Walter Monckton
The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley | |
|---|---|
| File:Walter Monckton in 1957.jpg | |
| Minister of Defence | |
| In office 20 December 1955 – 18 October 1956 | |
| Prime Minister | Anthony Eden |
| Preceded by | Selwyn Lloyd |
| Succeeded by | Anthony Head |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Walter Turner
Monckton 17 January 1891 Plaxtol, Kent, UK |
| Died | 9 January 1965 (aged 73) |
| Political party | Conservative |
Walter Turner Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, GCVO, KCMG, MC, PC, QC (17 January 1891 – 9 January 1965) was a British politician.
Early years
Monckton was born in the village of Plaxtol in north Kent. He was the eldest child of paper manufacturer Frank William Monckton (1861–1924), and his wife, Dora Constance (d. 1915).[1] He was head boy of his preparatory school, The Knoll, at Woburn Sands in Buckinghamshire, and attended Harrow School from 1904 to 1910.[1] He chose to enter Balliol College, Oxford as a commoner (despite winning in 1910 an Exhibition to Hertford College, Oxford) and obtained a third in classical moderations (1912) and a second in history (1914). He was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1913.[1] He played cricket for Harrow against Eton in the famous Fowler's match in 1910. Whilst at Oxford, he played a first-class match for the combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricket team in 1911.
Career
Monckton was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1919. In 1927 he was appointed legal advisor to the Simon Commission. He took silk in 1930.
Monckton served as advisor to Edward VIII during the abdication crisis, having been Attorney General to the Duchy of Cornwall since 1932. He was Recorder of Hythe from 1930–37. Thanks to his royal connections, he was appointed constitutional advisor to the last Nizam of Hyderabad.
He worked in propaganda and information during World War II and became Solicitor General in Winston Churchill's 1945 caretaker government, although he refused to join the Conservative Party.
After the 1945 general election, Monckton returned to legal practice. He also continued to serve as advisor to the Nizam of Hyderabad.
He finally joined after the war and became a Member of Parliament for Bristol West at a 1951 by-election. Churchill soon appointed him to the cabinet as Minister of Labour and National Service, in which post he served from 1951 to 1955. He was Anthony Eden's Minister of Defence 1955–56, but was the only cabinet minister to oppose his Suez policy, and was moved to Paymaster-General 1956–57.
Monckton was made Viscount Monckton of Brenchley in 1957. He had wanted to become Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales and indeed had been promised the job by Churchill and the subsequent two prime ministers, but in 1957 he decided instead to join the board of Midland Bank.[2]
Lord Monckton of Brenchley was chairman of Midland Bank (1957–64), President of the Marylebone Cricket Club (1956–1957), President of Surrey County Cricket Club (1950–52 and 1959–65), Chairman of the Iraq Petroleum Company (1958), Chairman of the Advisory Commission on Central Africa (1960), and Chancellor of the University of Sussex (1961–65).
In 1960 he headed the Monckton Commission that concluded that the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland could not be maintained except by force or through massive changes in racial legislation. It advocated a majority of African members in the Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesian legislatures and giving these territories the option to leave the Federation after five years.[3][4]
Personal life
 |
He married Polly Colyer-Fergusson, daughter of Sir Thomas Colyer-Fergusson, the family who owned Ightham Mote, Sevenoaks. In 1947, he married, secondly, to Bridget Monckton, 11th Lady Ruthven of Freeland, CBE, the wartime head of the ATS counterpart in India, the Women's Army Corps (India), and also of the Women's Royal Indian Naval Service (WRINS).
He was succeeded by his son Gilbert, born of his first marriage, on his death in 1965 at the age of 73.
References
- ^ a b c ODNB.
- ^ Devlin, Patrick, Easing the Passing, 1985. P 93
- ^ R Blake, (1977). A History of Rhodesia, Knopf P.331. ISBN 0-394-48068-6.
- ^ P Murray, (2005). British Documents on the End of Empire: Central Africa, Part I, Volume 9, pp.lxxiv-v, lxxx. ISBN 978-0-11290-586-8
- Pugh, Martin. "Monckton, Walter Turner". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35061. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.); cited as ODNB.
Sources
- The life of Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, Frederick Winston Furneaux-Smith, (1969)
- Walter Monckton, H. Montgomery Hyde, (1991), ISBN 1-85619-045-5
- Cricinfo profile
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Monckton of Brenchley
- Monckton at the National Portrait Gallery
.svg)
- Use dmy dates from January 2012
- 1891 births
- 1965 deaths
- Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
- British Secretaries of State
- Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
- English cricketers
- English cricket administrators
- Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
- Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
- People educated at Harrow School
- People of the Iraq Petroleum Company
- Presidents of the Marylebone Cricket Club
- Presidents of the Oxford Union
- Presidents of Surrey County Cricket Club
- Solicitors General for England and Wales
- Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
- UK MPs 1951–1955
- UK MPs 1955–1959
- Attorneys-General of the Duchy of Cornwall
- Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricketers
- English Queen's Counsel