Frank Beswick, Baron Beswick

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Frank Beswick, Baron Beswick PC (born August 21, 1911 in Nottingham , Nottinghamshire , † August 17, 1987 ) was a British journalist , economic manager and politician of the Labor Party - Co-operative Party , who was a member of the House of Commons for fourteen years and in 1964 when Life Peer became a member of the House of Lords under the Life Peerages Act 1958 . Beswick, who was first chairman of the board of directors of the aviation and defense company British Aerospace between 1977 and 1980 , was the opening speaker in the first televised debate of the House of Lords in 1985.

Life

World War II and Member of the House of Commons

Beswick, son of a miner , completed his schooling in Nottingham and at Working Men's College , an adult education facility in London . He then worked as a journalist and began his political career in local politics when he was elected member of the London County Council as a representative of the Labor Party . He took in 1936 on the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side and it joined as a trained pilot during the Second World War in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve a (RAFVR), the voluntary reserve of the RAF . There he was employed as a sergeant in the transport command and was subsequently promoted to lieutenant ( pilot officer ) in April 1942 and then to first lieutenant ( flying officer ) in October 1942 , before he was promoted to captain ( flight lieutenant ) in March 1944. received. Even after the end of the war he remained a member of the RAFVR and resigned from the reserve service in 1952.

In the general election of July 5, 1945 Beswick was elected for the first time as a member of the House of Commons for the Labor Party-Co-operative Party and represented the constituency of Uxbridge for fourteen years until he was defeated in the general election on October 8, 1959 . During this time he was one of the British observers in June and July 1946 during Operation Crossroads , the first nuclear weapons tests carried out by the US forces in Bikini Atoll .

After the Labor Party's defeat in the general elections on October 25, 1951 , Beswick, who had previously been Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Civil Aviation and most recently between 1950 and 1951 as Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation ( Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation ) during the government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee correspondent acted, civil aviation in the Sunday paper Reynold's News and Sunday Citizen and chairman of the subcommittee of the Labor Party of civil Aviation. After his own election defeat and the associated departure from the House of Commons in October 1959, he was Political Secretary of the London Konsumgenossenschaft ( London Co-operative Society ).

House of Lords, Junior Minister and Chairman of the Board of British Aerospace

After the Labor Party won the general election on October 15, 1964 , Beswick was named Baron Beswick , of Hucknall in a letters patent dated December 18, 1964 under the Life Peerages Act 1958 on the proposal of the new Prime Minister Harold Wilson the County of Nottinghamshire, raised to the nobility and belonged to the House of Lords as a member until his death.

Subsequently, Baron Beswick was during the first Wilson administration from October 11, 1965 to April 11, 1966, initially together with Stephen Taylor, Baron Taylor and then until August 1, 1966 Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for the Colonies and Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Relations with the Commonwealth of Nations , before he subsequently became Undersecretary of State for Commonwealth of Nations Affairs from August 1966 until his replacement by William Whitlock in July 1967 after these two tasks were merged.

On July 29, 1967, he succeeded Malcolm Shepherd, 2nd Baron Shepherd as Chief Executive of the ruling Labor Group in the House of Lords ( Government Chief Whip ) and held this position until his party's defeat in the general election on June 18, 1970 and the associated replacement by Michael Hicks Beach, 2nd Earl St. Aldwyn the title of Captain of the Honorable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms . During this time he also became Privy Councilor in 1968 .

He then remained Chief Whip of the opposition in the House of Lords before he was appointed Minister of State for Industry and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords by Prime Minister Harold Wilson after winning the general election on February 28, 1974 and held these functions until 1975. As Minister of State for Industry on May 30, 1975, he was one of the signatories of the agreement establishing the European Space Agency , based in Paris .

On March 22, 1977, Baron Beswick became the first chairman of the board of directors of British Aerospace, which was created as a result of the Aircraft and Shipbuildings Industries Act 1977 through the merger of British Aircraft Corporation , Hawker Siddeley Aviation , Hawker Siddeley Dynamics and Scottish Aviation , and held this position until his replacement by Austin Pearce on March 22, 1980. Pearce was preferred to George Rowland Jefferson , who later became the first chairman of the board of British Telecommunications .

Baron Beswick opened the House of Lords' first debate as a speaker in 1985, which was televised. After his death he was buried in Putney Vale Cemetery in the London Borough of Wandsworth .

Publications

  • Heads Together: A Discussion of the Worker's Place in Industry , 1949
  • German Re-armament: for and Against , co-author Kenneth Gilmour Younger, 1954
  • Steel closure review , 1975
  • The Role of British Aerospace in the British Economy , Queen's University Belfast , 1979, ISBN 9780853891734

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ What Course for the Industry? . In: Flight from January 1, 1960
  2. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 43506, HMSO, London, December 4, 1964, p. 10317 ( PDF , accessed October 10, 2013, English).
  3. ↑ Westminster Scene: An MP's Story . In: New Scientist, May 2, 1974, p. 247
  4. ↑ Aircraft Industry : Late love for Airbus. The flirtation of the French with the Americans drives the British back to Europe . In: Die Zeit of May 28, 1976
  5. ↑ Nationalization: "Theft is legalized". The owners of the British shipyards criticize London's compensation practices . In: The time of March 25, 1977
  6. ^ Glen Segell: The Defense Industrial Base and Foreign Policy , 1998, p. 138, ISBN 1901414124
  7. ^ Sir George Jefferson, who has died aged 91, was the first chairman and chief executive of British Telecom . In: The Daily Telegraph, September 3, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Beswick, Frank, Baron Beswick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beswick, Frank, Baron Beswick (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Nottingham , Nottinghamshire
DATE OF DEATH 17th August 1987