Walter Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley

Walter Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley
Minister of Defence
In office 20 December 1955 – 18 October 1956
Prime Minister	Anthony Eden
Preceded by	Selwyn Lloyd
Succeeded by	Anthony Head

Walter Turner Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, GCVO, KCMG, MC, PC (17 January 1891 – 9 January 1965) was a British politician.

Early years

Born in Plaxtol, Kent, Monckton was educated at Harrow School and Balliol College, Oxford. He played cricket for Harrow against Eton in the famous Fowler's match in 1910. Whilst at Oxford, he played a first-class cricket match for the Combined Universities in 1911.

Career

A lawyer, Monckton served as advisor to Edward VIII during the abdication crisis, having been Attorney General to the Duchy of Cornwall since 1932. He was Recorder of Hythe from 1930-37.

He worked in propaganda and information during World War II and became Solicitor General in Winston Churchill's 1945 caretaker government, although he refused to join the Conservative Party. He finally joined after the war and became a Member of Parliament for Bristol West at a 1951 by-election. Churchill soon appointed him to the cabinet as Minister of Labour and National Service, in which post he served from 1951 to 1955. He was Anthony Eden's Minister of Defence 1955–56, but was the only cabinet minister to oppose his Suez policy, and was moved to Paymaster-General 1956–57.

Monckton was made Viscount Monckton of Brenchley in 1957. He had wanted to become Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales and indeed had been promised the job by Churchill and the subsequent two prime ministers, but in 1957 he decided instead to join the board of Midland Bank.

Personal life

In 1947, he married, secondly, to Bridget, the former Countess of Carlisle (CBE), the wartime head of the ATS counterpart in India, the Women's Army Corps (India), and also of the Women's Royal Indian Naval Service (WRINS). The Viscountess was already a peer in her right, as the 11th Lady Ruthven of Freeland (see the Lord Ruthven of Freeland). This title passed to her son by her previous marriage, the Earl of Carlisle, and not to her stepson, Viscount Monckton.

Lord Monckton of Brenchley was chairman of Midland Bank (1957–64), President of the Marylebone Cricket Club (1956–1957), President of Surrey County Cricket Club (1950–52 and 1959–65), Chairman of the Iraq Petroleum Company (1958), Chairman of the Advisory Commission on Central Africa (1960), and Chancellor of the University of Sussex (1961–65).

He was succeeded by his son Gilbert on his death in 1965 at the age of 73.

Sources

• The life of Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, Frederick Winston Furneaux-Smith, (1969)
• Walter Monckton, H. Montgomery Hyde, (1991), ISBN 1-85619-045-5
• Cricinfo profile

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Monckton of Brenchley

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Oliver Stanley	Member of Parliament for Bristol West 1951–1957	Succeeded by Robert Cooke
Legal offices
Preceded by David Maxwell Fyfe	Solicitor General for England and Wales May 1945–July 1945	Succeeded by Frank Soskice
Political offices
Preceded by Alfred Robens	Minister of Labour and National Service 1951–1955	Succeeded by Iain Macleod
Preceded by Selwyn Lloyd	Minister of Defence 1955–1956	Succeeded by Anthony Head
Vacant Title last held by The Earl of Selkirk	Paymaster-General 1956–1957	Succeeded by Reginald Maudling
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Viscount Monckton of Brenchley 1957–1965	Succeeded by Gilbert Monckton