Sir Sidney Herbert, 1st Baronet

Sir Sidney Herbert, 1st Baronet (29 July 1890 – 22 March 1939) was a British Conservative politician.

From 1919 to 1920, he was Private Secretary to Winston Churchill when he was Secretary of State for War, and served as a Member of Parliament from 1922 to 1931 and 1932 to 1939.

Early life

Herbert was born in Newport, Rhode Island, on 29 July 1890. He was the eldest son of Sir Michael Herbert (1857–1903), the British Ambassador to the United States from 1902 to 1903, during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. His mother was the former Leila Belle Wilson (1864–1923), a New York heiress. He had a younger brother, Michael George Herbert, a banker with Morgan, Grenfell & Co., who died unmarried.

Herbert's paternal grandparents were the statesman Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea, and Elizabeth Herbert, Baroness Herbert of Lea, a philanthropist and Roman Catholic writer. His great-grandfather was George Augustus Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke and, in due course, two of Sidney's uncles (George, the 13th Earl and Sidney, the 14th Earl) succeeded to the Earldom of Pembroke.

As a youth, he needed to use crutches. Herbert was educated at Eton College, in Windsor before attending Balliol College, Oxford. thus resigning from the Commons. When the Commons discussed Germany's resumption of submarine building in April 1935, Sidney declared:

"Doesn't the expressed intention of the German Government to start afresh the building of submarines constitute proof--if proof is needed--that German rearmament is principally directed against this country." The baronetcy, of Boyton, Wiltshire was conferred on 18 July 1936.

One of his last speeches in the Commons was on 4 October 1938 in which he challenged the government on rearmament -

Personal life Herbert died unmarried in Cannes, France, on 22 March 1939, at which point the baronetcy became extinct. He was buried at the St Mary and St Nicholas Churchyard in Wilton, Wiltshire. His net estate, valued at $2,839,364, was left to his two principal beneficiaries, his cousins the Hon. Sir. George Sidney Herbert and Sir Sidney Charles Herbert. After his death, a by-election was held to replace him.