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The Right HonourableThe Lord Merlyn-ReesPC
Merlyn Rees on After Dark in 1988
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy
In office 4 November 1980 – 24 November 1982
Leader	Michael Foot
Preceded by	David Owen
Succeeded by	John Smith
Shadow Home Secretary
In office 4 May 1979 – 4 November 1980
Leader	James Callaghan
Preceded by	William Whitelaw
Succeeded by	Roy Hattersley
Home Secretary
In office 10 September 1976 – 4 May 1979
Prime Minister	James Callaghan
Preceded by	Roy Jenkins
Succeeded by	William Whitelaw
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
In office 5 March 1974 – 10 September 1976
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson James Callaghan
Preceded by	Francis Pym
Succeeded by	Roy Mason
Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
In office 24 March 1972 – 4 March 1974
Leader	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Francis Pym
Member of Parliament for Morley and Leeds South (Leeds South 1963–1983)
In office 20 June 1963 – 16 March 1992
Preceded by	Hugh Gaitskell
Succeeded by	John Gunnell
Personal details
Born	Merlyn Rees (1920-12-18)18 December 1920 Cilfynydd, Wales
Died	5 January 2006(2006-01-05) (aged 85) London, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Colleen Cleverly ​(m. 1949)​
Children	3
Alma mater	Goldsmiths, University of London University of Nottingham London School of Economics

Merlyn Merlyn-Rees, Baron Merlyn-Rees, PC (né Merlyn Rees; 18 December 1920 – 5 January 2006) was a British Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament from 1963 until 1992. He served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1974–1976) and Home Secretary (1976–1979).

Early life

Rees was born in Cilfynydd, near Pontypridd, Glamorgan, the son of Levi Rees, a war veteran who moved from Wales to England to find work. He was educated at Harrow Weald Grammar School, Harrow, England and Goldsmiths College, London where he was president of the students' union. Goldsmiths was evacuated to Nottingham University early in the war, where Rees served in Nottingham University Air Squadron.

In 1941 Rees joined the Royal Air Force, becoming a squadron leader and earning the nickname "Dagwood". He served in Italy as operations and intelligence officer to No 324 Squadron under Group Captain W. G. G. Duncan Smith (father of the future Conservative leader). One of Rees's Spitfire pilots in Italy, Frank Cooper, became his Permanent Secretary at the Northern Ireland Office.

After the war, Rees declined a permanent commission in the RAF, and instead attended the London School of Economics where he received BSc(Econ) and MSc(Econ). He was appointed schoolmaster at his old school in Harrow in 1949, teaching economics and history. He taught for eleven years, during which time he was three times an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate for Harrow East, in 1955, 1959, and in a 1959 by-election. He was a member of the Institute of Education at the University of London from 1960 to 1962.

Member of Parliament

At a by-election in 1963, Rees stood as the Labour candidate for Leeds South and succeeded Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell, who had died in office. (The constituency was renamed Morley and Leeds South in 1983.) He held the seat until he stepped down from the House of Commons at the 1992 general election.

In 1965 Rees became Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, with responsibility for the army (1965–1966) and later for the Royal Air Force (1966–1968). Denis Healey, who was then Secretary of State for Defence, had served with Rees in the Italian campaign. Rees was Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Home Office, where James Callaghan was Home Secretary, from November 1968 until the June 1970 general election.

In October 1971 Rees became Labour Party spokesman on Northern Ireland. When the Labour government returned to office in March 1974, he was appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. One month after Rees's appointment, he lifted the proscription against the illegal loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) to bring them into the democratic process. The UVF was implicated in the 17 May 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings and the group was banned again by the British Government on 3 October 1975. Rees' decision to permit the Sunningdale power sharing arrangements to collapse in Northern Ireland was described as 'supine' by former SDLP leader, Seamus Mallon. Rees was almost assassinated by the IRA in July 1976. He was to travel to the Republic to consult with the Ambassador Christopher Ewart-Biggs and Irish ministers but postponed his trip after Margaret Thatcher refused to allow Northern Ireland ministers to pair their votes in House of Commons divisions. Rees wrote later that it seemed likely the IRA had known of his impending visit but were unaware of its cancellation. Ewart-Biggs and FCO official Judith Cooke died in a landmine explosion.

Rees later wrote of his experiences in Northern Ireland in Northern Ireland: a Personal Perspective. In September 1976 Rees was appointed Home Secretary and remained in that post until Labour's defeat in the 1979 UK elections.

Retirement

When Rees retired from the House of Commons in 1992, he was created a life peer as Baron Merlyn-Rees, of Morley and South Leeds in the County of West Yorkshire and of Cilfynydd in the County of Mid Glamorgan and entered the House of Lords, having changed his name, on 23 June 1992, by deed poll to Merlyn Merlyn-Rees to allow his title to be Merlyn-Rees rather than Rees. Rees was president of the Video Standards Council from 1990 and was the first Chancellor of the University of Glamorgan, a position he held from 1994 to 2002.

