Reg Prentice

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Reginald "Reg" Ernest Prentice, Baron Prentice , PC , Kt (born July 16, 1923 in Croydon , Surrey , † January 18, 2001 in Middenhall, Wiltshire ) was a British politician of the Labor Party and, since 1977, the Conservative Party , who by 1957-1987 deputy of the lower house ( House of Commons ) and several times minister was. On January 30, 1992, he was raised to the nobility of the Peerage of the United Kingdom as a Life Peer with the title Baron Prentice , of Daventry in the County of Northamptonshire, under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and was thereby a member of the until his death upper house ( house of Lords ) to.

Life

World War II, union official and member of the House of Commons

Reginald "Reg" Ernest Prentice, son of Ernest George Prentice and his wife Elizabeth Prentice, did military service in the Royal Artillery from 1942 to 1946 after attending the Whitgift School in South Croydon, founded in 1596, during the Second World War and was made a lieutenant in 1943 (Second Lieutenant) promoted. After the end of the war he completed his studies at the London School of Economics (LSE), which he finished with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.). In 1950 he began his professional career as an employee of the transport workers union TGWU (Transport and General Workers Union) , for which he worked until 1957.

After the death of Percy Daines on March 3, 1957 Prentice for that was the Labor Party in the necessary by -election (by-election) in the constituency East Ham North on May 3, 1957 for the first time deputies of the lower house ( House of Commons ) selected, where with 12,546 votes (56.26 percent) he was able to prevail clearly against his opponent from the Conservative Party , John Henry Samuel Bangay, who received 6,567 votes (29.45 percent). He was re-elected with a clear absolute majority in the subsequent general election and represented the constituency of East Ham North until its dissolution on February 28, 1974. In 1961 he was also England (Justice of the Peace) for Croydon .

Ministerial posts in the Wilson and Callaghan cabinets

After the Labor Party's victory in the general election on October 15, 1964 , Reg Prentice was appointed and held by Prime Minister Harold Wilson on October 20, 1964 as Minister of State for Education and Science in its first cabinet this office until the cabinet reshuffle on April 6, 1966, whereupon Goronwy Roberts succeeded him. He himself was in the course of this government reshuffle on April 6, 1966 as the successor to Charles Pannell Minister of Public Buildings and Works and held this office until his replacement by Bob Mellish on August 29, 1967. As such, he was on 6 April 1966, member of the Secret Privy Council ( Privy Council ) . He then succeeded Arthur Bottomley as Minister of Overseas Development (Minister of Overseas Development) on August 29, 1967 , although this ministerial office was not formally part of the actual cabinet. He held this position until his replacement by Judith Hart in the course of a further restructuring of the first Wilson cabinet on October 6, 1969. Most recently, he was Minister of State for Technology on October 6, 1969 , but held this post for only four days until October 10, 1969.

Prentice, who was also Alderman ( Alderman ) of the Greater London Council (GLC) between 1970 and 1971 , was re-elected as a member of the House of Commons in the February 28, 1974 election for the Labor Party, this time in the newly created constituency of Newham North East competed. With 24,200 votes (54.4 percent), he was again able to clearly prevail against his opponent from the Conservative Party TJ Stroud (10,869 votes, 24.4 percent) and the other opponents, including the actress Vanessa Redgrave , who stood for the Trotskyist Workers Revolutionary Party won 760 votes (1.7 percent).

After winning the general election on February 28, 1974, Reg Prentice was appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science, second cabinet of Prime Minister Wilson. In the course of a government reshuffle, he took over from Judith Hart again on June 10, 1975 as Minister for Overseas Development, while Frederick Mulley was his successor as Minister for Education and Science. He held the office of Minister for Overseas Development from April 8, 1976 in the subsequent government of Prime Minister James Callaghan until December 21, 1976 and was then replaced by Frank Judd .

Moved to the Conservative Party, Thatcher's cabinet and member of the House of Lords

In 1975 Prentice was not set up by the Labor Federation of his constituency Newham North East for the next general election, but Ron Leighton . After his motion to the National Executive Committee ( NEC ) to reverse this decision was rejected at the Labor Party Conference from September 27 to October 1, 1976 in Blackpool , he resigned after a series of internal party conflicts left the Labor Party and finally moved in 1977 as a member of the lower house to the Conservative Party , which led to a crisis in the current Callaghan government and in the Labor Party.

For the Conservative Party Reg Prentice applied successfully in the election on May 3, 1979 in the constituency of Daventry for re-election to the House of Commons, where he succeeded Arthur Jones . In this election he was able to prevail with 41,422 votes (56.61 percent) clearly against the Labor candidate JL Rawlings, who received 10,939 votes (27.25 percent). After the conservative Tories had won the general election of May 3, 1979, he took over the first cabinet of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of 7 May 1979 until its replacement by Hugh Rossi on January 5, 1981, the office of Minister of State for Social Security (Minister of State for Social Security) in the Ministry of Health and Social Security, which was headed by Patrick Jenkin . In the election of June 9, 1983 he was re-elected for the Conservative Party in the constituency of Daventry and was able to get out this time with 26,357 votes (53.33 percent) with an absolute majority against the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) D. Collins (13,221 votes, 26.75 percent) prevail, while Labor Party candidate D. Middleton with 9,840 votes (19.91 percent) was only third. Prentice was a member of the House of Commons until he renounced his candidacy in the general election on June 11, 1987 , and thus retired from the House of Commons after thirty years. For his services, he was beaten on December 8, 1987 to the Knight Bachelor (Kt) and has since had the addition of "Sir".

By a Letters Patent from 30 January 1992 Reginald "Reg" Ernest Prentice was finally due to the Life Peerages Act 1958 as a Life Peer with the title Baron Prentice , of Daventry in the county of Northamptonshire, in the nobility of the Peerage of the United Kingdom raised and thus belonged to his death as a member of the upper house ( house of Lords ) to. His daughter Christine Ann Prentice, born in 1951, emerged from his marriage to Vera May Joan Godwin in 1948.

Publications

  • Social Welfare and the Citizen , 1957
  • Right turn , 1978

Background literature

  • Geoff Horn: Crossing the Floor: Reg Prentice and the Crisis of British Social Democracy , Manchester University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0719-0-8869-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ PRIVY COUNSELLORS 1915–1968 (leighrayment.com)
  2. ^ Geoff Horn: Crossing the Floor: Reg Prentice and the Crisis of British Social Democracy , Manchester University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0719-0-8869-8
  3. ↑ KNIGHTS AND DAMES (leighrayment.com)
personal data
SURNAME Prentice, Reg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Prentice, Reginald Ernest Prentice, Baron Prentice (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, Member of the House of Commons, Life Peer
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Croydon , Surrey
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 2001
Place of death Middenhall, Wiltshire