Osbert Peake, 1st Viscount Ingleby

The Right Honourable The Viscount Ingleby PC
Minister of Pensions and National Insurance Minister of National Insurance (1951–1953)
In office 31 October 1951 – 20 December 1955
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill Anthony Eden
Preceded by	Edith Summerskill
Succeeded by	John Boyd-Carpenter
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
In office 1944–1945
Preceded by	Ralph Assheton
Succeeded by	Glenvil Hall
Personal details
Born	(1897-12-30)30 December 1897
Died	11 October 1966(1966-10-11) (aged 68) Osmotherley, North Yorkshire, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford
Occupation	Politician

Osbert Peake, 1st Viscount Ingleby, PC (30 December 1897 – 11 October 1966) was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as Minister of National Insurance and then as Minister of Pensions and National Insurance from 1951 to 1955.

Early and personal life

Peake was educated at Eton before training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He served with the Coldstream Guards during the First World War, before joining the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry. He entered Christ Church, Oxford in 1919 and graduated in history in 1921. In 1923 he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple.

On 19 June 1922, he married Lady Joan Capell (the younger daughter of the Earl and Countess of Essex) and they had five children. One of his daughters, Sonia, married David Hay, 12th Marquess of Tweeddale.

Political career

After unsuccessfully contesting Dewsbury in 1922, he entered Parliament as Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds North in 1929. In April 1939, he was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department and in October 1944 he became Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Whilst in opposition, he became a leading spokesman for the Beveridge social reform proposals, and on the Conservatives return to power in 1951 he became Minister of National Insurance (Minister of Pensions and National Insurance from September 1953 and a member of the Cabinet from October 1954). In December 1955, shortly after Anthony Eden succeeded Winston Churchill as Prime Minister in April, Peake resigned from the government.

Peake became a Privy Counsellor in 1943 and was raised to the peerage on 17 January 1956 as Viscount Ingleby, of Snilesworth in the North Riding of the County of York. On his death in 1966, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Martin.

References

• Pottle, Mark (2004). "Peake, Osbert, first Viscount Ingleby (1897–1966)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/75167. Retrieved 13 September 2009. (subscription or UK public library membership required)

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Osbert Peake