Nigel Birch, Baron Rhyl

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Evelyn Nigel Chetwode Birch, Baron Rhyl OBE (born November 18, 1906 - † March 8, 1981 ) was a British Conservative Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons for 25 years and was temporarily a minister and in 1970 based on the Life Peerages Act 1958 when Life Peer became a member of the House of Lords .

Life

Family, World War II, and MP

Birch was the son of General Sir Noel Birch , who was among other things Master-General of the Ordnance between 1923 and 1927 . After attending Eton College , he worked as a partner in the law firm Cohen Laming Hoare before he began studying political science in May 1939 . In the meantime, he also completed an officer training in the 16th London Regiment and was promoted to sub-lieutenant on May 16, 1938 . However, he interrupted his studies when Great Britain entered the Second World War to do his military service in the King's Royal Rifle Corps . After serving as an officer in this unit, he was last active in the general staff and was finally promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1944 and was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on December 13, 1945 .

After the war, Birch was elected as a candidate for the Conservative Party in the general election on July 5, 1945 in the Flintshire constituency for the first time as a member of the House of Commons. In this constituency he succeeded his party friend Gwilym Rowlands , who had won the constituency for the conservative Tories since 1935. In the election, however, Birch was only just able to prevail with a majority of 1039 votes against the Labor Party candidate , Eirene Lloyd Jones, who received 26,761 votes and 37.4 percent, while Birch received 27,800 votes and 38.8 percent .

After the dissolution of the constituency of Flintshire Birch was elected again in the general election on February 23, 1950 in the newly created constituency of Flintshire West , this time with 48.3 percent and 19,088 votes, a clear lead over the candidates of the other parties. He represented the interests of the constituency until the elections on June 18, 1970 in the House of Commons.

On August 1, 1950, he married Esmé Consuelo Glyn, the youngest daughter of Frederick Glyn, 4th Baron Wolverton , who was among other things Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household between 1902 and 1905.

Junior minister

After the Conservative Party's victory in the general election on October 25, 1951 , Prime Minister Winston Churchill entrusted Nigel Birch with a junior ministerial post for the first time, as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Air, the closest Assistant to Secretary of the Aviation William Sidney, Baron De L'Isle and Dudley .

On February 28, 1952, he took over first the office of Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Defense ( Parliamentary Secretaries to the Ministry of Defense ) and has held this function as a representative of Defense ( Minister of Defense ) Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis until his Replaced by Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington until October 18, 1954. As Parliamentary Secretary in the Department of Defense, he rejected the further development of the hydrogen bomb , as in his view it would encourage nuclear proliferation and endanger disarmament efforts.

Minister and withdrawal from the Macmillan government

As part of a cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Churchill then appointed him on October 18, 1954 as the successor to David Eccles Minister of Works ( Minister of Works ). He held this ministerial office until his replacement by Patrick Buchan-Hepburn on December 20, 1955 and took over instead from William Sidney, Baron De L'Isle and Dudley, the office of Secretary of State for Air . Birch, who also became Privy Councilor (PC) in 1955, remained in this position until the end of Prime Minister Anthony Eden's term on January 9, 1957.

Eden's successor as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan then appointed Birch Economic Secretary of the Treasury ( HM Treasury ), the fifth highest function within the Treasury. George Ward became the new Minister of Aviation on January 16, 1957 .

Birch joined the Office of the Secretary of Commerce on January 6, 1958, together with Chancellor of the Exchequer ( Chancellor of the Exchequer ) Peter Thorneycroft and the Parliamentary Finance Secretary of the Treasury Enoch Powell in protest against the government's plans on increasing spending back.

In a speech to the House of Commons on June 17, 1963, Birch attacked Prime Minister Macmillan for dealing with the Profumo affair . The speech weakened the prime minister within the conservative Tories.

Private sector, honors and member of the House of Lords

Birch was later in the private sector operates, such as director of the London and Manchester Assurance Co . He also became President of the Johnson Society in 1966.

Birch was honored as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1945 for his services .

After leaving the House of Commons, Birch became a member of the House of Lords and was a member of the House of Lords through a letters patent dated July 7, 1970 as a life peer entitled Baron Rhyl , of Holywell in the Parish of Swanmore in the County of Southampton to his death.

Publications

  • About the future of Germany: Facts and ideas , Conservative Political Center, 1947
  • The Conservative Party , Collins, 1949

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ London Gazette . No. 34511, HMSO, London, May 16, 1938, p. 3199 ( PDF , accessed October 16, 2013, English).
  2. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 37386, HMSO, London, December 13, 1945, p. 6056 ( PDF , accessed October 16, 2013, English).
  3. ↑ Klaus A. Maier, Norbert Theodor Wiggershaus, Günther Hebert (editor): The North Atlantic Alliance 1949-1956 , 1993, p. 253, ISBN 3-48655-9-672
  4. ↑ Biography - Enoch Powell ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.enochpowell.info
  5. ^ Geoffrey Wheatcroft: The Strange Death of Tory England , 2005, ISBN 0-14190-6-308
  6. ^ David Parker: The Official History of Privatization Vol. I: The formative years 1970-1987 , 2009, p. 27, ISBN 0-20388-1-524
  7. ^ Brian MacArthur: The Penguin Book of Modern Speeches , 2012, ISBN 0-14190-9-161
  8. ↑ London Gazette . No. 45145, HMSO, London, July 9, 1970, p. 7581 ( PDF , accessed October 16, 2013, English).
personal data
SURNAME Birch, Nigel, Baron Rhyl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Birch, Evelyn Nigel Chetwode, Baron Rhyl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1906
DATE OF DEATH March 8, 1981