Harold Tennant

Harold John Tennant PC, commonly referred to as Jack Tennant, was born on 18 November 1865 at The Glen in Innerleithen, Peeblesshire, Scotland. He was the younger son of Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet, and his first wife Emma Winsloe. His familial connections include his brother, Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner, and his sister, Margot Asquith, who was married to H. H. Asquith, serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Tennant was also related to Baroness Elliot of Harwood through his half-brother.

He received his education at Eton College and subsequently attended Trinity College, Cambridge.

Tennant's political career included serving as Assistant Private Secretary to his brother-in-law, H. H. Asquith, during Asquith’s tenure as Home Secretary from 1892 to 1895. In 1894, Tennant was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwickshire. When Asquith became Prime Minister in 1908, Tennant was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade in January 1909. He held this position until 1911. Following this, he served as Financial Secretary to the War Office from 1911 to 1912 and as Under-Secretary of State for War from 1912 to 1916.

He was sworn into the Privy Council in 1914. In July 1916, Tennant was appointed Secretary for Scotland in the cabinet under Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. He retained this office until December of the same year, when Asquith was replaced as prime minister by David Lloyd George. Tennant did not serve in Lloyd George’s government.

The parliamentary constituency of Berwickshire was abolished in 1918, and Tennant contested the new Berwickshire and Haddingtonshire constituency in the same year. In the election, he ran against R. W. Foulis of the Labour Party and John Deans Hope, a fellow Liberal incumbent who had received the coalition coupon. Hope was successful with 54% of the votes, while Tennant finished in third place with 16%. Tennant also contested the Glasgow Central seat in 1923 but was not elected to Parliament again.

Throughout his parliamentary career, Tennant advocated for various progressive policies, including workers' compensation, minimum wages, school medical inspections, factory inspections, and unemployment insurance.

In his personal life, Harold Tennant married May Abraham, a factory inspector, in 1896. In 1910, he purchased Great Maytham Hall in Rolvenden, Kent, and commissioned the architect Edwin Lutyens to reconstruct the hall at a cost of approximately £24,000. He also engaged Lutyens to design the Rolvenden War Memorial, completed in 1922, where he served as leader of the war memorial committee.

Harold Tennant died on 9 November 1935 at the age of 70.