Post-war and 1920s After the war Baldwin served briefly as British Vice-
Consul in
Boulogne, and then travelled in north Africa. He refused to be supported by his father, and earned a living as a journalist and travel writer. A chance meeting in Alexandria led to an appointment as an infantry instructor in the newly independent
Armenia, but soon after he took up the post in 1920 the democratic government collapsed and Baldwin was imprisoned by
Bolshevik-backed revolutionaries. He was freed two months later when democracy was restored, but en route back to Britain he was arrested by the Turkish authorities, accused of spying for
Soviet Russia. He was held for five months, in grim conditions, with execution a constant threat. He later wrote a book about his experiences, called
Six Prisons and Two Revolutions. At the
1924 general election Baldwin contested the seat of
Dudley for the
Labour Party, attracting press comment. He was unsuccessful; but Baldwin Snr, who had been out of power since the
1923 general election, returned to power for a second term as prime minister. Like other young left-wing Labour MPs, Baldwin was critical of MacDonald's insistence on strict financial management and refusal to launch large
Keynesian public works programmes. Early in 1931 Baldwin resigned from the Labour Party and was briefly associated with
Oswald Mosley's New Party, but soon repudiated Mosley and rejoined Labour. Baldwin returned to journalism. In Walker's view, he was better known as a journalist than as a politician, writing anti-
fascist articles in the usually pro-
appeasement Rothermere press during the 1930s. In 1937 Stanley Baldwin retired from politics and was created Earl Baldwin of Bewdley. As a result, Oliver Baldwin acquired the
courtesy title Viscount Corvedale, which did not entail membership of the
House of Lords. In 1939, he rejoined the army, becoming a major in the
Intelligence Corps and serving in the
Near East and north Africa. The Attlee government lacked representation in the House of Lords, which was dominated by Conservative peers. In 1947, Corvedale accepted the prime minister's offer of a peerage, but before he could take his seat his father died and Corvedale was automatically elevated as the second Earl Baldwin. Lycett comments that had it not been for the first earl's death Baldwin father and son would, uniquely, have sat opposite each other in both houses of parliament. His male life partner, Boyle, accompanied him, to the disapproval of some of the British establishment in
Antigua. There were rumours of "strange and unnatural happenings at Government House" that were reinforced by complaints from naval captains whose crews had been commandeered by the governor for nude bathing sessions. Partly for this reason, and partly because Baldwin made no secret of his continuing socialist views or his desire for multiracial inclusiveness, he was recalled in 1950. ==Personal life==