HC Deb 15 November 1951 vol 493 cc1180-6
The Prime Minister (Mr. Winston Churchill)

I beg to move,

That the thanks of this House be given to Colonel the Right Honourable Douglas Clifton Brown for his distinguished services as Speaker for more than eight years; that he be assured that this House fully appreciates the zeal, ability, and impartiality with which he has discharged the duties of his high office through a period of unusual labour, difficulty, and anxiety, and the judgment and firmness with which he has maintained its privileges and dignity; and that his unremitting attention to the constantly increasing business of Parliament, and his uniform urbanity and kindness have earned for him the respect and esteem of this House.

The late Speaker, Colonel Clifton Brown, succeeded Captain FitzRoy, who died at his post during the war. It was a hard test to succeed Captain Fitzroy who was, I think, much beloved and well regarded in every part of the House, but Colonel Clifton Brown did not prove unequal to this test. In the tumult and convulsion of the war, he sat in the Chair through the self-propelled missile and rocket bombardments which cost us 30,000 casualties in London. We can still look at the ruins of the Guards Chapel in which more than 100 people, including many notable officers, were killed in a flick when at a memorial service.

I remember that when we had to move again and met in the Church House, a Member asked me at Question time why we had quitted our Chamber which was then in the House of Lords, and how somebody said, "If the hon. Member will walk 500 yards down Birdcage Walk he will see the reason." This was one of those remarks that, so to speak, disposed of the issue for the moment in the House. It was also one of those many incidents with which Colonel Clifton Brown, as Speaker, was familiarised during the first part of his service in the Chair.

But the late Speaker had a more memorable and certainly a more agreeable experience than these war-time days. He conducted the move back into what is called the new House of Commons by very young people, but what I and some of the elders may fairly call the old House of Commons. The late Speaker went through all the birth pangs of this building to which we are adapting ourselves by many trials and tests, but for which upon the whole there is a growing feeling of comfort and comprehension. This come-back was a great event in the Speakership of Colonel Clifton Brown. I am sure it was a joy to him to lead us all home again.

Let me speak of another sphere in which the late Speaker was distinguished. It was the strong, vibrant initiative and perseverance which he showed in strengthening the contacts and sense of brotherhood between the Parliaments of the Commonwealth in all parts of the globe. I remember the very remarkable gathering which he organised of all the Speakers of all the Parliaments of the British Commonwealth of Nations and Empire. Fifteen Speakers and 13 other representatives of Commonwealth legislatures were assembled. That was a memorable gathering, because the Speaker represents and embodies the spirit of the House of Commons, and that spirit, which has transported itself to so many lands and climates and to countries far outside our sphere, is one of the gleaming and enduring glories of the British, and in a special way, if I may say so, of the English message to the world.

Besides all this, Colonel Clifton Brown had to look after the last Parliament for the 20 months of its existence. I do not wish to raise any form of controversy and it is far from my intention to disparage the late House of Commons. I will therefore content myself with saying that I did not feel it was the best, the happiest or the most useful of the dozen Parliaments in which I have been called upon to dwell for a while.

But Mr. Speaker had to do his best, which I think he did, to keep it up to the level and to hold the balance fairly between both parties. To have presided over a Parliament with a majority of six for the Government, sandwiched between two elections at the beginning and end of 20 months, and to hold his position of authority, dignity and responsibility was indeed an achievement of which any Speaker might be proud. In these hard party fights under democratic conditions, as in football matches and the like, there are moments when the umpire gets a very rough time. If you, Mr. Speaker, in your tenure succeed to a more sedate period of office in which the quality of debate rises higher whilst passions cool, you will be more fortunate than your predeces sor. But this will only enhance in the minds of Members of all parties the services rendered in very rough and tangled times by Colonel Clifton Brown.

Mr. C. R. Attlee (Walthamstow, West)

On behalf of the Opposition, I desire to support 'this Motion, which has been moved in such fitting language by the Prime Minister. I was in this House with Colonel Clifton Brown for almost all his public service. He was most notably a man who was the friend of other Members. I think that particularly commended him when a choice was needed for the Deputy Chairman. He served a comparatively short period of apprenticeship and then came into the Chair, as the Prime Minister has said, in all the stress of war.

Having successfully carried through that difficult period, he met a House of an entirely new composition, but his qualities were such that he was re-elected to the Chair, and there he had to preside over a new House of Commons under peace-time conditions. Throughout his service he set an example of impartiality, urbanity and a great deal of human sympathy. One always felt of Colonel Clifton Brown that, while he supported to the full the dignity of the Chair, the occupant of the Chair was a man of like passions with ourselves, who understood very clearly the kind of feelings and the atmosphere in the House. He had, too, a very ready sense of humour, which is so essential in the occupant of the Chair.

In his last period, which I think formed a fitting climax to his work, he had that great gathering of Speakers from the Commonwealth. The Prime Minister rather disparaged that Parliament and compared it unfavourably with others of which he had been a Member. I should have thought is compared favourably with the short Parliament of 1910, which was sandwiched between two particularly stormy General Elections, but the right hon. Gentleman was here and I was only a street-corner agitator at the time, and he is the greater authority.

In commending this Motion to the House, I should like also to express the gratitude of all of us to Mrs. Clifton Brown. She gave much gracious hospitality and carried out in a most adrnirable manner the duties which fall on the wife of the Speaker. I am quite sure that in passing this Motion—and I am sure we shall pass it nemine contradicente—everyone wishes that in their retirement Colonel and Mrs. Clifton Brown will have a long and happy period of rest.

