Arthur Fell
Encyclopedia
Sir Arthur Fell was an English
solicitor and Conservative Party
politician. After a notorious legal case in 1906 where a biased judge dismissed an election petition
against him, Fell sat in the House of Commons from 1906 to 1922 for Great Yarmouth
. He was noted as an opponent of free trade
and as a persistent advocate of a Channel Tunnel
.
, the fourth son of Alfred Felland brother of Nelson Mayor
, Charles Fell
. He was educated at St John's College, Oxford
, where he graduated in 1871 with a B.A.
degree. He qualified as a solicitor in 1874, becoming a partner in the firm of Hare and Fell, agents to the Treasury Solicitor.
,
where the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament
(MP) Sir John Colomb
was retiring and had recommended Fell to the Yarmouth Conservatives. At the general election in 1906
, Fell won the seat with a majority of 236 votes (3% of the total).
An election petition
was lodged against the result by the defeated Liberal Party
candidate Martin White,
alleging a range of illegal practices including bribery and treating of voters by Fell and his agents. The hearings began on 26 April at the town hall in Yarmouth
, before Justice Grantham
and Justice Channell. Both Fell and White employed Kings Counsel, assisted on Fell's side by four junior counsel.
The case concluded in May, and the petition was dismissed. The judges found that there had been systematic treating of voters on Fell's behalf, with a series of meetings in public house
s, including one in Yarmouth Town Hall on 19 October 1905 which was described as an "orgy"; Fell had sought a drink-free meeting, but unknown to him Colomb had provided two dozen bottles of whisky, and the judges found that the drinking had not been provided on Fell's behalf and was not designed to influence voters. They also dismissed White's complaint that Fell's return of expenses had been incomplete.
However, the judges found that on election day a Mr John George Baker had give some fifteen people a small amount of money, usually a shilling
or a half-crown. Baker, who was unknown to Fell's election agent
, took a vehicle used by the Conservatives and delivered voters to the poll; he told the election court that he had no politics and had given money to men because they were unemployed. Both judges agreed that Baker had been bribing voters, but differed on the crucial point of whether he had done so on behalf of Fell: in legal terms, whether Baker was acting as Fell's agent. Justice Channell decided that Baker was indeed an agent of Fell, ruling that Baker's action fell clearly within the normal principles of agency; but Justice Grantham disagreed. The law required that both judges had to agree, and so the petition was dismissed. The judges were unable to awards costs to Fell, and Channell observed that Fell had "escaped by the skin of his teeth".
The Times
newspaper described the decision as a "curious conclusion". Justice Grantham
was himself a former Conservative MP, and this was the third petition hearing at that year in which he had been seen to express political partisanship, having previously heard petitions relating to the 1906 election in Bodmin
and Maidstone
. After an outburst in court in Liverpool, where he claimed the right to hold and express his political opinions, a motion was tabled in the House of Commons on the Great Yarmouth petition, which sought to begin the a formal process of examining "complaints that have been made of the partisan and political character of the conduct during the trial of that petition of Mr. Justice Grantham." The motion, which had been signed by 347 MPs, was moved by South Donegal
MP J. G. Swift MacNeill
, who attacked Grantham to repeated cheers in the House. Baker, he pointed out, was a boatman whose wife was being sued for non-payment of her milk bill; and Grantham had described Colomb as "my fear friend". In a lengthy debate, the Attorney-General Sir John Walton
described Grantham's conduct as "most unfortunate", but warned the House that proceeding to ask the Crown to remove a judge was an extreme step, and one he advised against. MacNeill withdrew the motion.
. However, Fell held the seat with a slightly increased majority of 461 votes (5.4%), and was returned again in December 1910 with a majority of 373 votes over Platt. He was knight
ed in February 1918, and returned for a fourth and final time at the 1918 general election
, as a Coalition Conservative
and stood down from the Commons at the 1922 general election
, having announced his retirement in early 1920.
who published a series of pamphlets both on trade and on food supplies in wartime, including The Fallacy of Free Trade, The Failure of Free Trade and John Bull's Balance Sheet.
