Desmond Plummer

Arthur Desmond Herne Plummer, Plummer Baron of St Marylebone (* 25. May 1914 , † 2. October 2009 ) was a British politician of the Conservative Party .

life and career

Plummer was the son of a state-certified building surveyor from Bexhill-on-Sea . He attended Hurstpierpoint College and the College of Estate Management . He completed his training as a lawyer, but followed his father's profession as a public auctioneer and real estate agent. He later became a director of various insurance companies and building societies.

During the Second World War Plummer served with the Royal Engineers and in the context of the demobilization, which was assigned to the home troops. In 1950 he was awarded the Territorial Decoration Medal for his long service and was a member of the Sports Committee of the Territorial Army from 1953 to 1979.

Plummer was elected to the Marylebone District Council in May 1952 and was the district mayor in 1958. He was put up as a Conservative candidate for a by-election to London County Council in St. Marylebone in 1960 and was re-elected unopposed. In 1964 he moved to the Greater London Council for the City of Westminster .

In 1966, Plummer was elected opposition leader to succeed Sir Percy Rugg , just a year before the GLC elections. While Harold Wilson's Labor government became increasingly unpopular, he achieved a landslide victory in 1967. The GLC, led by Plummer, promoted the sale of public housing under Horace Cutler and in 1969 obtained government authority to operate London Underground and the rest of London's public transport services.

In 1970, Plummer's Conservatives were re-elected, a few weeks before the general election, although Labor retained control of the Inner London Schools Board . Plummer was the only head of the GLC to get a second term. He was beaten to a Knight Bachelor in 1971 .

In the second term of office, the GLC embarked on a controversial course with regard to local transport. Plummer believed that London's streets, built before the invention of the automobile, were unsuitable for the ever increasing volume of traffic.

He therefore suggested building an urban highway. The GLC would buy houses after legal expropriation. Although previous governments built shorter highways, this was the first comprehensive policy in this direction. The first stretch to be built was the Westway from Paddington to Hammersmith , which resulted in the destruction of thousands of houses and the construction of a large overpass. Residents of areas where the new highways had been announced declared their clear contradiction. The Labor opposition then undertook to shelve the project planning. This, along with the troubles of Edward Heath's Conservative government , resulted in Plummer and the Conservatives being voted out of office.

Plummer held a number of important offices within the Conservative Party. In 1964 he was already chairman of his party association. From 1967 to 1976 he was in the leadership of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, the association of constituency organizations.

In 1974 he became chairman of the Horserace Betting Levy Board, the state association for the control of horse betting. In England, the Horse Race Betting Levy Board ensures that the bookmakers divert a share of the racing sport according to their turnover. That same year, Plummer resigned from chairing the Tories' group at the GLC. He was succeeded by Horace Cutler. Plummer resigned from the GLC in 1976.

He took an active retirement by continuing his business career, becoming a member of Lloyd's of London and chairman of several building societies. He was President of the Political Committee of the Carlton Club from 1979 to 1984. On May 29, 1981, he was raised to life peer as Baron Plummer of St. Marylebone , of the City of Westminster .

Web links

• Lord Plummer of St Marylebone's obituary in the Telegraph, October 5, 2009
• Entry on Leigh Rayment
• Arthur Plummer at Hansard (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The London Gazette : No. 48629, p. 7567 , June 3, 1981.