Michael Stewart, Baron Stewart of Fulham
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- For other persons named Michael Stewart, see Michael Stewart (disambiguation).
Robert Michael Maitland Stewart, Baron Stewart of Fulham, CH PC (6 November 1906–13 March 1990) was a British Labour politician who served twice as Foreign Secretary in the first cabinet of Harold Wilson.
The son of Robert Wallace Stewart, author and lecturer, and Eva Stewart née Blaxley, Stewart was born in Bromley and educated at Brownhill Road Elementary School, Catford, Christ's Hospital and St. John's College, Oxford, where he graduated with a first class BA in philosophy in 1929.
While at university, Stewart was President of the Oxford Union, and of St John's Labour Club (1929). He worked for a short period with the Secretariat of the League of Nations, before becoming a schoolmaster, first at the Merchant Taylors' School in London, then at Coopers' Company's School, Mile End, and then at Frome, Somerset. During World War II, Stewart served in the Middle East, joining the Intelligence Corps in 1942, before transferring to the Army Educational Corps in 1943. He was promoted to captain in 1944.
On 26 July 1941 he married Mary Birkinshaw, later Baroness Stewart of Alvechurch; they had no children.
Stewart had contested the West Lewisham constituency in 1931 and 1935, and East Fulham in 1936; after the war he became MP for Fulham East 1945-55, then for Fulham 1955-74, and Hammersmith, Fulham 1974-79. Soon after his initial election, he was made a junior whip, then a junior minister, as Under-Secretary of State for War (1947-51) and later as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply (May-October 1951). Following Labour's defeat in the 1951 election, Stewart was a rising figure on the shadow front bench, serving as Shadow Minister of Education (1955-59) and then as Shadow Minister of Housing and Local Government (1959-64).
When Harold Wilson became Prime Minister in 1964, Stewart was appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science. He was promoted to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in January 1965, and then Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in 1966. From 1966 to 1968, he was First Secretary of State. He returned to the Foreign Office from 1968 to 1970.
A committed pro-European, Stewart was Leader of the Labour Delegation to the Council of Europe in June 1970, and joint president of the Labour Committee for Europe with George Brown and Roy Jenkins. He served as a member of the European Parliament from 1975 to 1976.
Stewart was made a member of the Privy Council in 1964. In July 1979, he entered the House of Lords as a life peer with the title Baron Stewart of Fulham, of Fulham in Greater London.
[edit] Bibliography
- The Forty Hour Week (Fabian Society), (1936)
- Bias and Education for Democracy (1937)
- The British Approach to Politics (1938)
- Modern Forms of Government (1959)
- Life and Labour (1980) - his autobiography
- European Security: the case against unilateral nuclear disarmament (1981)
Categories: Secretaries of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs | 1906 births | 1990 deaths | British Secretaries of State | Labour MPs (UK) | Members of the United Kingdom Parliament from English constituencies | Presidents of the Oxford Union | Life peers | Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom | Alumni of St John's College, Oxford | People from London | First Secretaries of State of the United Kingdom | Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs | Companions of Honour | UK MPs 1945-1950 | UK MPs 1950-1951 | UK MPs 1951-1955 | UK MPs 1955-1959 | UK MPs 1959-1964 | UK MPs 1964-1966 | UK MPs 1966-1970 | UK MPs 1970-1974 | UK MPs 1974 | UK MPs 1974-1979
