John Ganzoni, 2nd Baron Belstead
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John Julian Ganzoni, 2nd Baron Belstead , PC (30 September 1932 - 3 December 2005) was a British Conservative politician and peer who served as Leader of the House of Lords under Margaret Thatcher from 1988 to 1990.
The son of Sir Francis Ganzoni, a barrister and Conservative MP for Ipswich who was created the 1st Lord Belstead in 1938, John Ganzoni went to Eton before reading History at Christ Church, Oxford. He showed little interest in politics at first, and waited six years after succeeding to the peerage on his father's death in 1958 to make his maiden speech.
Edward Heath appointed him in 1970 to become parliamentary under-secretary to Margaret Thatcher at the Department of Education and Science, he was moved in the same rank to the Northern Ireland Office three years later. When Margaret Thatcher led the Tories back to power in 1979 she sent him to the Home Office. He was then made Minister at the Foreign Office when Lord Carrington and his team resigned after the Falklands invasion.
He next moved to the Ministry of Fisheries and Food, and went back to the Education Department again before becoming Deputy Leader to William Whitelaw as Leader of the Lords. He then succeeded Whitelaw in 1988.
After losing his Cabinet seat in 1990 he became Paymaster General and Northern Ireland minister under John Major, and then retired from the government to become chairman of the Parole Board in 1992.
In 1983 he was sworn into the Privy Council, and he was one of the few hereditary peers offered a life peerage by Tony Blair in 1999, for which he took the title Baron Ganzoni, of Ipswich in the County of Suffolk. Lord Belstead never married, and the hereditary peerage and the baronetcy are now extinct.
[edit] External links
- Guardian obituary
- Announcement of his taking the oath under his new title at the House of Lords House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 23 November 1999
- Announcement of his death at the House of Lords House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 5 December 2005
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Viscount Whitelaw |
Leader of the House of Lords 1988–1990 |
Succeeded by The Lord Waddington |
| Preceded by John Wakeham |
Lord Privy Seal 1988–1990 |
|
| Preceded by Richard Andrew Ryder |
Paymaster-General 1990–1992 |
Succeeded by Sir John Cope |
| Honorary Titles | ||
| Preceded by Sir Joshua Rowley, 7th Bt. |
Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk 1994–2003 |
Succeeded by The Lord Tollemache |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by Francis Ganzoni |
Baron Belstead 1958–2005 |
Succeeded by Extinct |
