandfather of theatre director Sophie Hunter. His great-great nephew Bob Seely sat as the Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight between 2017 and 2024. ==In popular culture==

According to the Sir Alfred Munnings Art Museum (Alfred Munnings was a former president of the Royal Academy of Arts and famous horse painter) "Without doubt his most important painting was that of General J. E. B. Seely (later Lord Mottistone) on his charger Warrior which led to his commission to paint the Earl of Athlone, brother of Queen Mary." Jack Seely was featured in the HBO film Into the Storm in 2009. At the end of the film Churchill reads a sympathetic post-election note from his old friend Jack Seely: "I feel our world slipping away." Churchill thinks back: "I met him in South Africa, riding across the veldt. He was Col. Seely then. I saw him at the head of a column of British cavalry, riding twenty yards in front, on a black horse. I thought of him as the very symbol of British Imperial power." The Testimony Films 2012 documentary War Horse: The Real Story contained extensive discussion of the First World War service of Seely and his widely revered horse, Warrior. Warrior was adopted as his formation's mascot and had a reputation for bravery under fire. Warrior survived the war, dying in 1941 at the age of 33. In September 2014, the horse was posthumously awarded an honorary PDSA Dickin Medal for bravery. ==Writings==

• Adventure (1930) - featuring an introduction by Lord Birkenhead, praising his skill as a raconteur. ==Electoral record==