| The Right Honourable The Viscount Boyd of Merton CH, PC, DL |
|
|---|---|
| Secretary of State for the Colonies | |
| In office 28 July 1954 – 14 October 1959 |
|
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill Sir Anthony Eden Harold Macmillan |
| Preceded by | Oliver Lyttelton |
| Succeeded by | Iain Macleod |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 18 November 1904 |
| Died | 8 March 1983 |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Lady Florence Guinness (1918-2003) |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton, CH, PC, DL (18 November 1904 – 8 March 1983) was a British Conservative politician.
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Lennox-Boyd was the son of Alan Lennox-Boyd by his second wife Florence, daughter of James Warburton Begbie. He had an elder half-sister and three full brothers, two of whom were killed in the Second World War and one who died in Germany in April 1939. He was educated at Sherborne School, Dorset and graduated from Christ Church, Oxford, with a Master of Arts. He served in the Second World War as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
Lennox-Boyd was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire in 1931 (at the age of 26), and was admitted to Inner Temple, as a barrister in 1941. He was a member of Winston Churchill's peacetime government as Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation from 1952 to 1954. In this post he once memorably opined that road accidents were the result not of the taking of large risks, but of the taking of small risks very large numbers of times.
In 1954 he became Secretary of State for the Colonies, where he oversaw early stages of decolonisation, with the granting of independence to Cyprus, Ghana, Iraq, Malaya and Sudan. He was in office during the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya, and was persuaded to stay in office by Harold Macmillan after being censured for the Hola massacre. He talked openly about independence for the Federation of Malaya, and invited the then Chief Minister of Malaya, Tunku Sir Abdul Rahman Al-Haj and his friends to Lancester House to discuss the possibility of Malaya's becoming a sovereign nation. However, after the 1959 general election he was replaced as Colonial Secretary by Iain Macleod.
In September 1960 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Boyd of Merton of Merton-in-Penninghame in the County of Wigtown. This caused a by-election for his Mid Bedfordshire constituency which was won by Stephen Hastings. He was further honoured the same year when he was appointed a Companion of Honour. Being opposed to the line taken in Harold Macmillan's Wind of Change speech, he subsequently became an early patron of the Conservative Monday Club.
Lord Boyd of Merton held the office of Deputy Lieutenant of Bedfordshire between 1954 and 1960 and Deputy Lieutenant of Cornwall in 1965. He was managing director of Arthur Guinness & Sons between 1959 and 1967, and was a Companion of Honour and Privy Councillor.
In June 1957, Lennox-Boyd, who was Secretary of State for the Colonies, received a secret memorandum written by Eric Griffiths-Jones, the attorney general of Kenya. The letter described the abuse of Mau Mau detainees. The memorandum was passed on by Sir Evelyn Baring, the Governor of Kenya, who is alleged to have added a cover letter asserting that inflicting "violent shock" is the only way to deal with Mau Mau insurgents.
In April 2011 a Guardian report[1] described a cache of government documents which may indicate that, despite clear briefings, Lennox-Boyd repeatedly denied that the abuses were happening, and publicly denounced those colonial officials who came forward to complain.
Lord Boyd married Lady Patricia Guinness, daughter of Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh, on 29 December 1938. They had three children:
Lord Boyd died in March 1983, aged 78, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Simon. Lady Boyd died in May 2001, aged 83.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Milner Gray |
Member of Parliament for Mid Bedfordshire 1931–1960 |
Succeeded by Stephen Hastings |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by John Dugdale |
Minister of State at the Colonial Office 1951–1952 |
Succeeded by Henry Hopkinson |
| Preceded by John Maclay |
Minister of Transport 1952–1953 |
Succeeded by Himself as Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation |
| Minister of Civil Aviation 1952–1952 |
||
| New title | Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation 1953–1954 |
Succeeded by John Boyd-Carpenter |
| Preceded by Oliver Lyttelton |
Secretary of State for the Colonies 1954–1959 |
Succeeded by Iain Macleod |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Viscount Boyd of Merton 1960–1983 |
Succeeded by Simon Lennox-Boyd |