ABSTRACT
Businessmen were unmistakable figures in British political life after the First World War. Guided by the experiments in wartime government, Lloyd George brought them into the Cabinet and recruited them as advisers and troubleshooters. In Parliament, the ‘coupon election’ of 1918 substantially increased the representation of capital turning the Coalition benches, in the words of one observer, into a ‘curious assembly’ akin to a ‘chamber of commerce’. 1 Yet although historians have shown an interest in organised business during and after the war, little detailed work has been done on the personnel and activities of the phalanx of businessmen who entered politics during these years. With a few exceptions, such as Sir Eric Geddes and Lord Weir, they are recalled only as the ‘hard-faced men’ of 1918, supporting actors on a stage which was dominated by larger political figures and events. 2 One victim of this neglect has been Sir Allan Smith. As a spokesman for industry during the early 1920s, Smith was a forthright and controversial figure whose active career in politics, although brief, was both unusual and important.
