Sub-series PEC10/1. - Letters from William George Arthur Ormsby-Gore,

Letters to Margaret Ethel Ormsby-Gore from her son, William George Arthur, 1891-1950.
The subject matter covers his election and early career as Conservative MP for the Denbigh Boroughs under the Liberal Asquith government, 1907-1914 and later for Stafford, 1918-1938; his service during the First World War with the Shropshire Yeomanry, the Arab Bureau, the War Office Cabinet and the Zionist Commission in Palestine; his attendance at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919; several government appointments mainly in colonial administration, 1920-1938 and in the Cabinet as First Commissioner of Works, 1931; his succession to the title of Harlech and selection as Lord Lieutenant of Merioneth, 1938; responsibility for civil defence in Yorkshire, 1939-1940; his appointment as High Commissioner for the United Kingdom in South Africa; 1941-1944; his receipt of the Order of the Garter, 1948; and a bank directorship in South Africa, 1950. The letters comment (often indiscreetly) on other politicians, including Lloyd George, Stanley Baldwin and Winston Churchill, cabinet business and political issues such as: National Insurance; the Parliament Act, 1911; Lloyd George 's radical social reforms; Disestablishment of the Church in Wales; Home Rule and the rise of Irish nationalism, 1912-1921, 1948; the General Strike, 1926; the Socialist election victory, 1929; the Great Depression, 1931; influence of trade unions, 1935; agricultural policy, 1931-1939; social, economic and governmental aspects of the Second World War, generally in Europe and more specifically in South Africa under Smuts 's premiership; and significant changes in post-war society. The letters from abroad keenly observe the geography, culture and politics of Europe, Egypt, Palestine, the East and West Indies, Africa, Canada and the United States. Other topics comprise the investiture of the Prince of Wales, 1911; an official cabinet visit to the King at Windsor Castle, 1932; the funeral of George V, 1936; Gore 's own lifelong interest in architecture, art and sculpture beginning as early as 1902-1903, with later references to the National Gallery, 1928, and the National Museum of Wales, 1939; the management of Derrycarne Estate until its sale in 1924 and alterations to the Brogyntyn estates through death duties and wartime economy, 1938-1945. The letters are accompanied by a set of autobiographical notes, purposely created for clarification of the contents.