Charles Alfred Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor, (3 October 1852 – 30 June 1941) was a British politician who crossed the floor from the Conservative to the Labour Party and was a strong supporter of the League of Nations and of Church of England causes. Family and early career Cripps was born in 1852 in West Ilsley, Berkshire, the third son of Henry William Cripps, a wealthy barrister and Queen's Counsel from Berkshire. He attended Winchester College from 1866 and New College, Oxford, from 1871, both on scholarships, and won four first classes at Oxford. At the end of his undergraduate years he was awarded a Fellowship at St John's College, Oxford, which he held for six years. He was called to the Bar from the Middle Temple in 1877 and went into practice as a barrister. In 1890 he became a Queen's Counsel and in 1893 a Bencher of the Middle Temple. He was appointed as Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales in 1895, an appointment he retained until 1914 under two further Princes, the future George V in 1901 and the future Edward VIII in 1910; his personal service to the Royal family was rewarded in 1908 with a knighthood in the Royal Victorian Order. Parliament Cripps later claimed to have been a supporter of the Liberal Party, but in deference to his die-hard Conservative father, he declined to get involved in politics. However he sided with the Unionists over the issue of home rule for Ireland and was elected as a Unionist to Parliament for Stroud in 1895, where he was a member of the South Africa Commission (investigating the Jameson Raid). He lost his seat in 1900, but soon returned in a by-election as MP for Stretford. As a devout Anglican of the high church tradition, Cripps was very active in church affairs and was appointed Vicar-General of York in 1900 and of Canterbury in 1902. He again lost his seat in the Liberal landslide victory of 1906, but was elected for Wycombe (the constituency which included the family home) in 1910. He received a peerage from the Liberal government in 1914 and took the title Baron Parmoor, of Frieth in the County of Buckingham, from the family estate. During the First World War he headed a committee determining compensation for damage caused by German air raids. Although not a judge, he was specially appointed to the