Patrick Buchan-Hepburn, 1st Baron Hailes

Patrick Buchan-Hepburn, 1st Baron Hailes (painting by Glyn Warren Philpot , 1934)

Patrick George Thomas Buchan-Hepburn, 1st Baron Hailes , GBE , CH , PC (* 2. April 1901 ; † 5. November 1974 ) was a British politician of the Conservative Party , among others 1931-1957 Member of Parliament ( House of Commons ), Minister of Public Works from 1955 to 1957 and first and only Governor General of the short-lived West Indian Federation between 1957 and 1962 . On February 15, 1957 he was raised as Baron Hailes , of Prestonkirk in the County of East Lothian, to the hereditary nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and thus a member of the House of Lords .

Life

Family background, studies and member of the House of Commons

Buchan-Hepburn was the youngest of four children and the third son of Sir Archibald Buchan-Hepburn, 4th Baronet and his wife Edith Agnes Karslake . His eldest brother Thomas Edward Archibald Buchan-Hepburn († 1923) was a captain in the Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) . His second oldest brother, John Karslake Thomas Buchan-Hepburn († 1961) inherited his father's title, created in 1815, as 5th Baronet, of Smeaton Hepburn in the County of Haddington, when his father died on May 17, 1929. His older and only sister Loelia Helen Buchan-Hepburn († 1945) was married to Donald Somervell († 1960) from 1933 , who was Solicitor General for England and Wales between 1933 and 1936, and then Attorney General for England and Wales as well from 1936 to 1945 In 1945 he was Home Secretary and in 1954 was raised to the nobility for life as Baron Somervell of Harrow .

Patrick Buchan-Hepburn completed his schooling at the prestigious, founded in 1572 Harrow School and then studied at the Trinity College of the University of Cambridge . Between 1925 and 1937 he was an attaché at the legation in Constantinople . He began his political career in local politics and was from 1930 to 1931 member of the City Council of London (London City Council) , in which he gave the constituency North Kensington represented.

In the general election of October 27, 1931 , Buchan-Hepburn was elected as a candidate of the Conservative Party for the first time as a member of the House of Commons and represented the constituency of Liverpool East Toxteth until it was dissolved on February 23, 1950 . In the following period he acted between 1931 and 1939 as Parliamentary Private Secretary (Parliamentary Private Secretary) to Oliver Stanley , who held numerous ministerial offices during this time.

Junior Minister and Minister

On November 13, 1939, Buchan-Hepburn finally took over his first government office, namely as Lord in the Treasury (Junior Lord of the Treasury ) in the War Government formed by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain between September 3, 1939 and May 10, 1940 . He then held this position from May 12, 1940 to June 26, 1940 and between December 6, 1944 and May 23, 1945 in the war government formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill . He served in the military during World War II . In 1945 he was first deputy chief executive of the parliamentary group of the Conservative Party in the lower house (Deputy Chief Conservative Whip ) , before he was between 1948 and 1955 Parliamentary chief executive (Chief Conservative Whip) .

In the general election on February 23, 1950 , Buchan-Hepburn was re-elected to the lower house for the conservative Tories and represented the newly created constituency of Beckenham until he resigned on February 15, 1957 . After the election victory of the Conservative Party in the general election on October 25, 1951 , he was also Parliamentary Secretary of the Treasury on October 31, 1951 in Churchill's third cabinet . He also became in 1951 a member of the Secret Privy Council ( Privy Council ) .

In the government formed by Prime Minister Anthony Eden on April 6, 1955 , Buchan-Hepburn succeeded Nigel Birch as Minister of Works on December 20, 1955 and held this post until the end of Eden's tenure on January 9 1957. During this time he was again Deputy Chief Whip of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons.

Member of the House of Lords and Governor General of the West Indian Federation

With his departure from the House of Commons, Buchan-Hepburn was raised to hereditary nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom by a letters patent dated February 15, 1957 as Baron Hailes , of Prestonkirk in the County of East Lothian . This made him a member of the House of Lords , to which he belonged until his death on November 5, 1974. In 1957 he was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE).

As part of the establishment of the West Indian Federation, Baron Hailes was appointed Governor General of the country on January 3, 1958. His official seat was in Port of Spain on the island of Trinidad . When the state was dissolved four years later, on May 31, 1962, he returned to England, where he served as chairman of the Historic Buildings Council . In 1962 he was also awarded the Order of the Companions of Honor (CH).

Buchan-Hepburn married Diana Mary Lambton, daughter of Brigadier General Charles Lambton , on June 7, 1945 . He died on November 5, 1974 without male descendants, so that the granted title of nobility therefore expired with his death.

Web links

• Patrick Buchan-Hepburn, 1st Baron Hailes at Hansard (English)
• Entry in Cracroft's Peerage
• Entry in Leigh Rayment Peerage
• Patrick George Thomas Buchan-Hepburn, 1st and last Baron Hailes on thepeerage.com , accessed October 20, 2016.

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Baron Hailes 1957-1974	Title expired