Arthur Baldwin, 3rd Earl Baldwin of Bewdley

Arthur Windham Baldwin, 3rd Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (22 March 1904 – 5 July 1976) was a British businessman, RAF officer, and author. His books included a combative defence of the posthumous reputation of his father, Stanley Baldwin, the former prime minister of the UK, in which he severely criticised several leading historians of the time.

Early life Baldwin was the younger son of Stanley Baldwin, later 1st Earl of Baldwin of Bewdley, and his wife, Lucy. He was known to his family and friends by the nickname "Bloggs".

He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Career In the inter-war years Baldwin was a director of several companies, including the Round Oak Steel Works, Redpath, Brown, and the Great Western Railway, and between 1938 and 1974 he was a director of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Despising patronage, he successfully set out to gain a commission through the ranks.

Baldwin published three books in the 1950s and 60s. The first was a biography of his father, written as a result of his strong feeling that the official biography by G. M. Young did not do Stanley Baldwin justice. Baldwin strongly criticised not only Young, but other historians, including John Wheeler-Bennett, D. C. Somervell and Sir Lewis Namier for, in his view, misjudging the former prime minister. His second book, The Macdonald Sisters was a study of the four daughters of the Rev G. B. Macdonald: Alice married John Lockwood Kipling (Rudyard Kipling's parents); Georgiana married Edward Burne-Jones; Agnes married Edward Poynter; and Louisa married Alfred Baldwin (Stanley Baldwin's parents, thus Windham's grandparents).

Personal life On 25 August 1936, Baldwin married Joan Elspeth Tomes, daughter of Charles Alexander Tomes, an American merchant in the Far East with Shewan, Tomes & Co. They had one child: The Countess Baldwin of Bewdley died in 1980.

Arms

Works

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