Leo Amery

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The Right Honourable Leo Amery CH
First Lord of the Admiralty
In office 31 October 1922 – 28 January 1924
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Bonar Law Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by	The Lord Lee of Fareham
Succeeded by	The Lord Chelmsford
Secretary of State for the Colonies
In office 6 November 1924 – 4 June 1929
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by	J. H. Thomas
Succeeded by	The Lord Passfield
Secretary of State for India and Burma
In office 13 May 1940 – 26 July 1945
Monarch	George VI
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	The Lord Zetland
Succeeded by	The Lord Pethick-Lawrence
Personal details
Born	Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery (1873-11-22)22 November 1873 Gorakhpur, North-Western Provinces, British India
Died	16 September 1955(1955-09-16) (aged 81) London, England
Political party	Conservative
Children	Julian, Baron Amery John Amery
Education	Harrow School
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford All Souls College, Oxford
Occupation	Politician and journalist

Leopold Charles Maurice^[1] Stennett Amery (22 November 1873 – 16 September 1955), also known as L. S. Amery, was a British Conservative Party politician and journalist. During his career, he was known for his interest in military preparedness, British India and the British Empire and for his opposition to appeasement. He was Secretary of State for the Colonies (1924-29), opposed the National Government of the 1930s and served as Secretary of State for India during the Second World War (1940-45). He was also a prolific writer whose output included a multi-volume history of the Second Boer War and several volumes of memoirs and (posthumously published) diaries.

Nowadays he is best remembered for the remarks he made in the House of Commons on 7 May 1940 during the Norway Debate, attacking the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, for incompetence in the fight against Hitler's Germany. Many of Amery's Parliamentary contemporaries pointed to this speech as one of the key drivers in the division of the House on the following day, 8 May, which led to Chamberlain being forced to resign and his replacement by Winston Churchill.