\"First Lord of the Admiralty\" Eric Geddes Hand Signed 3X4 Card For Sale

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\"First Lord of the Admiralty\" Eric Geddes Hand Signed 3X4 Card:
$699.99

Up for sale a VERY RARE! "First Lord of the Admiralty" Eric Geddes Hand Signed 3X4 Card. 

ES-5070

Sir Eric Campbell 1875 – 22 June 1937) was a British businessman a background in railways, he served as head of Military Transportation on

the Western Front, with the rank of major-general. He then served as First Lord

of the Admiralty (with the rank of vice-admiral, despite its

being a political position) between 1917 and 1919. He then served as the

first Minister of Transport between

1919 and 1921, in which position he was responsible for the deep public

spending cuts known as the "Geddes Axe". Born in British India, Geddes was a son of Auckland Campbell Geddes,

of Edinburgh, Scotland. Among his siblings were Dr. Mona Chalmers Watson and Auckland Geddes, 1st Baron

Geddes. He was educated at Oxford Military College and Merchiston Castle School,

Edinburgh, until asked to leave. Geddes then spent ​2 1⁄2 years drifting

between jobs like lumberjack and steelworker in the United States, eventually becoming a

stationmaster for the Baltimore and Ohio

Railroad, rising to car-tracer. When he abruptly returned home, his elder sister

gave him a firm talking-to; late in 1895 he was sent to India for a minor job

in estate management, where he built light railways before moving to the

Rohilkund and Kumaon railway; he became superintendent in 1901. Returning

to England because of his wife's poor health, he joined the North-Eastern

Railway, and rose to be deputy general manager in 1911.

During the First World War Geddes

was one of the "men of push and go" brought into government service

by Minister of Munitions David Lloyd George. Made

responsible for small arms production, he established rational goals for

rifles, light and heavy machine guns, and production then soared, making many

more automatic weapons than the army had requested. Shell production was also

booming but these were not adequately getting filled with explosive, and so

Geddes was made responsible for them in December 1916; within six months the

number of filled shells increased tenfold to two million per week, and the filled

shells piled up on French docks. Lloyd George, now Minister of War, persuaded

Sir Douglas Haig, Commander Force, to invite Geddes and his three-man team over

for two days in August 1916 to advise on transportation. Haig was so impressed

that the visit was extended to a month and then Geddes was appointed Director

General of Military Railways and Inspector-General of Transportation with the

rank of major general.

They got the ports and railways working efficiently and built light railways to

bring materials to the front. He was knighted in 1916 and appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath and Knight Grand Cross of the

Order of the British Empire in 1917. He was promoted to

inspector general of transportation in all theatres of war. The German U-boat campaign unleashed

unrestricted attacks in February 1917. As the British merchant fleet was

suffering, Lloyd George transferred Geddes to the Admiralty as Civilian Lord with the rank of vice-admiral. He was given

control of British shipbuilding, charged with making up for as many of the

losses as possible. He found the Admiralty in disarray and wrote to his

friend Field Marshal Haig about the lack of drive. On 19 June 1917 First the War Cabinet that they were losing. Haig and Geddes breakfasted with

Lloyd George to demand a new administration in the Admiralty. On 6 July 1917

Geddes, strongly recommended by Haig, returned to civilian life as First Lord

of the Admiralty. To serve he had to be a member of the House of Commons and

was elected in a by-election for Cambridge.

He was sworn into the Privy

Council the same month.[The Daily Sir Archibald Hurd, later wrote of Geddes and Lloyd George,

"No men more ignorant of naval affairs were ever associated together than

the Prime Minister and Geddes". Regardless of this deficiency he

infused the Admiralty with determined energy, encouraged innovation, openness

and initiative. Convoying was turning the tide. Geddes appointed the Belfast

shipbuilder Lord Pirrie as

controller-general of merchant shipbuilding, and brought William Henry Bragg into

the Admiralty to oversee antisubmarine science: they were working with the

French to develop sonar which was ready just when the

war ended. Jellicoe was replaced at the end of 1917. Convoys in home waters

lost only 1.25 percent of their ships, and 2,084,000 American soldiers reached

Europe; only 113 were lost to U-boats, despite the German Admiralty's boast

that they would destroy them all. At war's end the world supply of shipping was

larger than it had been at the outset, thanks to the growth of the Japanese and

American merchant fleets. It was a great Allied victory. Lloyd George's

evaluation was that Geddes was "... one of the most remarkable men which

the State called to its aid ..." He left the Admiralty in January

1919 and was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. Lloyd George then

asked him to organize a new Ministry of Transport. Until the bill setting up

this new office was passed in May 1919, he remained in the cabinet as minister without portfolio.

In May 1919 he was appointed the first Minister of Transport.

The new ministry was given control over railways, roads, canals and docks but

was criticized in both houses of parliament for giving in to nationalization

and for its large size. In the autumn of 1921 the handing back of the railways

from state control to the companies was being reviewed, which put the Ministry

of Transport under further pressure. Geddes had neither taste nor aptitude for

political infighting, he resigned in November 1921.

In

1921 Geddes chaired the Committee on National Expenditure which proposed heavy

cuts in public expenditure to match falling national income, the austerity

policy became known as the Geddes Axe. A notable feature of the recommendations involved

army cuts: in personnel by 50,000 men from 210,000; and in funding by 20

million pounds from an existing army estimates of 75 million.

When

enacted, the public expenditure cuts depressed the economy further. Geddes

resigned from the government and the Commons in 1922, becoming director

of Dunlop Rubber. From 1924

until his death he was chairman of Imperial Airways. Geddes' memorable quotation is: "We

shall squeeze the German lemon until the pips squeak!" which he introduced

in a stump speech before the election of 1918. It became a major rallying call

during the coalition's campaign. 

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