Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft

George Edward Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft of Dunton CH, PC ( * July 26, 1909; † 4 June 1994) was a British politician.

Biography

After attending Eton College he served from 1930 to 1933 his military service in the Royal Marine Artillery of the British Army.

His political career began in 1938 when he was elected representative of the Conservative Party member of the House of Commons. There he first represented the constituency Stafford. In the general election in 1945 he was re-elected as a representative of the constituency of Monmouth and was until 1966 a Member of the House of Commons.

In October 1951 he was appointed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the President of the Commercial Office ( Board of Trade ) in his cabinet and held that office under Churchill's successor Anthony Eden to January 1957.

In January 1957 Prime Minister Harold Macmillan appointed him Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord High Treasurer in the government. However Thorneycroft joined in January 1958 by this office together with his Parliamentary Finance Secretary Enoch Powell and his Parliamentary Secretary of Commerce Nigel Birch, in protest against the government's plans on growing back spending.

In 1960 he was, however, appointed as minister of aviation again in the government and Macmillan took over after a cabinet reshuffle 1962, the secretary of defense. This he retained also in the subsequent government of Prime Minister Alec Douglas -Home. From April to October 1964, he was finally briefly in charge of the defense of Britain under new official title of Secretary of State for Defence continues.

On December 4, 1967, collected as a life peer with the title " Baron Thorneycroft of Dunton " in the peerage, and thus a member of the House of Lords.

Between 1975 and 1981 he was Chairman ( Chairman ) of the Conservative Party.