Paul Channon, Baron Kelvedon

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Henry Paul Guinness Channon, Baron Kelvedon , PC (born October 9, 1935 in London - † January 27, 2007 in Kelvedon Hatch , Brentwood , Essex ) was a British politician and life peer . He was Member of the House of Commons from 1958 to 1997 , Secretary of Commerce and Industry from 1986 to 1987, and United Kingdom Secretary of Transport from 1987 to 1989.

Life

Channon came from the famous Guinness dynasty, which goes back to the Irish brewer Arthur Guinness . From an early age he had contact with the highest social circles in the UK. Edward VIII gave him a stuffed panda, Edward, 2. Duke of Kent was one of his childhood friends and the writer Terence Rattigan dedicated the play The Winslow Boy to him .

He spent the time of World War II in Hyde Park , New York with the Astor family , where Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of his neighbors. After Channon returned to England, he attended Lockers Park School in Hemel Hempstead and then Eton College . He then went to Cyprus , where he did his military service from 1955 to 1956 with the Royal Horse Guards . He reached the rank of 2nd Lieutenant . Back in London he maintained contact with the nieces Prince Philips and Princess Margaret . In 1956 he began studying at Christ Church College in Oxford . There he became President of the Conservatives College Group and in 1958 President of the Oxford Union .

family

Channon was the only son of MP Henry Channon and his wife Lady Honor Channon . His maternal grandparents were Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh and Gwendolen Guinness, Countess of Iveagh .

In 1963 he married Ingrid Olivia Georgia Guinness , who had previously been the wife of his cousin Jonathan Guinness and from this connection brought three children into the marriage. From Chan's marriage to Ingrid, three children were born:

  • Olivia Gwendolen Violet Channon (* 1964; † 1986),
  • Georgia Honor Margaretha Channon (* 1966),
  • Henry Channon (* 1970).

Channon's daughter Olivia studied like him at Christ Church, Oxford. She was found dead after a party in Gottfried von Bismarck's dormitory . She died of a heroin overdose after previously leaving a suicide note.

politics

Start time

Channon's grandfather Rupert Guinness moved into the British House of Commons for the Southend constituency in 1912 . Since then, this parliamentary seat has been taken by family members throughout. In 1927 Gwendolen Guinness followed into parliament and in 1935 Henry Channon , Paul Channon's father , could finally conquer the seat. In 1958 Henry Channon died and his seat in parliament had to be reassigned in a by-election . Paul Channon, who was then in his senior year at Oxford, decided to run for his father's successor. Although the obvious nepotism was denounced from various quarters (in particular Lord Beaverbrook opposed the nomination of Channons in his newspapers), he was nominated by the Conservative Party and subsequently also elected to parliament. He took his seat there for the first time on the day before his 24th birthday. When he entered Parliament, he was the youngest of all MPs, the so-called Baby of the House . He retained this unofficial title until Edward Taylor was elected in 1964.

Channon gave his inaugural address in the House of Commons on the situation in Cyprus. In his first year as an MP, he became the private parliamentary secretary of Energy Secretary Richard Wood . From 1961 to 1964 he then took this role under Rab Butler . In 1965 he was elected to the executive branch of the 1922 Group , the group of Conservatives who hold no official positions in government or in the opposition.

During his time as a MP, Channon did not hesitate to work with MPs from the Labor Party . He supported Sydney Silverman in his efforts to abolish the death penalty and opposed the acceptance of Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence by the white minority under Ian Smith .

In 1965 Edward Heath took over the leadership of the Conservative Party. Under him Channon was initially opposition spokesman for public buildings and works and two years later party spokesman for art affairs.

Further career

In 1970 the Conservatives took over the government under Heath and Channon held positions in various ministries successively. Initially he was Parlamentarsekretär the Housing Ministry ( Ministry for Housing and Local Government ), then from 1970 to 1972 Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the newly created Ministry of the Environment and then for six months Secretary of State ( Minister of State ) for Northern Ireland . Eventually he returned to the Housing Ministry, this time as Secretary of State. So he made his career slowly and steadily, without making too big leaps.

