Alan Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton

The Right Honourable The Viscount Boyd of Merton CH, PC, DL
Secretary of State for the Colonies
In office 28 July 1954 – 14 October 1959
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill Sir Anthony Eden Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	Oliver Lyttelton
Succeeded by	Iain Macleod
Personal details
Born	18 November 1904 (1904-11-18)
Died	8 March 1983 (1983-03-09)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Lady Florence Guinness (1918-2003)
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford

Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton, CH, PC, DL (18 November 1904 – 8 March 1983) was a British Conservative politician.

Background, education and military service

Lennox-Boyd was the son of Alan Lennox-Boyd by his second wife Florence, daughter of James Warburton Begbie. He had an elder half-sister and three full brothers, two of whom were killed in the Second World War and one who died in Germany in April 1939. He was educated at Sherborne School, Dorset and graduated from Christ Church, Oxford, with a Master of Arts. He served in the Second World War as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.

Political career

Lennox-Boyd was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire in 1931 (at the age of 26), and was admitted to Inner Temple, as a barrister in 1941. He was a member of Winston Churchill's peacetime government as Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation from 1952 to 1954. In this post he once memorably opined that road accidents were the result not of the taking of large risks, but of the taking of small risks very large numbers of times.

In 1954 he became Secretary of State for the Colonies, where he oversaw early stages of decolonisation, with the granting of independence to Cyprus, Ghana, Iraq, Malaya and Sudan. He was in office during the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya, and was persuaded to stay in office by Harold Macmillan after being censured for the Hola massacre. He talked openly about independence for the Federation of Malaya, and invited the then Chief Minister of Malaya, Tunku Sir Abdul Rahman Al-Haj and his friends to Lancester House to discuss the possibility of Malaya's becoming a sovereign nation. However, after the 1959 general election he was replaced as Colonial Secretary by Iain Macleod.

In September 1960 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Boyd of Merton of Merton-in-Penninghame in the County of Wigtown. This caused a by-election for his Mid Bedfordshire constituency which was won by Stephen Hastings. He was further honoured the same year when he was appointed a Companion of Honour. Being opposed to the line taken in Harold Macmillan's Wind of Change speech, he subsequently became an early patron of the Conservative Monday Club.

Other public positions and business career

Lord Boyd of Merton held the office of Deputy Lieutenant of Bedfordshire between 1954 and 1960 and Deputy Lieutenant of Cornwall in 1965. He was managing director of Arthur Guinness & Sons between 1959 and 1967, and was a Companion of Honour and Privy Councillor.

Mau Mau rebellion

In June 1957, Lennox-Boyd, who was Secretary of State for the Colonies, received a secret memorandum written by Eric Griffiths-Jones, the attorney general of Kenya. The letter described the abuse of Mau Mau detainees. The memorandum was passed on by Sir Evelyn Baring, the Governor of Kenya, who is alleged to have added a cover letter asserting that inflicting "violent shock" is the only way to deal with Mau Mau insurgents.

In April 2011 a Guardian report described a cache of government documents which may indicate that, despite clear briefings, Lennox-Boyd repeatedly denied that the abuses were happening, and publicly denounced those colonial officials who came forward to complain.

Family

Lord Boyd married Lady Patricia Guinness, daughter of Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh, on 29 December 1938. They had three children:

• Simon Lennox-Boyd, 2nd Viscount Boyd of Merton (b. 7 December 1939)
• Hon. Christopher Lennox-Boyd (b. 22 July 1941)
• Hon. Mark Lennox-Boyd (b. 4 May 1943)

Lord Boyd died in March 1983, aged 78, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Simon. Lady Boyd died in May 2001, aged 83.

References

• ‹The template Lundy is being considered for deletion.›  This page incorporates information from Darryl Lundy's thePeerage.com page.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Boyd of Merton

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Milner Gray	Member of Parliament for Mid Bedfordshire 1931–1960	Succeeded by Stephen Hastings
Political offices
Preceded by John Dugdale	Minister of State at the Colonial Office 1951–1952	Succeeded by Henry Hopkinson
Preceded by John Maclay	Minister of Transport 1952–1953	Succeeded by Himself as Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation
	Minister of Civil Aviation 1952–1952
New title	Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation 1953–1954	Succeeded by John Boyd-Carpenter
Preceded by Oliver Lyttelton	Secretary of State for the Colonies 1954–1959	Succeeded by Iain Macleod
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Viscount Boyd of Merton 1960–1983	Succeeded by Simon Lennox-Boyd