George Ernest Schuster

Sir George Ernest Schuster (25 April 1881 – 5 June 1982) was a British barrister, financier, colonial administrator and Liberal politician.

Biography He was the son of Ernest Schuster, a King's Counsel, and was educated at Charterhouse School and New College, Oxford. In 1908 he married Gwendolen Parker, daughter of Mr Justice Parker, later Baron Parker of Waddington.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Schuster was working in finance in the City of London, and was prospective Liberal parliamentary candidate for Eskdale, North Cumberland. He held a commission in the Oxfordshire Yeomanry, and was mobilised to serve on the Western Front until 1918, when he joined the allied force in the Murmansk area. He ended the war with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, having been awarded the Military Cross and appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He was also decorated with the Russian Order of St. Vladimir. In 1925 he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. In 1927 he ended his appointment to the government of Sudan, having been appointed as Economic and Financial Advisor to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. In 1928 he succeeded Sir Basil Phillott Blackett as finance minister of the Council of India. In 1931 he was made a Knight Commander of the Star of India. He served as finance minister until 1929, during which time he was injured during a bomb attack in the Central Legislative Assembly by Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt. Schuster was opposed by George Jeger of the Labour Party, and foreign policy was the main issue at the by-election. Polling took place on 16 November, and Schuster comfortably held the seat for the government with a majority of 7,158 over Jeger. His Liberal National colleague Robert Bernays, who opened the by-election campaign with a speech in Walsall on 31 October, remarked that "[in] three weeks of campaigning the Schusters captured the hearts of the town". He remained a member of the House of Commons until 1945, working with Stafford Cripps on war production. In 1951 he became chairman of the Oxford Regional Hospital Board.