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Encyclopedia entry: Cripps, Sir (Richard) Stafford
- Article from:
- Who's Who in the Twentieth Century
Copyright© Who's Who in the Twentieth Century 1999, originally published by Oxford University Press 1999. (Hide copyright information)
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Cripps, Sir (Richard) Stafford (1889–1952)
British politician on the left of the Labour Party, who as chancellor of the exchequer (1947–50) introduced austere measures to deal with Britain's postwar foreign exchange crisis. He was knighted in 1930. Born in London, Cripps was a brilliant student at Winchester and University College, London, where he read chemistry; he then became a barrister (1913) and was appointed King's Counsel in 1927 and solicitor-general in 1930. He was elected to parliament in 1931 and in the following year helped found the Socialist League. In 1936, in support of the antifascists in the Spanish civil war, he advocated formation of a British united ...