He hated what he saw as the school's snobbery and cruelty,[6] and to his teachers he appeared to be "full of silliness, egotism, un-divine discontent, contempt for others (and of course for authority, discipline, tradition etc)".

[8] He was keen to leave school and join the army to fight in the First World War,[9] and was commissioned from his officer cadet unit as a second lieutenant in the Special Reserve of the Irish Guards on 27 June 1917.

A chance meeting in Alexandria led to an appointment as an infantry instructor in the newly independent Armenia, but soon after he took up the post in 1920 the democratic government collapsed and Baldwin was imprisoned by Bolshevik-backed revolutionaries.

He was freed two months later when democracy was restored, but en route back to Britain he was arrested by the Turkish authorities, accused of spying for Soviet Russia.

The younger Baldwin by now considered himself a committed socialist, and shortly after his father's elevation, he publicly declared his political beliefs, and broke off contact with his parents, much to their distress.

Baldwin Snr initially found it difficult to bear, telling one of his daughters that he ‘nearly died’ when he first saw Oliver sitting on the opposite benches to himself in the House of Commons, but matters were smoothed over by a letter Baldwin wrote to console his father: "Wherever I have gone on my political rounds during the past six years I have never heard any of our supporters speak other than in a kindly way of your personal self… To you, who have generally been victorious, the results may disappoint you, but take it from one who, until the other day, has always been on the losing side, always in the minority and generally alone, that victory or defeat are both flatterers and as such are of no serious consequence.

"[17][19] Like other young left-wing Labour MPs, Baldwin was critical of MacDonald's insistence on strict financial management and refusal to launch large Keynesian public works programmes.

As a result, Oliver Baldwin acquired the courtesy title Viscount Corvedale, which did not entail membership of the House of Lords.

Lycett comments that had it not been for the first earl's death Baldwin father and son would, uniquely, have sat opposite each other in both houses of parliament.

[6] In February 1948, Baldwin was appointed Governor and Commander in Chief of the Leeward Islands, a British colonial territory in the Caribbean, arriving there a month later.

There were rumours of "strange and unnatural happenings at Government House" that were reinforced by complaints from naval captains whose crews had been commandeered by the governor for nude bathing sessions.

[30] Though the two had to be careful and corresponded in code, they employed good-looking male staff and held weekend parties attended by vetted friends such as Harold Nicolson and Beverley Nichols.

During Baldwin Snr's time in office, the two elders would occasionally travel from the prime ministerial country retreat of Chequers to visit their son and his partner at their Oxfordshire farmhouse.

The stone inscription reads, Here lie the ashes of Oliver Ridsdale Second Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, Born March 1899 Died August 1958.