Kingsley Wood Collection

Consists primarily consists of several large scrap books of press cuttings from the Conservative politician Sir Howard Kingsley Wood (1881-1943). Knighted in 1918, he was MP for Woolwich (West) from 1918-43. He held a series of political offices, including Chancellor of the Exchequer under Winston Churchill from 1940 until his death in September 1943. It has not been catalogued, but materials have been roughly listed to include dates and given item numbers.

Partially catalogued

Available for consultation at the University of Kent's Special Collections & Archives reading room, Templeman Library, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NU (specialcollections@kent.ac.uk).

Sir Howard Kingsley Wood (19 August 1881 ? 21 September 1943) was an English Conservative politician. The son of a Wesleyan Methodist minister, he qualified as a solicitor, and successfully specialised in industrial insurance. He became a member of the London County Council and then a Member of Parliament.

Wood served as junior minister to Neville Chamberlain at the Ministry of Health, establishing a close personal and political alliance. His first cabinet post was Postmaster General, in which he transformed the British Post Office from a bureaucracy to a business. As Secretary of State for Air in the months before the Second World War he oversaw a huge increase in the production of warplanes to bring Britain up to parity with Germany. When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940, Wood was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, in which post he adopted policies propounded by John Maynard Keynes, changing the role of HM Treasury from custodian of government income and expenditure to steering the entire British economy.

One of Wood's last innovations was the creation of Pay As You Earn, under which income tax is deducted from employees' current pay, rather than being collected retrospectively. This system remains in force in Britain.The collection was deposited with the Templeman Library by Wood's law firm, Messrs Kingsley Wood & Co. The result of of a subscription to a press cutting agency, it covers the period 1905-40 and focuses upon Sir Kingsley Wood's political and legal career.