George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe

George Jellicoe

George Patrick John Rushworth Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe , KBE , DSO , MC , PC , FRS (born April 4, 1918 in Hatfield , † February 22, 2007 in Tidcombe , Wiltshire ) was a British politician, diplomat and businessman.

Training and military service

George Jellicoe was born in 1918, the youngest of six children of Admiral John Jellicoe and his wife Gwendoline, a daughter of Sir Charles Cayzer . At the coronation of King George VI. in 1937 he served as the Page of Honor . After graduating from Winchester College and attending Trinity College in Cambridge , he joined the British Army. Unlike his father, who inherited his title at the age of 17 after his death in 1935, Jellicoe did not serve in the Royal Navy.

During the Second World War he fought in North Africa and later in the Special Air Service . In 1943, Jellicoe was promoted to major and commanded the Special Boat Squadron . After attacks on various Greek islands, he was among the first Allied soldiers to invade Athens . For his achievements during the war, Jellicoe was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross , he was awarded the French Légion d'honneur and Croix de guerre as well as the Greek War Cross. He was mentioned three times in Despatches .

post war period

After the war ended, Jellicoe worked for the Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (Unrra), a United Nations refugee commission in Vienna, and joined the Foreign Office in 1947 . He was first employed in the German department in the ministry, later in the embassies in Washington , Brussels and Baghdad . In the meantime he headed the Soviet Affairs Department in London. In 1957, through his cousin Sir Nicholas Cayzer, he prepared a move to the maternal family's shipping company and left the Foreign Office in 1958.

Among other things, he led the Clan Line and the Union-Castle Line . When these were merged into the British & Commonwealth Shipping Company in 1956 and Jellicoe was not entrusted with the management, he left the company management.

Political career

Jelicoe switched to politics that same year, where he gave his first speech in the House of Lords . In 1963/64 he was the last First Lord of the Admiralty under Harold Macmillan .

After the Conservative Party had lost the parliamentary elections to the Labor Party on October 16, 1964 , Jellicoe went back into business, where he was chairman of the British Reserve Insurance and director of Warburg and a carpet manufacturer from 1966 . When the Conservatives re-established government under Edward Heath in 1970 , Jellicoe became Lord Keeper of the Seal . In 1973, after a well-known affair with a call girl, he resigned and returned to private business activities, including chairing Tate & Lyle , the Davy Corporation and the British Overseas Trade Board . Jellicoe also sat on the Council of King's College London and the Medical Research Council , was Chancellor of Southampton University , President of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Royal Society . After the composition of the House of Lords was re-regulated during the reign of Tony Blair with the House of Lords Act 1999 , Jellicoe was appointed a life peer as Baron Jellicoe of Southampton , of Southampton in the County of Hampshire , so he retained his seat . At his death on February 22, 2007, Jellicoe was the longest-serving member of the House of Lords.

Web links

• Obituary by William Waldegrave for the Royal Society (English; PDF; 937 kB)
• Obituary of Andrew Roth in The Guardian of 26 February 2007 (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
John Jellicoe	Earl Jellicoe 1935-2007	Patrick Jellicoe
Peter Carington	First Lord of the Admiralty 1963–1964	Office abolished
Edward Shackleton	Lord Seal Keeper 1970–1973	David Hennessy