Sir Geoffrey Shakespeare
(1893–1980)
Geoffrey Shakespeare was a captain in the Norfolk Regiment in the First World War. He read law at Cambridge University then worked as private secretary to David Lloyd George for several years, before being elected to Parliament. During this time he was party to negotiations leading to the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921, which features in his memoir Let Candles Be
Brought In (1949). He held several high offices in the Government and was rewarded with a baronetcy in 1942. By that time he had been the chairman of the Children’s Overseas Reception Board (CORB) for two years. At first, he and Churchill had opposed the idea of sending children overseas. But the shock of German success in France made British defeat look plausible, so the CORB proposal was accepted.
Shakespeare was dedicated to his work. After the SS Volendam was torpedoed, Shakespeare visited Scotland to see the rescued children. The BBC’s WW2 People’s War website includes an article from a 1940 edition of the Gourock Times ( bit.ly/ss
volendam), which quotes him as saying: “They are all in great spirits… They sang in the boats in the rough sea, and most of the boys I spoke to want to go off to Canada in the next ship.” He also praised the escorts, the master and his crew.
Shakespeare left politics and became director of a building society and, later, chairman of the Standing Council of the Baronetage. He died at the age of 86.