John Davies (politician)
John Emerson Harding Davies (born January 8, 1916 in London , † July 4, 1979 ) was a British business manager , entrepreneur and politician who became the first director of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in 1965 and was a member of the House of Representatives for eight years Commons was. In 1970 he was following the merger of the Technology Ministry (Ministry of Technology) and the Ministry of Commerce ( Board of Trade ) First Minister of Trade and Industry ( Secretary of State for Trade and Industry ) and was then from 1972 to 1974 still Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster .
Life
Degree, business manager and association official
Davies, whose ancestors came from Wales , trained as an auditor in his father's office after completing his schooling at Windlesham House School and St Edward's School in Oxford, and was admitted as the youngest Chartered Accountant in 1939 . Shortly afterwards, with the outbreak of World War II, he joined the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) and was finally promoted to sub- lieutenant.
After the end of the war, Davies became an employee of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) in 1946, which was renamed British Petroleum BP in 1954 . After his qualification as a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in London, Stockholm and since 1953 as Director of the BP Group France in Paris and in 1956 he took on the role of General Manager for Markets at the company headquarters, before becoming Director of the group subsidiary BP Trading in 1960 has been.
In 1961, Davies took on the role of Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Shell-Mex and BP , a 1932 joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell and BP. He was also a director of Hill Samuel , a merchant banking company belonging to the Lloyds Banking Group .
He then became the first director of the newly formed CBI (Confederation of British Industry) on July 30, 1965 and held this position for more than four years until October 15, 1969. Campbell Adamson was then successor .
Member of the House of Commons and Minister
After completing his work at the CBI, Davies switched to politics and was elected as a candidate for the Conservative Party in the general election of June 18, 1970 to the House of Commons, where he represented the constituency of Knutsford until his resignation on November 6, 1978 .
After the conservative Tories had won these elections and were able to put Edward Heath back to prime minister , Davies first became technology minister on July 28, 1970, succeeding Geoffrey Rippon , who took over the office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on July 20, 1970 would have. The reason for the government reshuffle just a month after Heath took office was the death of Chancellor of the Exchequer Iain Macleod .
On October 15, 1970, after the merger of the Ministry of Technology and the Board of Trade, he became the first Secretary of State for Trade and Industry , while the previous Minister of Trade (President of the Board of Trade) , Michael Noble , was only Minister for Trade in this new ministry. After Rolls-Royce Motor Cars went bankrupt on February 4, 1971 , the government changed its previous economic policy and decided to help the company financially. On August 5, 1971, the Conservative government followed up on the failed 1969 initiatives by Prime Minister Harold Wilson's Labor Party government with the passage of the Industrial Relations Act ; However, the project failed because of resistance from the trade unions . The law led to the establishment of an Industrial Relations Court . This could demand strike votes, compensate workers who were wrongly dismissed, and force employers to allow trade union organizations, which led to the end of the so-called closed shops , which did not allow union work in their companies.
At the beginning of 1972 the number of unemployed exceeded one million. The economic troubles continued when a nationwide strike by miners began on January 5, 1972. This lasted for six weeks before the miners' union NUM ( National Union of Mineworkers ) under Joe Gormley , Mick McGahey and Lawrence Daly accepted a government wage offer. However, the strike led to noticeable energy-saving measures for the population. In April 1972, strikes at British Rail also paralyzed the economy further, ending with a 14-day cooling off period, but which were repeatedly followed by short, unannounced strikes.
When Heath reshaped his government on November 5, 1972, Davies became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and thus succeeded Geoffrey Rippon, who had now become Secretary of State for the Environment , while the previous Environment Minister Peter Walker succeeded Davies became Minister of Commerce and Industry. He held the office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster until the defeat of the Conservative Party in the general election on February 28, 1974 and the associated end of Prime Minister Heath's term on March 4, 1974.
Opposition years and death
After the election defeat, he remained a member of the House of Commons, but initially did not get a seat in the shadow cabinet of Health. This changed, however, after Margaret Thatcher became chairman (leader) of the Conservative Party on February 11, 1975 and the Conservative Party decided to depose the previous shadow foreign minister, Reginald Maudling . Davies then succeeded him as Shadow Foreign Secretary on April 11, 1976 .
However, on November 6, 1978, he decided to withdraw from politics after having been diagnosed with a brain tumor a few weeks earlier . His successor as shadow foreign minister was then Francis Pym , while Jock Bruce-Gardyne was elected in a by -election on March 1, 1979 to his successor in the constituency of Knutsford .
A few months later, Davies died of complications from the brain tumor. His marriage to Vera Georgina Bates on January 8, 1943 resulted in two children, including the music producer Frank Davies.
Web links
- John Davies at Hansard (English)
- Entry in the Munzinger archive (top of the online version)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hywell Williams (Editor): Cassell's Chronology of World History. Dates, Events and Ideas that made History , Verlag Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005, p. 582, ISBN 0-304-35730-8
- ↑ The Great Ploetz. The encyclopedia of world history , Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 35th edition, 2008, p. 1512, ISBN 978-3-525-32008-2
- ^ Cassell's Chronology of World History , p. o., p. 584
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Davies, John |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Davies, John Emerson Harding (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British politician, Member of the House of Commons and economic manager |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 8, 1916 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th July 1979 |
| Place of death | London |