page_title: Arthur Du Cros
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: Arthur Du Cros / Political career
caption_attribution_description: Caricature of A du Cros JP MP. Caption read "Hastings and Aviation".
context_page_description: Sir Arthur Philip Du Cros, 1st Baronet was a British industrialist and politician.
context_section_description: In 1906 Du Cros entered politics, unsuccessfully contesting the seat of Bow & Bromley as a Conservative candidate, a seat to which his brother was elected in 1910. In 1908 he was elected Member of Parliament for Hastings, immediately succeeding his father in that position.
  In 1909 he formed (and was the director of) the Parliamentary Aerial Defence Committee to ensure funding for military aeronautical development, of which he was a strong proponent. During the First World War he worked for the Ministry of Munitions on an honorary basis, buying two motorised ambulance convoys with his own money and helping form an infantry battalion, being a former captain of the Royal Warwickshires and for some years being the honorary colonel of the 8th battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
  After the death of Edward VII, Daisy Warwick attempted to blackmail King George V by threatening to release to the press love letters that she claimed proved Edward VII's adultery. When the High Court restrained her from publishing the letters in Britain, she threatened to sell them to American media. In 1914 Du Cros offered to pay £64,000 (2012: £6,190,545) worth of Daisy's debts in return for the letters, and for his generosity he was created a baronet in 1916. He continued to represent Hastings until 1918, when he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Clapham, a position he resigned four years later.
caption: Arthur Du Cros, Vanity Fair, 1910
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