Fell was also a long-standing advocate of building a rail tunnel under the English Channel
between England and France. He presented a paper The Channel Tunnel to the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) on 17 December 1913
and by February 1914 he was the chairman of the House of Commons Channel Tunnel
Committee, an all-party parliamentary group
(with 100 members in 1914) which he chaired until 1922.
The tunnel's advocates included the Duke of Argyll
, Lord Glantawe
, Joynson-Hicks
, Will Crooks
, Hamar Greenwood
, Sir William Bull
and Arthur Conan Doyle
. At a public meeting in London in February 1914 they made the case that the tunnel would increase commerce in peacetime and improve communications in wartime.
During World War I
, Fell and the committee continued to press the case for a tunnel, leading a delegation of MPs to the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
in October 1916. Asquith responded that the idea had been considered back in 1883 by a committee of both Houses of Parliament, who had recommended against a tunnel, and a long series of bills brought to Parliament since then had failed. When Henry Campbell-Bannerman
became Prime Minister in 1907, he had commissioned a review by the Committee of Imperial Defence
, which opposed the scheme. In 1913 Asquith had asked the Committee to decide whether to review its decision, and although it declined to do so, there had been a dissenting minority. Asquith said that the experience of the war had shown that a tunnel could have had an important role in supplying the British Expeditionary Force, and that a full review was now needed.
By 1917, Asquith had been replaced as Prime Minister by David Lloyd George
, and Fell told the National Liberal Club
that he had "a very shrewd idea" what Lloyd George's attitude would be to the scheme,
and that if a review reported in favour of a tunnel the coalition government would support it. In June of that year, 110 MPs supported a request for a debate on a tunnel.
On 13 June 1918, Fell presented another paper to the RSA. In London and the Channel Tunnel he argued that a railway connection to other major countries was essential if London was to retain its place as a world city, and that leaving London cut off from continental Europe
by "a stormy sea" would condemn it to isolation.
In November 1919, Fell led another delegation to 10 Downing Street
, which included the Irish Parliamentary Party
MP Captain William Redmond and the Labour Party
leader William Adamson
. when Lloyd George told them that the government no longer had a political objection to a tunnel, but that its final position awaited a report on the military issues from the General Staff
who in 1916 had been too busy with the war to consider the project. He noted that the major change over the years was that France was now an ally rather than an enemy, but that it was still necessary to consider the risk of an enemy seizing the tunnel and mounting a surprise attack.
Little progress appears to have been made, and in July 1920 the Channel Tunnel Committee passed a resolution urging that government approval for a tunnel "no longer be postponed". In July 1921, the Annual General Meeting
of the Channel Tunnel Company Limited was told by its chairman Baron Emile d'Erlanger that despite all the hard work of Fell and his committee, the company had "not yet received any intimation that the government was prepared to entertain the question seriously".
In March 1922, Fell gave notice on behalf of the Committee of his intention to move a motion in the Commons calling on the government to give permission for the resumption of work on the tunnel, experimental tunneling having begun two years earlier. In August he presented a request signed by 217 MPs for a debate to be held during the autumn session of Parliament. However, Parliament was dissolved in October for the general election
and Fell retired from the Commons. He was made an honorary member of the Committee, and Sir William Bull was elected to succeed him as chairman.
The following summer, the Channel Tunnel Company's AGM was told that in December 1922 the new Prime Minister Bonar Law had responded to a question from Viscount Curzon
by saying "no decision has yet been taken, and I am not at present prepared to consider this question".
In retirement, Fell continued to promote the cause of the tunnel, writing to The Times
in 1924 to lament that while the French Channel Tunnel Company had been given the legal power to construct a tunnel, and the engineers said it could be built, the British Company had no power to start work in Kent.
for many years, at Lauriston House on Wimbledon Common. He supported the preservation of the Common, and opposed efforts to build on the course
of the Royal Wimbeldon Golf Course.
In 1877 he married Annie, the daughter of Baron von Rosenberg of Dresden, and in 1900 he married Matilda Wortabet, daughter of John Wortabet MD from Edinburgh
.
Fell died suddenly on 29 December 1934, aged 84, in the Wimbledon branch of Barclays Bank. He was survived by his son and three daughters, and his grandson Sir Anthony Fell
(1914–1998) was the MP for Great Yarmouth from 1951 to 1966.
