Ernest Marples

The Right Honourable The Lord Marples PC
Postmaster General
In office 17 January 1957 – 14 October 1959
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	Charles Hill
Succeeded by	Reginald Bevins
Minister of Transport
In office 14 October 1959 – 16 October 1964
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan Sir Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded by	Harold Watkinson
Succeeded by	Tom Fraser
Personal details
Born	Alfred Ernest Marples 9 December 1907(1907-12-09) Levenshulme, Manchester, Lancashire
Died	6 July 1978(1978-07-06) (aged 70) The Princess Grace Hospital Centre in Monaco
Resting place	Southern Cemetery, Manchester
Nationality	UK
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Ruth, née Dobson

Alfred Ernest Marples, Baron Marples PC (9 December 1907 – 6 July 1978) was a British Conservative politician who served as Postmaster General and Minister of Transport. After his retirement from active politics in 1974, Marples was elevated to the peerage. His life ended in ignominy, however, after he fled the country to escape various legal and taxation difficulties.

Early life

Marples was born at 45 Dorset Road, Levenshulme, Manchester, Lancashire. His father had been a renowned engineering charge-hand and Manchester Labour campaigner, and his mother had worked in a local hat factory. Marples attended Victoria Park Council School and won a scholarship to Stretford Grammar School. By the age of 14 he was already active in the Labour Movement, as well as earning money by selling cigarettes and sweets to Manchester football crowds. He also played football for a YMCA team.

Marples worked as a miner, a postman, a chef and an accountant. He was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1941, rose to the rank of Captain and was medically discharged in 1944.

Marples married Ruth Dobson, who on his elevation to the Peerage in 1974 became Lady Marples.

Political career

Marples joined the Conservative Party and in 1945 was elected as Member of Parliament for Wallasey. In 1951, Winston Churchill appointed him a junior minister in the Conservative Government 1951–1955. Marples was a minister under Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home throughout the Conservative Government 1957–1964.

Postmaster General

In 1957, Harold Macmillan appointed Marples Postmaster General. At that time the telephone network was controlled by the General Post Office, and Marples introduced subscriber trunk dialling (STD), which eliminated the use of operators on national phone calls. On 2 June 1957, Marples started the first draw for the new Premium Bond scheme. He also introduced postcodes to the UK.

Minister of Transport

Macmillan made Marples Minister of Transport in 14 October 1959, and Marples remained in this post after Alec Douglas-Home succeeded Macmillan as Prime Minister in 1963 and until the Conservatives lost the 1964 General Election on 16 October 1964.

As Minister of Transport, Marples oversaw the introduction of parking meters and the provisional driving licence in 1958. Also under Marples, the Road Traffic Act 1960 introduced the MOT test, roadside single yellow lines and double yellow lines, traffic wardens, the 250cc engine limit for learner motorcyclists and the legal requirement for front seat occupants of cars to wear seat belts.

Ernest Marples appointed Dr Richard Beeching as chairman of British Railways. After a study of railway traffic, Beeching produced The Reshaping of British Railways report in 1963 that recommended the closure of a further 6,000 miles (9,700 km) of the remaining 18,000 miles (29,000 km) of Britain's railways.

Peerage

Marples retired from the House of Commons at the February 1974 general election. On 8 May 1974 he was made a life peer as Baron Marples of Wallasey in Cheshire.

Business interests

In the late 1940s Marples was a director of a company called Kirk & Kirk, which was a contractor in the construction of Brunswick Wharf Power Station. Marples met civil engineer Reginald Ridgway (1908–2002), who was working as a contractor for Kirk & Kirk. In 1948 the two men founded Marples, Ridgway and Partners, a civil engineering company that started with one five-ton ex-army truck and one crane. The new partnership took over Kirk & Kirk's contract at Brunswick Wharf and in 1950 Marples severed his links with Kirk & Kirk. Marples, Ridgway's subsequent contracts included building power stations in England, a hydro-electric station in Scotland, roads in Ethiopia and England and a port in Jamaica. The Bath and Portland Group took over Marples, Ridgway in 1964.

Controversies

Conflict of interest

When he became a junior minister in 1951, Marples resigned his directorship of Marples, Ridgway to avoid a conflict of interest. When he was made Minister of Transport in October 1959, Marples further undertook to sell his shareholding in the company to avoid a conflict of interest. However, there was a purchaser's requirement to sell the shares back to Marples after he ceased to hold office, at the original price, if Marples wished this. The purchaser was later revealed to be Marples' own wife. Such an arrangement, although perhaps legal, represented a grave conflict of interest and a highly unethical position for a government minister.

In 1959, Marples authorised the first section of the M1 motorway, Britain's first inter-city motorway, between London and Nottingham. Marples, Ridgway was given the contract to build it.^{[citation needed]} Marples, Ridgway built the Hammersmith Flyover in London at a cost of £1.3 million, immediately followed by building the Chiswick Flyover. Marples, Ridgway took part in several other major road projects in the 1950s and 1960s.^{[citation needed]}

Use of prostitutes

When Lord Denning made his 1963 investigation into the security aspects of the Profumo Affair and the rumoured affair between the Minister of Defence, Duncan Sandys, and the Duchess of Argyll, he confirmed to Macmillan that a rumour that Ernest Marples was in the habit of using prostitutes appeared to be true. The story was suppressed and did not appear in Denning's final report.

Flight to Monaco

Early in 1975 Marples suddenly fled to Monaco. Among journalists who investigated his unexpected flight was Daily Mirror editor Richard Stott:

"In the early 70s ... he tried to fight off a revaluation of his assets which would undoubtedly cost him dear ... So Marples decided he had to go and hatched a plot to remove £2 million from Britain through his Liechtenstein company ... there was nothing for it but to cut and run, which Marples did just before the tax year of 1975. He left by the night ferry with his belongings crammed into tea chests, leaving the floors of his home in Belgravia littered with discarded clothes and possessions ... He claimed he had been asked to pay nearly 30 years' overdue tax ... The Treasury froze his assets in Britain for the next ten years. By then most of them were safely in Monaco and Liechtenstein."

As well as being wanted for tax fraud, one source alleges that Marples was being sued in Britain by tenants of his slum properties and by former employees. He never returned to Britain, living the remainder of his life at his Fleurie Beaujolais château and vineyard in France.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Ernest Marples

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by George Leonard Reakes	Member of Parliament for Wallasey 1945–February 1974	Succeeded by Lynda Chalker
Political offices
Preceded by Charles Hill	Postmaster General 1957–1959	Succeeded by Reginald Bevins
Preceded by Harold Watkinson	Minister of Transport 1959–1964	Succeeded by Tom Fraser