After the Conservatives lost their parliamentary majority in February 1974 , he was first spokesman for pricing policy under Heath and, after the elections in October 1974 were also lost, he became shadow minister for the environment.

When Margaret Thatcher took over the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1975, Channon's career took a turn as she had no posts for him. Referred to the lower ranks of parliament, he devoted himself to cultural and European politics. He also rejoined the board of directors of the Guinness brewery. In the 1979 European elections , he wanted to run for office, but missed the nomination by his party.

After Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979 , she wanted to appoint Channon to the House of Lords . But this contradicted and was instead sent to the Ministry of Public Service as Lord Soames' deputy . Since Soames in Africa was busy handing over the business of government to the newly emerging state of Zimbabwe , the ministry was de facto headed by Channon at this time. Channon cut a fine figure here, which earned him his appointment to the Privy Council in 1980 and the appointment of Minister of the Arts the following year .

In Thatcher's second term, from 1983, he moved to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, where he was Secretary of State under Cecil Parkinson . After Parkinson's resignation, he temporarily headed the ministry before Norman Tebbit took over the ministerial post . While Tebbit had to withdraw from active politics for a few months due to his injuries sustained in the bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton , Channon headed the Ministry for a second time on a temporary basis. After Tebbit rose to party chairman, however, it was not Channon who inherited the ministerial post , but Leon Brittan , and it was not until Brittan's resignation in 1986 that Channon finally became Minister of Trade and Industry.

In the cabinet

Although Channon headed the Ministry of Trade and Industry for only one year, from 1986 to 1987, he still managed to get involved in a sustainable way. He stopped the sales of British Leyland and Austin-Rover to General Motors and Ford , respectively , prevented the merger of Tate & Lyle with British Sugar and cut the funds of the nationalized shipping industry. Although his work was not universally approved, his ability to judge independently was generally recognized.

After the 1987 elections , Channon was recalled from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and instead appointed Minister of Transport. He made a contribution to the expansion of roads, bridges and the rail network and paved the way for the privatization of the railway.

During Channon's time as Minister of Transport, he had to deal with numerous traffic accidents:

His crisis management was heavily criticized; especially when he flew on vacation to the island of Mustique two days after the Lockerbie attack and entrusted his then Junior Minister Michael Portillo with the upcoming tasks. In the course of Thatcher's new government in 1989, Channon was no longer taken into account.

After the time in government

In 1992 Channon attempted to be elected Speaker of the House of Commons . He would have been the fourth member of his family to be assigned this task, but could not get his way. In 1995 he announced that he no longer wanted to run in the 1997 elections and consequently resigned from the House of Commons after 39 years.

After leaving the House of Commons in 1997, he was promoted to the status of a Life Peer . Since then he has officially held the title of Baron Kelvedon, of Ongar in the County of Essex .

Since he subsequently became seriously ill, initially with depression and later with Alzheimer's disease , he was no longer able to actively participate in the politics of the House of Lords .

Paul Channon died at the age of 71 in his hometown of Kelvedon Hatch in the Borough of Brentwood .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Obituary on independent.co.uk, accessed on February 15, 2015
  2. ↑ a b c Obituary for news.bbc.co.uk accessed on February 15, 2015
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Obituary on telegraph.co.uk (Engl.) Accessed on February 15, 2015
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Obituary on theguardian.com, accessed on February 15, 2015
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Henry Paul Guinness Channon, Baron Kelvedon on thepeerage.com , accessed September 17, 2016.
  6. ↑ Article on stern.de ( Memento of the original from February 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. about two deaths in Gottfried von Bismarck's house , accessed on February 15, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stern.de
  7. ↑ List of Youngest Members of Parliament on election.denom.co.uk, accessed February 15, 2015
  8. ↑ a b c d e f Obituary on margaretthatcher.org (English) accessed on February 15, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Channon, Paul, Baron Kelvedon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Channon, Henry Paul Guinness, Baron Kelvedon (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, Member of the House of Commons, Life Peer
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 2007
Place of death Kelvedon Hatch