Requested by @handofhistory
"any/all of honours/clubs/affiliations, anecdotes, quotes, and further reading"
Note: all excerpts are pulled directly from Facts About the British Prime Ministers by Englefield et al. The text format is a bit cumbersome, so I'll attach each excerpt as plain text.
1946, Merthyr Tydfil;
1947, Birmingham;
1948, Dartford;
1948, Stepney;
1948, Greenwich;
1951, Leeds;
1953, London;
1954, Manchester;
1956, Oxford;
1956, Aberdeen;
1959, Bristol
1946, Oxford D.C.L.;
1946, Cambridge LL.D.;
1947, London LL.D.;
1948, Reading D.Lit.;
1949, Wales LL.D.;
1951, Glasgow LL.D.;
1953, Nottingham LL.D.;
1956, Aberdeen LL.D.;
1957, Madras LL.D.;
1961, Ceylon LL.D.; Hull LL.D.; Bristol LL.D.; Honorary Fellow, University College Oxford; Queen Mary College, London; London School of Economics; Honorary Fellow of R.I.B.A.
May 1945, Companion of Honour;
15 May 1947, Fellow ofthe Royal Society;
5 Nov 1951, Order of Merit;
Jun 1956, Knight of the Garter.
Atheneum, Oxford and Cambridge
‘He was always completely master (as Prime Minister) and in his quiet way impressed his personality not merely on his colleagues but on all parties in the House of Commons’. (H. Macmillan)
‘Mr. Attlee was Deputy Prime Minister during the war, and played a great part in winning the war. Mr. Attlee is a great patriot’. (Winston Churchill)
‘I once happened to be in Herbert Morrison’s company shortly after we had finished a meeting with Clem Attlee. “I’ve known Attlee for twenty-five years" he said, “but I still don’t understand him"—and he never did’. (J. Callaghan)
‘Advice from Attlee on being appointed a Minister: “Remember you will be playing for the first Cricket Eleven in future: if you intend to negotiate with someone tomorrow, don’t insult him today.” It took him ninety seconds to appoint me’. (J. Callaghan)
‘He was genuine. We didn’t always follow what he said, mind you (he’s a bit highbrow for some of us) but we knew he meant what he said’. (Comment by an old docker about Attlee after his first parliamentary election in 1922, quoted in C. Clemens, The Man from Limehouse: CRA, 1946)
In his autobiography, Attlee described being invited, along with several Labour MPs, to dinner by Robert Bingham, the American ambassador. Although Attlee thought it was an ‘unlikely recreation’ for Labour MPs, when asked whether any of them had done any big game hunting, he answered Yes, he had. When asked what he shot, he replied laconically, ‘Germans’.
When asked on an American lecture tour, after his term as Prime Minister, what he expected to be remembered for, Attlee replied ‘Don’t know. If anything India, possibly’. (K. Harris, Attlee, 1982)
On another American tour, the question, ‘How is your Socialist medicine getting on’? came up. Attlee’s reply: ‘First class. How’s your Socialist sewage system getting on or do you stick to the old bucket?’ (Harris, 1982)
Having now exceeded the age of three score years and ten I would say that up to the present I have been a very happy and fortunate man . . . (As it Happened 1954)
1935, On the League of Nations in Parliament, ‘If you turn and run away from the aggressor you kill the League . . . and you kill all faith in the word of honour of this country’.
Few thought he was even a starter
There were many who thought themselves smarter
But he ended PM
CH and OM
An earl and a knight of the garter (On being made a Knight of the Garter, 1956)
Burridge, T. Clement Attlee. London, 1985.
Jenkins, R. Mr. Attlee. London, 1961.
Granada Historical Records Interview: Clem Attlee. London, 1967.
Harris, K. Attlee, London, 1982.
—Attlee as I Knew Him (essays) London, 1983.
The Attlee Memorial Statue in the House of Commons. London: House of Commons Library Public Information Office Series No 2 1980.
Royal Society: Clement Richard Attlee, First Earl Attlee
1883-1967, London, 1968.
Tiratsoo, N. The Attlee Years. London, 1991.
Williams, F. A Prime Minister Remembers. London, 1961.
