Edgar Whitehead

Sir Edgar Cuthbert Fremantle Whitehead OBE ( born February 8, 1905 in Berlin, Germany, † September 22, 1971 in Hamstead Marshall, UK) was Prime Minister of südrhodesischer 1958 until 1962.

Whitehead was born the son of a British diplomat in the British Embassy in Berlin. After studying at Shrewsbury School and Oxford University, he went in 1928 for health reasons, according to Southern Rhodesia. There he worked in Gwelo. Later he went to a farm in Bvumba at Umtali.

Politician

Although Whitehead in 1939 elected to the südrhodesische Parliament, but interrupted by the Second World War his political career. In 1946 he returned to Salisbury and was appointed Chief Financial Affairs and Communications. In 1958, when Prime Minister Garfield Todd was forced to resign, Whitehead followed him into office on February 17.

In his tenure, the establishment and decline of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and rapid economic growth. In him also a relaxation of racial laws goes back. So it was in 1961 involved in the drafting of a constitution that allowed the black population to be represented in Parliament. This led to being voted in the elections of 1962. Whitehead remained as leader of the opposition until 1964 in the Parliament. Later Whitehead returned to Great Britain. There he died in 1971 of lung and esophageal cancer.

Awards

• In 1944, Whitehead of the Order of the British Empire was awarded.
• From Queen Elizabeth II, he was knighted in 1954.
• In 1972 it was unveiled in honor of the former Governor-General Sir Humphrey Gibbs in the cloister of the cathedral in Salisbury, a memorial plaque.