Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood

Thomas Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood, PC, KC (7 February 1870 – 10 September 1948), known as Sir Hamar Greenwood, 1st Baronet between 1915 and 1929, was a Canadian-born British politician. He served as the last Chief Secretary for Ireland between 1920 and 1922, as which he was responsible for the Black and Tans.

Family and Early Life Greenwood was born in Whitby, Ontario, Canada, to John Hamar Greenwood (1829–1903), a lawyer who had emigrated from Llanbister, Radnorshire, Wales,

He studied at the University of Toronto, from which he earned a BA in 1895, and subsequently worked for the Canadian Department of Agriculture.

Career He spoke at temperance meetings across Britain He was elected, as Member of Parliament for York for the Liberal Party, in 1906, and held a seat in the House of Commons for most of the next 23 years, He advocated Irish home-rule: and said in 1911 “Ireland has been shamefully treated [and] “is justly entitled to local self-government”.

Greenwood's wife Margery Spencer had an affair with Lloyd George that probably contributed to Greenwood's baronetcy, of Onslow Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington, of 1915. After the Burning of Cork by British auxiliary forces in December 1920, Greenwood blamed the "Sinn Féin rebels" and the people of Cork for burning their city. Greenwood was described by a 21st-century Irish journalist as "A Lloyd George loyalist who believed in restoring British rule in Ireland by defeating the IRA, Greenwood’s denials and evasions became so frequent that he was lampooned with the phrase 'to tell a Greenwood'".

Greenwood lost his seat in the 1922 general election. At the 1924 general election, he was one of a small number of Liberals, including Winston Churchill, to stand as Constitutionalist candidates. These were Liberals who advocated closer ties between Liberals and Conservatives. Greenwood's candidature in Walthamstow East was supported by the local Conservative association, but not by the local Liberals, who had their own candidate, and he won the seat. After the election, when it appeared that there was no prospect of closer formal ties between the two parties, Greenwood took the Conservative whip. He continued to represent Walthamstow East until 1929, although he never held government office again.

Post-Government In the 1929 Dissolution Honours, Greenwood was raised to the peerage as Baron Greenwood, of Llanbister in the County of Radnor. In 1937, he was created Viscount Greenwood, of Holbourne in the County of London. He was president of the British Iron and Steel Federation from 1938 to 1939, chairman of the Pilgrims Society from 1945 to 1948, and president of the Pilgrims Society in 1948.

He died on 10 September 1948 in London, England.

Family His wife was Margery Spencer, daughter of The Rev. Walter Spencer of Fownhope Court, Herefordshire, and the same's wife Anne "Annie" Elizabeth Hudson. She was 17 years Greenwood's junior. He died unmarried and was succeeded as third Viscount by his younger brother, Michael George Hamar Greenwood, who also died unmarried in 2003, when the title of Viscount Greenwood therefore became extinct.

Their elder daughter, Angela, married Edward Dudley Delevingne and was the paternal grandmother of model sisters Poppy and Cara Delevingne. Their younger daughter, Deborah Hamar Greenwood, married Patrick David de László, son of painter Philip de László.

Arms