Fell's estate was valued on probate
at £113,371 (net), of which he left £50 to M.G. Bertin, the Secretary of the French Channel Tunnel Association "as a token of my esteem and appreciation of his untiring efforts to promote good fellowship between France and England, and to carry into effect the Channel Tunnel, the construction of which Marechal Foch
declared might have prevented the War and in any case shortened its duration by half".
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
solicitor and Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician. After a notorious legal case in 1906 where a biased judge dismissed an election petition
Election petition
An election petition refers to the procedure for challenging the result of a Parliamentary election or local government election in the United Kingdom and in Hong Kong.- Outcomes :...
against him, Fell sat in the House of Commons from 1906 to 1922 for Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth (UK Parliament constituency)
Great Yarmouth is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
. He was noted as an opponent of free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
and as a persistent advocate of a Channel Tunnel
Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel is a undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is deep...
.
Early life
Fell was born in the city of Nelson, New ZealandNelson, New Zealand
Nelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson-Tasman region. Established in 1841, it is the second oldest settled city in New Zealand and the oldest in the South Island....
, the fourth son of Alfred Felland brother of Nelson Mayor
Mayor of Nelson, New Zealand
The Mayor of Nelson is the head of the municipal government of Nelson, New Zealand, and presides over the Nelson City Council. The mayor is directly elected using a First Past the Post electoral system...
, Charles Fell
Charles Fell
Charles Yates Fell, was a New Zealand barrister, councillor, mayor and watercolour artist.- Background :Fell was born in Nelson in 1844...
. He was educated at St John's College, Oxford
St John's College, Oxford
__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...
, where he graduated in 1871 with a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree. He qualified as a solicitor in 1874, becoming a partner in the firm of Hare and Fell, agents to the Treasury Solicitor.
Career
Fell moved from law into business, becoming involved in a range of companies including three of which he was chairman: the African City Properties Trust, the Siberian Syndicate and the Spassky Copper Mine. He travelled in Europe and in the British Dominions.1906 election
In July 1904, Fell was selected as the Conservative candidate for the borough of Great YarmouthGreat Yarmouth (UK Parliament constituency)
Great Yarmouth is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
,
where the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) Sir John Colomb
John Colomb
Sir John Charles Ready Colomb, KCMG was a British naval strategist.He was born in Onchan, Isle of Man, the son of General George Thomas Colomb, and was the younger brother of British Vice-Admiral Philip Howard Colomb....
was retiring and had recommended Fell to the Yarmouth Conservatives. At the general election in 1906
United Kingdom general election, 1906
-Seats summary:-See also:*MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1906*The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918-External links:***-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987**...
, Fell won the seat with a majority of 236 votes (3% of the total).
Election petition
An election petition refers to the procedure for challenging the result of a Parliamentary election or local government election in the United Kingdom and in Hong Kong.- Outcomes :...
was lodged against the result by the defeated Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
candidate Martin White,
alleging a range of illegal practices including bribery and treating of voters by Fell and his agents. The hearings began on 26 April at the town hall in Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...
, before Justice Grantham
William Grantham
William Grantham was a British politician.-Biography:He was educated at King's College School, and was called to the bar in 1863....
and Justice Channell. Both Fell and White employed Kings Counsel, assisted on Fell's side by four junior counsel.
The case concluded in May, and the petition was dismissed. The judges found that there had been systematic treating of voters on Fell's behalf, with a series of meetings in public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
s, including one in Yarmouth Town Hall on 19 October 1905 which was described as an "orgy"; Fell had sought a drink-free meeting, but unknown to him Colomb had provided two dozen bottles of whisky, and the judges found that the drinking had not been provided on Fell's behalf and was not designed to influence voters. They also dismissed White's complaint that Fell's return of expenses had been incomplete.
However, the judges found that on election day a Mr John George Baker had give some fifteen people a small amount of money, usually a shilling
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
or a half-crown. Baker, who was unknown to Fell's election agent
Election agent
In elections in the United Kingdom, as well as in certain other similar political systems such as India's, an election agent is the person legally responsible for the conduct of a candidate's political campaign and to whom election material is sent to by those running the election. In elections in...
, took a vehicle used by the Conservatives and delivered voters to the poll; he told the election court that he had no politics and had given money to men because they were unemployed. Both judges agreed that Baker had been bribing voters, but differed on the crucial point of whether he had done so on behalf of Fell: in legal terms, whether Baker was acting as Fell's agent. Justice Channell decided that Baker was indeed an agent of Fell, ruling that Baker's action fell clearly within the normal principles of agency; but Justice Grantham disagreed. The law required that both judges had to agree, and so the petition was dismissed. The judges were unable to awards costs to Fell, and Channell observed that Fell had "escaped by the skin of his teeth".
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper described the decision as a "curious conclusion". Justice Grantham
William Grantham
William Grantham was a British politician.-Biography:He was educated at King's College School, and was called to the bar in 1863....
was himself a former Conservative MP, and this was the third petition hearing at that year in which he had been seen to express political partisanship, having previously heard petitions relating to the 1906 election in Bodmin
Bodmin (UK Parliament constituency)
Bodmin was the name of a parliamentary constituency in Cornwall from 1295 until 1983. Initially, it was a parliamentary borough, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England and later the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until the 1868 general...
and Maidstone
Maidstone (UK Parliament constituency)
Maidstone was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.The parliamentary borough of Maidstone returned two Members of Parliament from 1552 until 1885, when its representation was reduced to one member...
. After an outburst in court in Liverpool, where he claimed the right to hold and express his political opinions, a motion was tabled in the House of Commons on the Great Yarmouth petition, which sought to begin the a formal process of examining "complaints that have been made of the partisan and political character of the conduct during the trial of that petition of Mr. Justice Grantham." The motion, which had been signed by 347 MPs, was moved by South Donegal
South Donegal (UK Parliament constituency)
South Donegal was a UK Parliament constituency in Ireland, returning one Member of Parliament 1885–1922.Prior to the 1885 general election the area was part of the Donegal constituency. From 1922 it was not represented in the UK Parliament....
MP J. G. Swift MacNeill
J. G. Swift MacNeill
John Gordon Swift MacNeill was an Irish Protestant nationalist politician and MP, in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for South Donegal from 1887 until 1918, Professor of Constitutional and Criminal Law at the King's Inns, Dublin, 1882–88, and Professor of...
, who attacked Grantham to repeated cheers in the House. Baker, he pointed out, was a boatman whose wife was being sued for non-payment of her milk bill; and Grantham had described Colomb as "my fear friend". In a lengthy debate, the Attorney-General Sir John Walton
John Lawson Walton
Sir John Lawson Walton KC was a British barrister and Liberal politician.-Family and education:John Lawson Walton was the son of the Reverend John Walton MA, a Wesleyan missionary in Ceylon who later preached at Grahamstown in South Africa and who became President of the Wesleyan Conference for...
described Grantham's conduct as "most unfortunate", but warned the House that proceeding to ask the Crown to remove a judge was an extreme step, and one he advised against. MacNeill withdrew the motion.
Subsequent elections
At the January 1910 general election, Fell faced a strong challenge from the Liberal Major J. E. Platt, a manufacturer from ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. However, Fell held the seat with a slightly increased majority of 461 votes (5.4%), and was returned again in December 1910 with a majority of 373 votes over Platt. He was knight
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
ed in February 1918, and returned for a fourth and final time at the 1918 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1918
The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...
, as a Coalition Conservative
Coalition Coupon
The ‘Coalition Coupon’, often referred to as ‘the coupon’, refers to the letter sent to parliamentary candidates at the United Kingdom general election, 1918 endorsing them as official representatives of the Coalition Government. The 1918 election took place in the heady atmosphere of victory in...
and stood down from the Commons at the 1922 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1922
The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...
, having announced his retirement in early 1920.
In Parliament
In Parliament, Fell was a noted protectionist, and an outspoken critics of free tradeFree trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
who published a series of pamphlets both on trade and on food supplies in wartime, including The Fallacy of Free Trade, The Failure of Free Trade and John Bull's Balance Sheet.
Fell was also a long-standing advocate of building a rail tunnel under the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
between England and France. He presented a paper The Channel Tunnel to the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) on 17 December 1913
and by February 1914 he was the chairman of the House of Commons Channel Tunnel
Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel is a undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is deep...
Committee, an all-party parliamentary group
All-Party Parliamentary Group
An all-party parliamentary group is a grouping in the UK parliament that is composed of politicians from all political parties.-All-party parliamentary groups:...
(with 100 members in 1914) which he chaired until 1922.
The tunnel's advocates included the Duke of Argyll
John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll
John George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll KG, KT, GCMG, GCVO, VD, PC , usually better known by the courtesy title Marquess of Lorne, by which he was known between 1847 and 1900, was a British nobleman and was the fourth Governor General of Canada from 1878 to 1883...
, Lord Glantawe
John Jenkins, 1st Baron Glantawe
John Jones Jenkins, 1st Baron Glantawe was a Welsh tin-plate manufacturer and Liberal politician.-Background:Jenkins was the son of Jenkin Jenkins of Morriston, Glamorgan and his wife Sarah Jones.-Business career:...
, Joynson-Hicks
William Joynson-Hicks, 1st Viscount Brentford
William Joynson-Hicks, 1st Viscount Brentford PC, PC , DL , known as Sir William Joynson-Hicks, Bt, from 1919 to 1929 and popularly known as Jix, was an English solicitor and Conservative Party politician, best known as a long-serving and controversial Home Secretary from 1924 to 1929, during which...
, Will Crooks
Will Crooks
William Crooks was a noted trade unionist and politician from Poplar, London, and a member of the Fabian Society...
, Hamar Greenwood
Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood
Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood PC, KC , known as Sir Hamar Greenwood, Bt, between 1915 and 1929 and as The Lord Greenwood between 1929 and 1937, was a Canadian-born British lawyer and politician...
, Sir William Bull
Sir William Bull, 1st Baronet
Sir William James Bull, 1st Baronet was a British solicitor and Conservative politician.-Biography:Bull was the son of Henry Bull, a solicitor, and his wife Cecilia Ann Howard, daughter of James Peter Howard. He was returned to Parliament for Hammersmith in 1900, a seat he held until 1918, and...
and Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
. At a public meeting in London in February 1914 they made the case that the tunnel would increase commerce in peacetime and improve communications in wartime.
During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Fell and the committee continued to press the case for a tunnel, leading a delegation of MPs to the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916...
in October 1916. Asquith responded that the idea had been considered back in 1883 by a committee of both Houses of Parliament, who had recommended against a tunnel, and a long series of bills brought to Parliament since then had failed. When Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman GCB was a British Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and Leader of the Liberal Party from 1899 to 1908. He also served as Secretary of State for War twice, in the Cabinets of Gladstone and Rosebery...
became Prime Minister in 1907, he had commissioned a review by the Committee of Imperial Defence
Committee of Imperial Defence
The Committee of Imperial Defence was an important ad hoc part of the government of the United Kingdom and the British Empire from just after the Second Boer War until the start of World War II...
, which opposed the scheme. In 1913 Asquith had asked the Committee to decide whether to review its decision, and although it declined to do so, there had been a dissenting minority. Asquith said that the experience of the war had shown that a tunnel could have had an important role in supplying the British Expeditionary Force, and that a full review was now needed.
By 1917, Asquith had been replaced as Prime Minister by David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
, and Fell told the National Liberal Club
National Liberal Club
The National Liberal Club, known to its members as the NLC, is a London gentlemen's club, now also open to women, which was established by William Ewart Gladstone in 1882 for the purpose of providing club facilities for Liberal Party campaigners among the newly-enlarged electorate after the Third...
that he had "a very shrewd idea" what Lloyd George's attitude would be to the scheme,
and that if a review reported in favour of a tunnel the coalition government would support it. In June of that year, 110 MPs supported a request for a debate on a tunnel.
On 13 June 1918, Fell presented another paper to the RSA. In London and the Channel Tunnel he argued that a railway connection to other major countries was essential if London was to retain its place as a world city, and that leaving London cut off from continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
by "a stormy sea" would condemn it to isolation.
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street, colloquially known in the United Kingdom as "Number 10", is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government and the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, who is now always the Prime Minister....
, which included the Irish Parliamentary Party
Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...
MP Captain William Redmond and the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
leader William Adamson
William Adamson
William Adamson was a Scottish trade unionist and Labour politician. He was Leader of the Labour Party between 1917 and 1921 and served as Secretary of State for Scotland in 1924 and between 1929 and 1931 in the first two Labour administrations headed by Ramsay MacDonald.-Background:Adamson was...
. when Lloyd George told them that the government no longer had a political objection to a tunnel, but that its final position awaited a report on the military issues from the General Staff
General Staff
A military staff, often referred to as General Staff, Army Staff, Navy Staff or Air Staff within the individual services, is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units...
who in 1916 had been too busy with the war to consider the project. He noted that the major change over the years was that France was now an ally rather than an enemy, but that it was still necessary to consider the risk of an enemy seizing the tunnel and mounting a surprise attack.
Little progress appears to have been made, and in July 1920 the Channel Tunnel Committee passed a resolution urging that government approval for a tunnel "no longer be postponed". In July 1921, the Annual General Meeting
Annual general meeting
An annual general meeting is a meeting that official bodies, and associations involving the public , are often required by law to hold...
of the Channel Tunnel Company Limited was told by its chairman Baron Emile d'Erlanger that despite all the hard work of Fell and his committee, the company had "not yet received any intimation that the government was prepared to entertain the question seriously".
In March 1922, Fell gave notice on behalf of the Committee of his intention to move a motion in the Commons calling on the government to give permission for the resumption of work on the tunnel, experimental tunneling having begun two years earlier. In August he presented a request signed by 217 MPs for a debate to be held during the autumn session of Parliament. However, Parliament was dissolved in October for the general election
United Kingdom general election, 1922
The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...
and Fell retired from the Commons. He was made an honorary member of the Committee, and Sir William Bull was elected to succeed him as chairman.
The following summer, the Channel Tunnel Company's AGM was told that in December 1922 the new Prime Minister Bonar Law had responded to a question from Viscount Curzon
Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe
Francis Richard Henry Penn Curzon, 5th Earl Howe, CBE, PC, VD was a British naval officer, Member of Parliament, motor racing driver and promotor. In the 1918 UK General Election he won the Battersea South seat as the candidate of the Conservative Party, which he held until 1929...
by saying "no decision has yet been taken, and I am not at present prepared to consider this question".
In retirement, Fell continued to promote the cause of the tunnel, writing to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
in 1924 to lament that while the French Channel Tunnel Company had been given the legal power to construct a tunnel, and the engineers said it could be built, the British Company had no power to start work in Kent.
Personal life
Fell lived in WimbledonWimbledon, London
Wimbledon is a district in the south west area of London, England, located south of Wandsworth, and east of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated within Greater London. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas...
for many years, at Lauriston House on Wimbledon Common. He supported the preservation of the Common, and opposed efforts to build on the course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
of the Royal Wimbeldon Golf Course.
In 1877 he married Annie, the daughter of Baron von Rosenberg of Dresden, and in 1900 he married Matilda Wortabet, daughter of John Wortabet MD from Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
Fell died suddenly on 29 December 1934, aged 84, in the Wimbledon branch of Barclays Bank. He was survived by his son and three daughters, and his grandson Sir Anthony Fell
Anthony Fell (politician)
Sir Anthony Fell was a British Conservative Party politician. He sat in the House of Commons for most the years from 1951 to 1983....
(1914–1998) was the MP for Great Yarmouth from 1951 to 1966.
Fell's estate was valued on probate
Probate
Probate is the legal process of administering the estate of a deceased person by resolving all claims and distributing the deceased person's property under the valid will. A probate court decides the validity of a testator's will...
at £113,371 (net), of which he left £50 to M.G. Bertin, the Secretary of the French Channel Tunnel Association "as a token of my esteem and appreciation of his untiring efforts to promote good fellowship between France and England, and to carry into effect the Channel Tunnel, the construction of which Marechal Foch
Marechal Foch
Marechal Foch , is an inter-specific hybrid red wine grape variety. It was named after the French marshal Ferdinand Foch , who played an important role in the negotiation of the armistice terms during the closing of the First World War. It was developed in Alsace, France by grape hybridizer...
declared might have prevented the War and in any case shortened its duration by half".