Anthony Greenwood, Baron Greenwood of Rossendale

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Arthur William James "Anthony" Greenwood, Baron Greenwood of Rossendale PC (born September 14, 1911 in Leeds , † April 12, 1982 in London ) was a British Labor Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons for 24 years and was a minister several times and became a Life Peer member of the House of Lords in 1970 due to the Life Peerages Act 1958 .

Life

Studies, professional career and World War II

Greenwood was the only son of Arthur Greenwood , who was also a Labor MP in the House of Commons and was a minister several times. After visiting the Merchant Taylors' School , he completed a study of the interdisciplinary program Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Balliol College of Oxford University , where he also chairs the Student Federation of Labor ( Labor Club was). In 1933 he became President of the Oxford Union and in this capacity was also part of the debating team of the British universities , which toured India in 1933 .

After completing his studies, he continued his political activities on debating tours in the USA and also worked as a freelance journalist . He then began to study law at the Bar ( Inns of Court ) of Middle Temple , which he did not graduate. After working as a business secretary to an industrialist, he worked for the National Fitness Council between 1938 and 1939 .

At the beginning of World War II, Greenwood was 1,939 employees of the Ministry of Information ( Ministry of Information ), where he most recently from 1941 to 1942 Private Secretary to the Director General Walter Monckton , with whom he travels to Russia and the Middle East took. In 1940 Greenwood married Gillian Crawshay-Williams, a great-granddaughter of the biologist and main proponent of agnosticism , Thomas Henry Huxley .

In the summer of 1942 he began his military service in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and worked there as an intelligence officer from February 1943. In December 1944 he was seconded to the War Cabinet , where he dealt with the Mulberry ports together with Walter Monckton .

Member of the House of Commons, member of the shadow cabinet and candidacy for party leadership

Greenwood, who had joined the Labor Party in 1925 at the age of fourteen, began his political career in local politics after the Second World War and was chairman of the Labor faction on the council of the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead between 1945 and 1949 .

In a by-election ( by-election ) in the constituency Heywood and Redcliffe he was first elected on 21 February 1946 MPs in the House of Commons, succeeding his late party colleague John Edmondson Whittaker , where he narrowly with 50.5 percent could claim his opponent from the Conservative Party .

After that constituency was dissolved, Greenwood was elected to the House of Commons in the February 23, 1950 elections in the Rossendale constituency and represented that constituency for more than twenty years until the June 18, 1970 general election in the House of Commons. Shortly afterwards he became vice-chairman of the Labor Group ( Parliamentary Labor Party ) in 1950 and held this position until 1952. He was then from 1951 to 1952 and again between 1955 and 1960 he was a member of the shadow cabinet of his party. In 1957, he and the MP Sydney Silverman criticized the Tory government of Prime Minister Anthony Eden for their attitude to the death penalty .

At the Labor Party conference on November 2, 1961, Greenwood, who was a member of the party's National Executive Committee between 1954 and 1970, ran against incumbent Hugh Gaitskell for the office of Leader of the Labor Party . However, he was already clearly defeated by Gaitksell in the first and only ballot: While the Gaitskell as a representative of the right wing of the party received 171 delegate votes (74.35 percent), Greenwood as the candidate of the left party received only 59 delegate votes (25.65 percent).

Despite this internal party defeat, Greenwood was first deputy executive chairman between 1962 and 1963 and then from 1963 as the successor to Dai Davies until his replacement by Ray Gunter in 1964, executive chairman of the party ( Chair of the Labor Party ).

minister

During Greenwood's tenure as Minister of Housing, New Towns like Milton Keynes sprang up

After the Labor Party won the general election on October 15, 1964 , Prime Minister Harold Wilson appointed Greenwood Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs . In this role he was instrumental in overseeing the release of numerous colonies into sovereignty . At the same time he became Privy Councilor in 1964 .

As part of a government reshuffle, Greenwood succeeded Barbara Castle as Minister for Overseas Development ( Ministry of Overseas Development ) on December 23, 1965 , while Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, was his own successor as Colonial Minister .

In another reshuffle, he was in August 1966 as successor to Richard Crossman Minister of Housing and Local Government ( Minister of Housing and Local Government ). Arthur Bottomley was succeeded as Minister for Overseas Development . During his tenure as Housing Minister, which lasted until 1969, he was largely involved in the planning and construction of the third wave of the so-called New Towns such as Milton Keynes . Among other things, The Town and Country Planning (Planning Inquiry Commissions) Regulations 1968 adopted in 1968 were applied.

At the Labor Party congress in July 1969, he applied for the position of General Secretary of the Labor Party, but was defeated by the former treasurer of the party Harry Nicholas .

House of Lords

The Alexandra Square of Lancaster University, of which Anthony Greenwood was Pro-Chancellor from 1972 to 1978

After Prime Minister Wilson appointed him chairman of the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) in May 1970 , Greenwood decided not to run again in the general election on June 18, 1970 . Shortly thereafter, however, Wilson revoked the appointment, but proposed Greenwood as part of his resignation honors for a life peerage.

By a letters patent dated September 22, 1970, Greenwood was raised to the nobility due to the Life Peerages Act as a life peer with the title Baron Greenwood of Rossendale , of East Mersea in the County of Essex, and thus belonged to the House until his death of Lords as a member. In 1972 he became Pro Chancellor of Lancaster University and held this office until 1978.

During his tenure in the House of Lords, Baron Greenwood served as Chairman of the Special Committee for the European Communities between 1977 and 1979 and as Principal Deputy Chairman of Committees .

Furthermore, Greenwood was particularly involved in relations with Israel and in 1972 became chairman of the Anglo-Israeli Association. He was also a trustee of the Jerusalem Educational Trust and chairman of the Labor Friends of Israel.

Functions in the private sector and public organizations

In addition to his membership of the House of Lords, he took on numerous functions in business, including a board member of the Commonwealth Development Corporation between 1970 and 1978 and director of the financial services institute Britannia Building Society between 1972 and his death , of which he was executive chairman between 1974 and 1976.

He was also temporarily chairman and director of the oil exploration company Weeks Natural Resources (UK) Ltd. , Chairman of the Greenwood Development Holdings Ltd , Chairman of the Integrated Professional Development Service and director of Pochin Ltd .

He has also served in numerous organizations such as the Chairman of the Local Government Training Board and Staff Commission , President of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities, and President of the British Cremation Society ( Cremation Society of Great Britain ). As a board member of the Maplin and Central Lancashire Development Agencies , he has served on numerous construction companies.

In 1979 Lancaster University awarded him an honorary doctorate in law (Hon. LL.D.).

death

Lord Greenwood of Rossendale died in London on April 12, 1982. He was in the Golders Green Crematorium in London cremated , where his ashes is located.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NH Twitchell: The Politics of the Rope: The Campaign to Abolish Capital Punishment in Britain 1955-1969 , 2012, ISBN 1-906791-98-8 , p. 39.
  2. ^ The Town and Country Planning (Planning Inquiry Commissions) Regulations 1968
  3. ↑ Honorary Degrees (Homepage of Lancaster University)
personal data
SURNAME Greenwood, Anthony, Baron Greenwood of Rossendale
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Greenwood, Arthur William James, Baron Greenwood of Rossendale (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH September 14, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Leeds
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1982
Place of death London