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SUMMARY:Anglo-German Victims of The Great War: The Troublesome Case of Sir
  Edgar Speyer - Professor Tony Lentin\, Wolfson College Senior Member
DTSTART:20130306T130000Z
DTEND:20130306T140000Z
UID:TALK42741@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:DJ Goode
DESCRIPTION:Sir Edgar Speyer (1862-1932) was a conspicuous figure in the f
 inancial\, cultural\, social and political life of Edwardian London. For h
 eading the syndicate which financed the construction of the new `tube line
 s’ he became known as the ‘King of the Underground’. He was also a c
 onnoisseur and active patron of the arts who rescued the ‘Proms’ from 
 collapse\, enhanced the nation’s musical and artistic life and directed 
 the funding of Captain Scott’s Antarctic expeditions. Speyer and his wif
 e\, the concert violinist Leonora Speyer\, lived in a fabulously magnifice
 nt style. In the early summer of 1914 they stood at the peak of their succ
 ess and celebrity in London society.\n \nHowever\, within weeks\, at the o
 utbreak of war\, they became pariahs\; objects of suspicion and aversion. 
 Despite having been a naturalised British citizen for over 20 years and a 
 ubiquitous public benefactor\, Speyer found himself ostracised by society 
 and mercilessly harried by the Northcliffe Press. Under the Aliens Act of 
 1918 Speyer was summoned in 1921 before a judicial enquiry\, which found h
 im guilty of disloyalty and disaffection and of communicating and trading 
 with the enemy. He was stripped of his citizenship and membership of the P
 rivy Council. Pilloried by The Times as a traitor\, Speyer vehemently deni
 ed the charges\, but he never returned to England again and never forgot h
 is ordeal.\n \nThe downfall of Sir Edgar Speyer has been described as `a m
 inor tragedy of the war’. Tony’s book\, to be published in March\, is 
 the first detailed account of the episode\, the Speyers’ prominence in L
 ondon society and their fall from that height. It re-examines the Speyer c
 ase from documents newly released\, presents the evidence and invites the 
 reader to decide whether Sir Edgar was an innocent victim of nationalistic
  war fever\, a scapegoat for the perceived failings of Prime Minister Asqu
 ith and the UK’s last Liberal Government\, or a traitor to his adopted c
 ountry.\n\nTony Lentin\, formerly a Professor of History at The Open Unive
 rsity\, is a senior member of Wolfson  and the author of Guilt at Versaill
 es: Lloyd George and the Pre-History of Appeasement (1985)\, Lloyd George 
 and the Lost Peace: From Versailles to Hitler (2001)\, and  General Smuts 
 (2010\, in the series published by Haus: `The peace conferences of 1919-23
  and their aftermath’).\n \nA Barrister and former law tutor\, he is the
  author of The Last Political Law Lord: Lord Summer 1859 – 1934 (2009) a
 nd is currently working on a life of the controversial Mr Justice McCardie
  (1859-1933).  His other main interest is eighteenth-century Russia\, on w
 hich he has published widely. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Socie
 ty. 
LOCATION:Combination Room\, Wolfson College
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