Albert Stanley, 1st Baron Ashfield
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| Baron Ashfield | |
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| Born | 8 August 1874 New Normanton, Derbyshire |
|---|---|
| Died | 4 November 1948 |
| Occupation | Businessman |
Albert Henry Stanley, 1st Baron Ashfield, PC, TD (8 August 1874 – 4 November 1948) was Managing Director, then Chairman of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London and later Chairman of the London Passenger Transport Board during the London Underground's greatest period of expansion.
He was born Albert Henry Knattriess in New Normanton, Derbyshire, England. As a child his family emigrated to the United States and there, his father, Henry Knattriess, changed the family name to "Stanley".
His father worked as a coachbuilder in Detroit which led Stanley to employment at the age of 14 with the Detroit Street Railways Company whilst taking courses at technical colleges. An exceptional talent, Stanley rose to become General Superintendent of the company by the time he was 28 in 1902. He later worked for the Railway Department of the New Jersey Public Service Corporation.
On 20 February 1907, Stanley was appointed General Manager of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL). The UERL was the holding company of four underground railway companies in central London. Three of these (Metropolitan District Railway, Baker Street & Waterloo Railway and Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway) were already in operation and the fourth (Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway) was about to open.
The UERL had been established by American financier Charles Yerkes and much of the original finance had been from the United States, so Stanley's experience of managing urban transit systems in that country made him an ideal candidate for the position. The cost of constructing three new lines in just a few years had put the company in a precarious monetary position. Stanley's role was to restore the financies. By improving the integration of the separate companies within the group, he was quickly able to turn the fortunes of the company around and, in 1910, he became Managing Director of the company - renamed the London Electric Railway Company but commonly known as the Underground Group.
With Commercial Manager Frank Pick, Stanley instigated a plan to increase passenger numbers. Part of this plan was the extension of the existing Underground Group's lines into new, undeveloped areas beyond the central area. The first of these, the extension of the Bakerloo Line to Queen's Park to provide a connection with the London and North Western Railway, opened in 1915. The other expansion plans were postponed during the First World War.
The consolidation of London's underground railways under one management was brought closer by the Underground Group's take over of the Central London Railway and the City and South London Railway in 1913. Only the Metropolitan Railway (and its subsidiaries the Great Northern & City Railway and the East London Railway) and the Waterloo & City Railway remained outside of the Underground Group's control.
In 1914 Stanley was knighted in recognition of his services to transport. In 1916 he became Unionist Member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne at a by-election. He was made a Privy Counsellor on 13 December 1916[1] and held the cabinet post of President of the Board of Trade in Lloyd George's government from 10 December 1916 to 26 May 1919.
On leaving the government he returned to his role as Managing Director of the Underground Group and also became its Chairman. In the 1920 New Year Honours,[2] he was created Baron Ashfield of Southwell in the County of Nottingham, ending his term as an MP. With Stanley back at the Underground Group, he and Pick reactivated their expansion plans and one of the most significant periods in the organisation's history began, subsequently sometimes called "The Golden Age".
The Central London Railway was extended to Ealing Broadway in 1920, The Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway was extended to Hendon in 1923 and to Edgware in 1924. The City and South London Railway was reconstructed with larger diameter tunnels to take modern trains between 1922 and 1924 and extended to Morden in 1926. In addition a process of modernising many of the Underground's busiest central London stations was started; providing them with escalators to replace lifts. New rolling stock was gradually introduced with automatic sliding doors at points along the length of the carriage instead of manual end gates. By the middle of the 1920s, the organisation had expanded to such an extent that a large, new headquarters building was constructed at 55 Broadway over St. James's Park station.
In 1928 Stanley relinquished the role of Managing Director to Pick, retaining the position of Chairman. Having long seen the need for an integrated transport system in London, he was, with Transport Minister Herbert Morrison, instrumental in the foundation of the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB), responsible for managing all London's transportation needs. He served as the organisations chairman from its establishment in 1933, with Pick as Managing Director.
The opening of extensions of the Piccadilly Line to Uxbridge, Hounslow and Cockfosters followed in 1933. In 1935, the availability of government-backed loans to stimulate the flagging economy allowed Stanley and Pick to promote system-wide improvements under the New Works Programme for 1935–1940, including the transfer of Stanmore Metropolitan Line services to the Bakerloo Line in 1939, the Northern Line's Northern Heights project and extension of the Central Line to Ongar and Denham. Much of the works were interrupted by the Second World War and were not completed before his retirement in 1947.
In 1948, the year Stanley died, the LPTB was nationalised along with the majority of British railway, bus, road haulage and waterway concerns. The LPTB became the London Transport Executive under the British Transport Commission.
During his forty-year tenure as Managing Director and Chairman of the Underground Group and the LTPB, Stanley oversaw the transformation of a collection of unconnected, competing railway companies in severe financial difficulties into a coherent and well managed transport organisation, internationally respected for its technical expertise and design style.
In addition to his management of London Underground and brief political career, Stanley held directorships of the Midland Bank and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). During the First World War, he was Colonel of the Territorial Force Engineer and Railway Staff Corps.
A memorial to Stanley was erected at 55 Broadway in 1950 and a blue plaque was placed at his home, 43 South Street, Mayfair in 1984[3]. It reads:
- Albert Henry Stanley, Lord Ashfield (1874–1948), First Chairman of London Transport, lived here.
A large office building at London Underground's Lillie Bridge Depot is named Ashfield House in his honour. It stands to the south of the District Line tracks a short distance to the east of West Kensington station and is also visible from West Cromwell Road (A4).
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ London Gazette: no. 29865, page 12225, 1916-12-15. Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 31712, page 1, 1919-12-30. Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
- ^ English Heritage, List of plaques
[edit] References
- London's Transport Museum - The Golden Age of Transport in London - Lord Ashfield
- Biography, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Exploring 20th Century London - Albert Stanley
[edit] External links
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Walter Runicman |
President of the Board of Trade 1916 – 1919 |
Succeeded by Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by Max Aitken |
Member of Parliament for Ashton under Lyne 1916 – 1920 |
Succeeded by Walter de Frece |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Ashfield 1920 – 1948 |
Extinct |
