Dudley Aman, 1st Baron Marley

Dudley Leigh Aman, 1st Baron Marley, DSC (16 May 1884 – 29 February 1952), was a British soldier and Labour politician.

The Lord Marley
Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords
In office
17 January 1930 – 24 August 1931
Preceded byThe Earl De La Warr
Succeeded byThe Earl of Lucan
Under-Secretary of State for War
In office
5 June 1930 – 24 August 1931
Preceded byThe Earl De La Warr
Succeeded byVacant
next held by The Earl Stanhope
Personal details
Born16 May 1884
Died29 February 1952
SpouseOctable Turquet Reid (m. 1910)
ChildrenGodfrey
Alma materRoyal Naval College, Greenwich

Marley was the son of Edward Godfrey Aman, of Farnham, and was educated at Marlborough and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He joined the Royal Marine Artillery as a Second lieutenant 1 January 1902.[1]

During the First World War he served in France and Belgium as a Major in the Royal Marine Artillery. He was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his services at the Second Battle of Ypres. After the war he made five unsuccessful attempts to enter the House of Commons for the Labour Party, at Petersfield in 1922 and 1923, at Isle of Thanet in 1924, and at Faversham in a 1928 by-election and the 1929 general election. However, in January 1930 he was raised to the peerage by the Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald as Baron Marley, of Marley in the County of Sussex.[2]

Marley then served under Macdonald as Under-Secretary of State for War and vice-president of the Army Council from June 1930 until the government fell in August 1931. From 1930 to 1937 he was Chief Labour Whip in the House of Lords and served as a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords from 1930 to 1941.

As Chairman of the Parliamentary Advisory Committee for the aid of Jews in Europe Marley became deeply involved in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast of Birobidzhan, an area in eastern Siberia which was designated by Joseph Stalin as an autonomous area for the Jewish people. He wrote the introduction to The Brown Book of the Hitler Terror and the Burning of the Reichstag, a publication on the conditions of the Jewish population which greatly raised awareness among American Jewry about the Jews of Germany.

Personal life

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Mrs. Dudley Leigh

Lord Marley married Octable Turquet Reid, daughter of Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid, in 1910. He died in February 1952, aged 67, and was succeeded in the barony by his only son Godfrey. Lady Marley died in 1969.

References

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  1. ^ "No. 27401". The London Gazette. 28 January 1902. p. 582.
  2. ^ "No. 33571". The London Gazette. 17 January 1930. p. 342.
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Political offices
Preceded by Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords
17 January 1930 – 24 August 1931
Succeeded by
Under-Secretary of State for War
5 June 1930 – 24 August 1931
Vacant
Party political offices
Preceded by Labour Chief Whip in the House of Lords
1930 – 1937
Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Marley
1930 – 1952
Succeeded by
Godfrey Pelham Leigh Aman