Mr. Clement Davies (Montgomery)

I should like to say a few words on behalf of the minority party in this House. I should like to do so for several reasons, personal as well as party; but particularly do I desire to add our words of gratitude and appreciation so that it may be realised that this Motion is accepted by the whole House and that this vote is unanimous.

The Speaker is the guardian of the privileges, rights and liberties not only of the whole House but of every section of the House and of every individual Member in it. Upon him, his attitude and conduct, his fairness aid his firmness, depend the rights and liberties of minorities. The smaller the minority the greater is the responsibility thrown upon the Chair of safeguarding those rights.

It is as a Member of such a minority that I wish to add my tribute to what has already been so well said by the two right hon. Gentlemen, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. I and my colleagues will always recall with gratitude and pleasure the years we passed under Colonel Clifton Brown's presidency. We are all his debtors for public services loyally rendered, for great duties worthily discharged and for the ready and ever unfailing courtesy with which any appeal addressed to him was met. He was our mentor and our guide, but even more, as the Leader of the Opposition has just said, he was the kindly friend and the sympathetic adviser of each one of us, so that we not only respected and admired him but we had—and have still—for him a very real and warm affection.

I join with the two right hon. Gentlemen in the hope that the years before Colonel Clifton Brown will be many, will be happy, and will be reposeful. That same hope we also express sincerely for his gracious lady who so regularly watched our proceedings, and who so charmingly and warmly received us on all occasions in Mr. Speaker's House.

Lieut.-Colonel Walter Elliot (Glasgow, Kelvingrove)

I think that it is desirable that on such an occasion as this one who is not the leader of any party but a back bencher should also be heard; because the Speaker is essentially a man of the House of Commons, elected from the back benches, and taking his seat in the Chair as the representative of the ordinary Member of Parliament. It has been said—with great truth, I think—that what endeared Colonel Clifton Brown especially to the House was that he was a man of like passions to ourselves. We recognised in him one who had not adopted and could not adopt any Olympian attitude of detachment, but one who was shaken by the ordinary feelings of mankind, and so, perhaps, was able to appreciate the feelings of the rank and file better than those of greater detachment.

It has been said that his proudest moment was, perhaps, when he led us back to our own Chamber. I think that there was a moment in his career which he regarded as of even greater significance. It was on the night that he was able to switch on the light above Big Ben, to indicate that the period of trouble was past, that it was possible again for this light to shine out in action, as it had shone out in ideals for so many months and years, over a very troubled scene indeed. The fulfilment of that, I think, was his moment of greatest pleasure as the Speaker of the House of Commons.

I think it is only right for the back benchers to pay their tribute to one who was a man of themselves, who was their choice, and in respect of whom they feel a deep sense of responsibility, as I am sure is always the feeling towards the Speaker, who is the person of their creation, and who is sustained by their support and their good will.

Mr. Frank Bowles (Nuneaton)

May I, as a Member who had the privilege of serving as one of Mr. Speaker Clifton Brown's deputies, be allowed the chance of saying just a few words about our relationship? He was a most charming person to work with. I remember on one occasion he said to me that he would always support his deputy, which, I think, was a most reassuring thing for a younger person in the Chair.

I also remember quite well, as the Leader of the Opposition said, that when the new House of 1945 was elected there must have been 400 or 500 new Members; and I think it was a most wonderful achievement on Colonel Clifton Brown's part that he was able so quickly and so soon to recognise and to call hon. Members so many of whom were new faces to him.

I should like also to say one other thing. It was his very homely way of ruling the House which, I think, appealed most to hon. Members. I remember on one occasion some hon. Member on this side of the House—it was during the time of a Labour Government—got up and called the then Speaker's attention to a mis-statement of the Parliamentary news on the B. B. C. I remember the most charming way in which he dealt with the matter. He got up and said, "I heard this and turned to my wife and said, 'Tut, tut. They have made the same mistake again.'"

It was for that kind of charming, homely, fatherly way in which he presided over our deliberations for the eight years—I think it was—that it was his privilege to do so, that we remember him most, and I should like most sincerely and warmly to support the Motion moved by the Prime Minister.

Question put, and agreed to nemine contradicente.

The Prime Minister

I beg to move that the Resolution be recorded in the terms you, Sir, have just pronounced.

Question, "That this Resolution be recorded as having been agreed to nemine contradicente,"put, and agreed to.

Motion made, and Question proposed, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, praying His Majesty that He will be most graciously pleased to confer some signal mark of His Royal Favour upon Colonel the Right Honourable Douglas Clifton Brown for his eminent services during the important period in which he has with such distinguished ability and dignity presided in the Chair of this House, and assuring His Majesty that whatever expense His Majesty shall think fit to be incurred upon that account this House will make good the same."—[The Prime Minister.

Mr. Attlee

I beg to support the Motion.

Question put, and agreed to nemine contradicente.

To be presented by Privy Councillors or Members of His Majesty's Household.

The Prime Minister

I beg to move that you, Sir, follow the course you did in the case of the first Motion, and have this Resolution recorded as having been agreed to nemine contradicente.

Question, "That this Resolution be recorded as having been agreed to nemine contradicente," put, and agreed to.