William Peel, 1st Earl Peel

The Right Honourable The Earl Peel GCSI GBE TD PC DL
Peel in 1910
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office 3 September 1931 – 5 November 1931
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by	Tom Johnston
Succeeded by	The Viscount Snowden
Secretary of State for India
In office 18 October 1928 – 4 June 1929
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by	The Earl of Birkenhead
Succeeded by	William Wedgwood Benn
In office 19 March 1922 – 22 January 1924
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George Bonar Law Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by	Edwin Montagu
Succeeded by	The Lord Olivier
First Commissioner of Works
In office 10 November 1924 – 18 October 1928
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by	Fred Jowett
Succeeded by	The Marquess of Londonderry
Minister of Transport
In office 7 November 1921 – 12 April 1922
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Eric Geddes
Succeeded by	The Earl of Crawford
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 1 April 1921 – 19 March 1922
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	The Earl of Crawford
Succeeded by	William Sutherland
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War
In office 10 January 1919 – 1 April 1921
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Ian Macpherson
Succeeded by	Robert Sanders
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of National Service
In office 15 April 1918 – 10 January 1919
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Cecil Beck
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 24 October 1912 – 28 September 1937 as a hereditary peer
Preceded by	The 1st Viscount Peel
Succeeded by	The 2nd Earl Peel
Member of Parliament for Taunton
In office 23 February 1909 – 24 October 1912
Preceded by	Sir Edward Boyle
Succeeded by	Gilbert Wills
Member of Parliament for Manchester South
In office 29 May 1900 – 8 February 1906
Preceded by	John Campbell
Succeeded by	Arthur Haworth
Personal details
Born	(1867-01-07)7 January 1867 London
Died	28 September 1937(1937-09-28) (aged 70) East Meon, near Petersfield, Hampshire
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal Unionist Conservative
Spouse	Hon. Eleanor Williamson
Children	Doris Arthur
Parent	Arthur Peel, 1st Viscount Peel (father)
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford

William Robert Wellesley Peel, 1st Earl Peel, GCSI, GBE, TD, PC, DL (7 January 1867 – 28 September 1937), 2nd Viscount Peel from 1912 to 1929, was a British politician who was a local councillor, a Member of Parliament and a member of the House of Lords. After an early career as a barrister and a journalist, he entered first local and then national politics. He rose to hold a number of ministerial positions but is probably best remembered for chairing the Peel Commission in 1936–1937, which recommended for the first time the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.^[1]

The grandson of a Conservative prime minister, he was unusual even for his period in the number of political parties for which he was elected. He began as a member of the Moderate Party on the London County Council and later became the leader of the renamed Municipal Reform Party; he was then elected as an MP for the Liberal Unionists and then for the Conservative Party before he inherited his seat in the Lords in 1912. He also served as a minister in governments led by Liberal, Conservative and Labour prime ministers.

His ministerial career began as Under-Secretary of State for War in 1919, and he entered the cabinet in 1922 as Secretary of State for India and held a number of other ministerial positions.^[1]