Gordon Campbell, Baron Campbell of Croy

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Gordon Thomas Calthrop Campbell, Baron Campbell of Croy PC MC DL (born June 8, 1921 in Quetta , British India , † April 26, 2005 in London ) was a British Conservative Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons for fifteen years was during the government of Prime Minister Edward Heath 1970 to 1,974 the post of Scotland minister ( Secretary of State for Scotland held) and in 1975 as a Life peer member of the House of Lords was.

Life

Officer in World War II and diplomat

Campbell was the son of Maj. Gen. James Alexander Campbell, who received the first of two Distinguished Service Orders (DSO) in France in 1916 and commanded a brigade of the 15th Scottish Infantry Division between December 1939 and May 1941 . His mother was the artist and writer Violet Calthrop Campbell, a relative of the engineer and industrial revolution pioneer Isambard Kingdom Brunel . After attending Wellington College in Berkshire , he began studying at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge , which he broke off shortly afterwards to complete training at the Royal Military Academy Woolwich . At the beginning of the Second World War he entered the Royal Artillery at the age of eighteen in 1939 after attending the Larkhill Artillery School and was promoted to major in 1941 at the age of twenty . As commander of a field battery ( 320th Field Battery ), he took part in various skirmishes in Falaise in Normandy .

In the last days of the war, on May 5, 1945, three days before the surrender of the German Reich , he took part in a combat operation on the Elbe , in which a German bullet tore his sciatic nerve and subsequently caused further medical problems. For his services there he was awarded a silver clasp for the Military Cross , with which he was awarded in 1944 after Operation Overlord .

After the Second World War he was his military career because of serious injury can not continue, but failed due to the injury suffered during the war physical damage despite his unfinished studies in the Foreign Service of the Foreign Office to enter and found after completion of training in 1949 shortly before the Korean War use at the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York City .

In 1952, Campbell became the private secretary of Norman Brook , who was Cabinet Secretary between 1947 and 1962 . This gave him a broad insight into the work of the British government. After three years in the Cabinet Office , he first returned to the Foreign Ministry in 1955, before moving to the Embassy in Austria as First Secretary in 1956 . During this time, the Hungarian popular uprising and the establishment of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) took place. The time there also shaped his later positive attitude towards civilian nuclear energy in Great Britain , which was expressed in particular through the support of the Hunterston nuclear power plant and the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) in the Torness nuclear power plant .

In 1957 Campbell left the field service and took a position as a manager in the family business Holme Rose Farms & Estate in Cawdor .

Member of the House of Commons and Junior Minister

In the general election of October 8, 1959 Campbell was elected as a candidate of the Conservative Tories for the first time as a member of the House of Commons and represented in this until his electoral defeat in the general election on February 28, 1974, the constituency of Moray and Nairnshire . In this constituency, which he clearly won with 13,742 votes (52.63 percent) in his first election on October 8th, he succeeded James Stuart , who was Scotland Minister in the governments of Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Anthony between 1951 and 1957 Eden was.

Having 1961-1962 of assistive Parliamentary Secretary ( Assistant Government Whip of the ruling Tory) fraction was in the House acted Campbell from 1962 to 1963 as a member of the Treasury ( Lord Commissioner of the Treasury ), and at the same time as Whip for the Scottish deputy of the Conservative Party before he October 1963 to October 1964 in the government of Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home Parliamentary Under Secretary of Scotland ministry ( Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland was). In this role he was one of the closest advisers to the then Scotland Minister Michael Noble .

For some time he was a member of the so-called Scottish Grand Committee , a body of the House of Commons to which all MPs from Scotland belong across parties. In this body he also earned respect and recognition from Labor Party MPs such as Willie Ross , who was Scotland Minister in the government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson between October 1964 and June 1970 , and Margaret Herbison , who served from October 1964 to July 1967 served in the Wilson administration as Minister for Pensions and National Insurance and most recently as Minister for Social Security.

Scotland ministers and defeat in February 1974

As Scotland minister, Campbell sat for financial support for the resulting 1,976 to 1,982 Kessock Bridge at Beauly Firth , a

After the Conservative Party won the general election on June 18, 1970 , Campbell, who also became Privy Councilor in 1970 , was finally appointed Secretary of State for Scotland by Prime Minister Edward Heath himself and held this position until the end of Heath's tenure following the Tories' defeat in the general election on February 28, 1974.

His ministerial time was marked by the problems of the exploitation of North Sea oil and the associated development in the fishing areas of the Moray Firth and the west coast of Scotland. At times he came under criticism for allegedly overly precise consideration of concerns of environmental protection , which was based in particular on his preference for ornithology . On the other hand, politicians like longtime Labor MP Tam Dalyell emphasized that Campbell was one of the first ministers to address environmental and landscape issues on the British coast. On the other hand, he called for the construction of new highways and bridges, whereby he succeeded in particular in obtaining the A9 road through the Highlands , which was unpopular with the HM Treasury , in particular for the Cromarty Bridge at Cromarty Firth and the Kessock Bridge at Beauly Firth .

He also suffered a personal loss in the general election of February 28, 1974, unexpectedly losing the constituency of Moray and Nairn to his challenger Winnie Ewing of the Scottish National Party (SNP), who received 16,046 votes (49.26 percent) while himself only 14,229 votes (43.68 percent) came.

House of Lords

After leaving the House of Commons, Campbell was raised to the nobility by a letters patent dated January 9, 1975 as a Life Peer with the title Baron Campbell of Croy , of Croy in the County of Nairne, and thus belonged to the Life Peerages Act member of the House of Lords until his death. During his tenure as a member of the House of Lords, he was temporarily a member of various committees and spokesman for the opposition on industry, energy and European Union affairs .

Campbell, who served temporarily as a deputy lieutenant, also worked in the private sector after leaving the government and the House of Commons and was a consultant for the petroleum company Chevron Corporation from 1975 to 1994 and chairman of the board of Stoic Insurance Services from 1979 to 1993 .

Influenced by his own physical handicap caused by the war injuries , he was particularly committed to the concerns of disabled people and aroused public attention and recognition from politicians such as Jack Ashley and Lewis Carter with his book Disablement: problems and prospects in the United Kingdom (1981) -Jones and Alf Morris , who are also committed to the rights of disabled people.

Also known as Upper House Member Baron Campbell put forth and for environmental protection and was 1980 to 1982, first appointed acting Chairman and 1987-1989 Chair of the Advisory Committee on water pollution ( Advisory Committee on Pollution of the Sea ). In addition, as President of the Anglo-Austrian Society between 1991 and 2003, he was instrumental in promoting relations between Austria and Great Britain. He also held the post of Vice- Lord Lieutenant of Nairn between 1988 and 1999 .

Publications

  • Disablement: problems and prospects in the United Kingdom , 1981

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heath sparked Scots oil debate . In: BBC News, January 1, 2003
personal data
SURNAME Campbell, Gordon, Baron Campbell of Croy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Campbell, Gordon Thomas Calthrop, Baron Campbell of Croy (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Quetta , British India
DATE OF DEATH April 26, 2005
Place of death London