Misplaced Pages

The Right HonourableThe Viscount WatkinsonCH PC
Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation
In office 20 December 1955 – 14 October 1959
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Sir Anthony Eden Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	John Boyd-Carpenter
Succeeded by	Ernest Marples
Minister of Defence
In office 14 October 1959 – 13 July 1962
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	Duncan Sandys
Succeeded by	Peter Thorneycroft
Member of Parliament for Woking
In office 23 February 1950 – 26 June 1964
Preceded by	Constituency created
Succeeded by	Cranley Onslow
Personal details
Born	(1910-01-25)25 January 1910
Died	19 December 1995(1995-12-19) (aged 85)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	King's College London

Harold Arthur Watkinson, 1st Viscount Watkinson, CH, PC (25 January 1910, in Walton on Thames – 19 December 1995, in Bosham) was a British businessman and Conservative Party politician. He was Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation between 1955 and 1959 and a cabinet member as Minister of Defence between 1959 and 1962, when he was sacked in the Night of the Long Knives. In 1964 he was ennobled as Viscount Watkinson.

Education and early life

Educated at Queen's College, Taunton, and at King's College London, Watkinson worked for the family engineering business between 1929 and 1935 and in technical and engineering journalism between 1935 and 1939. He saw active service as a Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War.

Political career

Watkinson was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for the new constituency of Woking, Surrey in 1950, holding the seat until 1964, and was initially Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, John Maclay, from 1951 to 1952. He became a government member under Winston Churchill as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and National Service in 1952, a post he held until December 1955, when he was made Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation by Sir Anthony Eden, entering the cabinet in January 1957, and remaining there when promoted to Minister of Defence under Harold Macmillan in 1959. Watkinson was one of seven cabinet ministers sacked in July 1962 in Macmillan's Night of the Long Knives. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1955, a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1962, and raised to the peerage as Viscount Watkinson, of Woking in the County of Surrey, in 1964.

Business career

Lord Watkinson held a number of public and business appointments, including senior positions in the British Institute of Management; President of the Confederation of British Industry between 1976 and 1977; and Chairman of Cadbury Schweppes Ltd between 1969 and 1974.

Personal life

Watkinson had been an active rock climber in his younger days. He married Vera (Peggy) Langmead in 1939 and they had two daughters. Lord Watkinson died in December 1995, aged 85, and the viscountcy became extinct.

Arms

Coat of arms of Harold Watkinson

Crest A ram passant Proper on an antique cannon Sable garnished Or. Escutcheon Vert fretty and three fleeces Or. Supporters Dexter a weaver holding in the exterior hand a shuttle, sinister a shepherd with the exterior hand a crook, all Proper. Motto Laborare Est Orare

References

1. ^ Cosgrave, Patrick (2004). "Watkinson, Harold Arthur, Viscount Watkinson (1910–1995), businessman and politician". Watkinson, Harold Arthur, Viscount Watkinson (1910–1995). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/60347. Retrieved 27 October 2010. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. "leighrayment.com House of Commons: Witney to Wythenshawe and Sale East". Archived from the original on 31 December 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
3. leighrayment.com Peerage: Waddington to Welles
4. "No. 42736". The London Gazette. 20 July 1962. p. 5807.
5. "No. 43367". The London Gazette. 26 June 1964. p. 5539.
6. Debrett's Peerage. 1973.

v t e Defence secretaries of the United Kingdom
Ministers for co-ordination of defence	Sir Thomas Inskip Lord Chatfield
Ministers for defence	Winston Churchill Clement Attlee A. V. Alexander Manny Shinwell Winston Churchill Harold Alexander Harold Macmillan Selwyn Lloyd Sir Walter Monckton Anthony Head Duncan Sandys Harold Watkinson Peter Thorneycroft
Secretaries of state for defence	Peter Thorneycroft Denis Healey Lord Carrington Ian Gilmour Roy Mason Fred Mulley Francis Pym John Nott Michael Heseltine George Younger Tom King Malcolm Rifkind Michael Portillo George Robertson Geoff Hoon John Reid Des Browne John Hutton Bob Ainsworth Liam Fox Philip Hammond Michael Fallon Gavin Williamson Penny Mordaunt Ben Wallace Grant Shapps John Healey

• 1910 births
• 1995 deaths
• Alumni of King's College London
• Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
• Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour
• Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
• Ministers in the Eden government, 1955–1957
• Ministers in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home governments, 1957–1964
• Ministers in the third Churchill government, 1951–1955
• People educated at Queen's College, Taunton
• Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II
• Royal Navy officers
• Secretaries of State for Defence (UK)
• Secretaries of state for transport (UK)
• UK MPs 1950–1951
• UK MPs 1951–1955
• UK MPs 1955–1959
• UK MPs 1959–1964
• UK MPs who were granted peerages
• Viscounts created by Elizabeth II