David Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles

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For other people named David Eccles, see David Eccles (disambiguation).

The Right Honourable
The Viscount Eccles
CH KCVO PC
1953 photograph of Eccles by Stoneman.
Paymaster General and Minister for the Arts
In office
20 June 1970 – 5 June 1973
Prime MinisterEdward Heath
Preceded byHarold Lever (Paymaster General)
Jennie Lee (Minister for the Arts)
Succeeded byMaurice Macmillan (Paymaster General)
Norman St John-Stevas (Minister for the Arts)
Minister of Education
In office
14 October 1959 – 13 July 1962
Prime MinisterHarold Macmillan
Preceded byGeoffrey Lloyd
Succeeded byEdward Boyle
In office
18 October 1954 – 13 January 1957
Prime MinisterAnthony Eden
Preceded byFlorence Horsbrugh
Succeeded byQuintin Hogg
President of the Board of Trade
In office
13 January 1957 – 14 October 1959
Prime MinisterHarold Macmillan
Preceded byPeter Thorneycroft
Succeeded byReginald Maudling
Minister of Works
In office
1 November 1951 – 18 October 1954
Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
Preceded byGeorge Brown
Succeeded byNigel Birch
Member of Parliament
for Chippenham
In office
24 August 1943 – 13 July 1962
Preceded byVictor Cazalet
Succeeded byDaniel Awdry
Personal details
Born(1904-09-18)18 September 1904
Died24 February 1999(1999-02-24) (aged 94)
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)The Hon. Sybil Dawson (1929-1977)
Mary, Viscountess Eccles (1984-death)
ChildrenSelina Petty-FitzMaurice, Marchioness of Lansdowne
The Hon. Simon Eccles
The Hon. John Eccles; later 2nd Viscount Eccles
Alma materNew College, Oxford
OccupationPolitician and Businessman

David McAdam Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles CH KCVO PC (18 September 1904 – 24 February 1999) was an English Conservative politician.

Education and early career

Eccles was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he obtained a second-class degree in PPE. He worked with the Central Mining Corporation in London and Johannesburg. During the Second World War he worked for the Ministry of Economic Warfare from 1939 to 1940 and for the Ministry of Production from 1942 to 1943 and was Economic Adviser to the British ambassadors at Lisbon and Madrid from 1940 to 1942.

Political career

Eccles was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Chippenham in a wartime by-election in 1943, a seat he held until 1962. He served in the Conservative administrations of Churchill, Eden and Macmillan respectively as Minister of Works from 1951 to 1954 (in which position he helped organise the 1953 Coronation and was appointed KCVO), as Minister of Education from 1954 to 1957 and again from 1959 to 1962 and as President of the Board of Trade from 1957 to 1959. Eccles was also President of the Board of Trade in January 1957.[1]

In 1962 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Eccles, of Chute in the County of Wiltshire, and in 1964 he was created Viscount Eccles, of Chute in the County of Wiltshire. Lord Eccles returned to the government in 1970 when Edward Heath appointed him Paymaster-General and Minister for the Arts, a post he held until 1973. As Minister for the Arts he clashed with the Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain Arnold Goodman over the funding of controversial plays and exhibitions and introduced mandatory admission charges at public museums and galleries. Lord Eccles was made a Doctor of Science (DSc) in 1966 by Loughborough University.[2] He also received an Honorary Science Doctorate from the University of Bath in 1972.[3]

Personal life

Eccles married, firstly, the Hon. Sybil Frances Dawson (1904–1977), daughter of Bertrand Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of Penn, on 1 October 1929. They had three children:

Widowed, he married again, this time to the book collector and philanthropist Mary Morley Crapo Hyde (1912–2003) on 26 September 1984. He died at age 94 at home of natural causes leaving an estate of approximately £2.4 million.[4]

Styles and honours

  • Mr David Eccles (1904–1943)
  • Mr David Eccles MP (1943–1953)
  • Sir David Eccles KCVO MP (1953–1962)
  • The Rt. Hon. The Lord Eccles KCVO PC (1962–1964)
  • The Rt. Hon. The Viscount Eccles KCVO PC (1964–1984)
  • The Rt. Hon. The Viscount Eccles CH KCVO PC (1984–1999)

Notes

  1. ^ List of Presidents/Secretaries of State (2007), Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, London, UK, viewed 8 May 2008, http://www.berr.gov.uk/about/about-berr/history/presidents-secretaries/page13935.html
  2. ^ Honorary Graduates and University Medallists since 1966 (2008), Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK, viewed 29 April 2008, http://www.lboro.ac.uk/service/publicity/degree_days/hon_grads_66to79.html
  3. ^ http://www.bath.ac.uk/ceremonies/hongrads/older.html
  4. ^ http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/71965

References

  • Mary, Viscountess Eccles: obituary, The Independent, 5 September 2003
  • The Times House of Commons 1945. 1945.
  • The Times House of Commons 1950. 1950.
  • The Times House of Commons 1955. 1955.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Chippenham
1943 – 1962 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Paymaster General
1970 – 1973 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister for the Arts
1970 – 1973 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Viscount Eccles
1964 – 1999 		Succeeded by
Baron Eccles
1962 – 1999
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