George Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth

George Morgan Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth, KT, PC, DL, FRSE, (16 January 1921 – 3 October 2008) was a journalist and British politician belonging to the Labour Party. In the 1980s, he joined the Social Democratic Party. Following the SDP's merger with the Liberal Party, he became a Liberal Democrat and sat as a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1966, was raised to the Peerage in 1977 as Baron Thomson of Monifieth, of Monifieth in the District of the City of Dundee, and became a Knight of the Thistle in 1981.

Early life

Thomson was educated at Grove Academy, Broughty Ferry, Dundee, Scotland, and served in the Royal Air Force from 1941 to 1946. He was Editor of Forward, a Dundee newspaper from 1946 to 1956.

Political career

At the 1950 and 1951 general elections, Thomson stood unsuccessfully in Glasgow Hillhead. In 1952 he was elected Member of Parliament in a by-election for Dundee East, where he served until his resignation in 1972. He served in the Wilson government as Minister of State, Foreign Office from October 1964 to April 1966, then as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1966 to 1967 and again from 1969 to 1970, Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs from 1967 to 1968, and Minister without Portfolio from 1968 to 1969. During his time as Commonwealth Secretary he had responsibility for trying to reach a settlement of the Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) question and for implementing sanctions against the regime there. A strong European, he was one of the first British Commissioners of the European Community (EC) from 1973 to 1977, with responsibility for regional policy. As chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority from 1981 to 1988 he handled a controversial re-allocation of ITV network licences.

He was Chair of the Advertising Standards Authority from 1977 until 1980; Chair of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) 1981–1988; a European Commissioner, with responsibility for Regional Policy 1973–1976; First Crown Estate Commissioner from 1977 until 1980; and a Member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life from 1994 until 1997. He was Deputy Chair of the Woolwich Building Society from 1988 until 1991. He had been a Lords' Member of the Parliamentary Broadcasting Unit since 1993. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Royal Television Society, and a patron of Sustrans.^[1]

After moving with Grace to Charing, