Philip Snowden, First Viscount Snowden, the British politician, was a forthright and convincing speaker. Initially he worked for the government as a clerk, until a bad accident left him paralysed from the waist down. While convalescing he became convinced of the value of socialism and started making rousing anti-capitalist speeches. He was the first Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, a position he held in 1924 and again between 1929 and 1931. He married Ethel Annakin, a prominent member of the suffragette movement. After breaking with Labour policy in 1931, Snowden was expelled from the party but continued to serve as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ramsey MacDonald’s National Government coalition. He became a Viscount in 1931 and died six years later at the age of 71, following a heart attack.
