Robin Chichester-Clark

Sir Robert "Robin" Chichester-Clark (born January 10, 1928 in Castledawson , County Londonderry , † August 5, 2016 ) was a British politician of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), who between 1955 and 1974 the constituency of Londonderry as a member of the House of Commons and was Minister of State in the Ministry of Employment from 1972 to 1974.

Life

Origin and ancestors

Chichester-Clark came from a particularly politically active family in Northern Ireland and was born the son of James Lenox-Conyngham Chichester-Clark , who was a member of the Northern Irish Parliament for the constituency of Londonderry South between 1929 and 1933 . His mother, Caroline Dehra Chichester, was the daughter of Robert Chichester , who was also a member of the House of Commons for the constituency of Londonderry South between 1921 and 1922 and Dehra Parker , who was her son's successor from 1921 to 1929 and again between 1933 and 1960 Northern Irish Parliament for Londonderry South constituency and Minister of Health and Local Government of Northern Ireland from 1949 to 1957.

His older brother James Chichester-Clark was Prime Minister of Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1971 , while his younger sister Penelope Hobhouse wrote numerous books on garden art .

His ancestors also include his great-grandfather James Johnston Clark , who also represented the constituency of Londonderry as a member of the House of Commons from 1857 to 1859 . One of his great-great-grandfathers was Edward Chichester , who was Dean of Raphoe of the Church of Ireland between 1831 and 1871 and who inherited the title of 4th Marquess of Donegall in the Peerage of Ireland from his older brother in 1883 . Another great-great-grandfather was Robert Peel Dawson , who represented the constituency of Londonderry as a member of the House of Commons between 1859 and 1874 and was Lord Lieutenant of Londonderry from 1870 to 1877 .

Degree, journalist and member of the House of Commons

Chichester-Clark graduated after visiting the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth studying at Magdalene College of Cambridge University , which he in 1950 with a Bachelor of Arts graduated (BA) with honors. He then worked as a journalist and then from 1952 to 1953 as head of public relations at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera , before he was assistant to the sales manager at Oxford University Press (OUP) from 1953 to 1955 .

In the general election of May 26, 1955 , he was elected as a candidate for the Ulster Unionist Party for the first time as a member of the House of Commons, and with 35,673 votes (64.5 percent) he was able to clearly defeat his opponent from Sinn Féin , Manus Canning, enforce, which received 19,640 votes (35.5 percent). He represented this constituency until the general election on February 28, 1974 and was re-elected with an absolute majority in the intervening general election, with his best result in the election of October 8, 1959 , in which he received 73 percent of the vote.

During this time in 1958 he was initially for a short time Parliamentary Private Secretary to Jocelyn Simon , who was then Financial Secretary to the Treasury . He then acted from 1958 to 1960 as Assistant Government Whip , before he was from 1960 until the defeat of the Conservative Party in the general election of October 15, 1964 Parliamentary Director ( Whip ) of the Conservative Tories in the lower house. As such, he was from 1960 to 1961 first Lord Commissioner of the Treasurer and then from 1961 to 1964 Comptroller of the Household .

Opposition spokesman and minister of state

After the Conservative Party lost the October 15, 1964 elections and the Labor Party under Prime Minister Harold Wilson was in government, Chichester-Clark became opposition chief spokesman for Northern Ireland in 1964 and held this position until 1970. He was also from 1965 to 1970 also chief spokesman for the opposition in the areas of public works and works as well as the arts.

When the Conservative Party was able to form a government under Prime Minister Edward Heath again after winning the general election of June 18, 1970 , Chichester-Clark became Minister of State in the Ministry of Employment in 1972 and was with the Tories until the defeat of the Conservative Tories General election of February 28, 1974 one of the closest associates of Maurice Macmillan and then of William Whitelaw , then Secretary of State for Employment in the Heath cabinet. For his many years of political merit, he was beaten to a Knight Bachelor in 1974 and from then on carried the suffix "Sir".

After leaving the House of Commons and Government, Chichester-Clark moved to the private sector in 1974 and became director of Brendtson International .

Family and offspring

Chichester-Clark married Jane Helen Goddard, daughter of Air Marshal Victor Goddard , who was Chief of Staff of the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) between 1941 and 1943 , on November 6, 1953 . This marriage, which was divorced in 1972, resulted in two daughters and a son.

After his divorce, he married Caroline Bull, daughter of Colonel Anthony Bull, a former president of the Institute for Transport, in 1974. From this marriage two other sons were born.

He later settled in Ross House in the small town of Kells near Ballymena in County Antrim , Northern Ireland .

Web links

• Robin Chichester-Clark at Hansard (English)
• The House of Commons Constituencies. Leigh Rayment Peerage, October 13, 2014, accessed January 17, 2015 ( Londonderry constituency entry). 
• Sir Robert Chichester-Clark, on thepeerage.com , accessed August 17, 2015.
• Chichester-Clark, Robin (b.1928). The History of Parliament, accessed January 17, 2015 . 

Individual evidence