Personal life and death

In 1949, Rees married Colleen Cleveley, and they had three sons. Rees suffered injuries in a number of falls in his last years. In late 2005, a fall at his home in Southwark caused him to lapse into a coma, from which he never emerged; he died at St Thomas's Hospital on 5 January 2006, at the age of 85.

Legacy

Merlyn Rees Avenue in Morley, West Yorkshire is named after Rees. Merlyn Rees Community High School in Belle Isle, Leeds was named after Rees until its merger with Mathew Murray Comprehensive School in 2006 when it was renamed South Leeds High School.

References

1. ^ Edward Pearce (5 January 2006). "Lord Merlyn-Rees". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
2. ""Your Online Guide to Yorkshire People"". Wakefieldtoday.co.uk. 2004. Archived from the original on 21 December 2004.
3. ^ Richard, Ivor (2010). "Rees, Merlyn Merlyn-, Baron Merlyn-Rees (1920–2006), politician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/97033. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
4. ^ "Merlyn Rees – Parliamentary career". UK Parliament.
5. ^ "Rees, Merlyn". Dictionary of Irish Biography.
6. Taylor, Peter (1999). Loyalists. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, p. 124.
7. Mallon, Seamus (4 August 2020). "Seamus Mallon: I saw John Hume's raw courage as he faced bloodthirsty Paras". Irish Times.
8. "Belfast years remembered for vacillation in face of loyalist strike" (5 January 2006). The Irish Times, p. 14.
9. "MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR CHRISTOPHER EWART-BIGGS, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, 1976". London: Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 19 July 2001.
10. Rees, Merlyn (23 July 1985). Northern Ireland: A Personal Perspective. Methuen. ISBN 9780413525901 – via Google Books.
11. London: Methuen, 1985. ISBN 0-413-52590-2
12. "No. 52982". The London Gazette. 6 July 1992. p. 11339.
13. "No. 52985". The London Gazette. 8 July 1992. p. 11569.
14. "Obituary: Lord Merlyn-Rees". BBC News. 5 January 2006. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
15. "Peer's roots in 'gifted' street". BBC News. 5 January 2006.
16. "Merlyn Rees dies aged 85". The Guardian. 5 January 2006. Retrieved 14 May 2022.

Reading

• Merlyn Rees, "Northern Ireland: a personal perspective", London: Methuen, 1985.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Merlyn Rees
• Portraits of Merlyn Rees at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Merlyn Rees (The Second World War Experience Centre)
• Catalogue of the Merlyn-Rees papers at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics.

v t e Secretaries of state for Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland Office
Whitelaw Pym Rees Mason Atkins Prior Hurd King Brooke Mayhew Mowlam Mandelson Reid Murphy Hain Woodward Paterson Villiers Brokenshire Bradley Smith Lewis Vara Heaton-Harris Benn
Also held Secretary of State for Wales Opposition Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

v t e Second Wilson Cabinet
Tony Benn James Callaghan Barbara Castle Anthony Crosland Lord Elwyn-Jones Michael Foot Denis Healey Roy Jenkins Harold Lever Roy Mason Bob Mellish John Morris Fred Mulley Stanley Orme Fred Peart Reg Prentice Merlyn Rees Bill Rodgers Willie Ross Lord Shepherd Peter Shore Edward Short John Silkin Eric Varley Shirley Williams Harold Wilson

v t e Callaghan Cabinet
James Callaghan Joel Barnett Tony Benn Albert Booth Anthony Crosland Edmund Dell Lord Elwyn-Jones David Ennals Michael Foot Roy Hattersley Denis Healey Roy Jenkins Harold Lever Roy Mason Bruce Millan John Morris Fred Mulley Stanley Orme David Owen Lord Peart Reg Prentice Merlyn Rees Bill Rodgers Lord Shepherd Peter Shore John Silkin John Smith Eric Varley Shirley Williams

v t e Home secretaries of the United Kingdom
Shelburne Townshend North Temple Sydney Grenville Dundas Portland Pelham Yorke Hawkesbury Spencer Liverpool Ryder Sidmouth Peel Sturges Bourne Lansdowne Peel Melbourne Duncannon Wellington Goulburn Russell Normanby Graham Grey Walpole Palmerston Grey Walpole Sotheron-Estcourt Lewis Grey Walpole Hardy Bruce Lowe Cross Harcourt Cross Childers Matthews Asquith Ridley Ritchie Akers-Douglas Gladstone Churchill McKenna Simon Samuel Cave Shortt Bridgeman Henderson Joynson-Hicks Clynes Samuel Gilmour Simon Hoare Anderson Morrison Somervell Chuter Ede Maxwell-Fyfe Lloyd George Butler Brooke Soskice Jenkins Callaghan Maudling Carr Jenkins Rees Whitelaw Brittan Hurd Waddington Baker K. Clarke Howard Straw Blunkett C. Clarke Reid Smith Johnson May Rudd Javid Patel Braverman Shapps Braverman Cleverly Cooper

• 1920 births
• 2006 deaths
• Academics of the UCL Institute of Education
• Accidental deaths in London
• Accidental deaths from falls
• Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London
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• People of The Troubles (Northern Ireland)
• Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
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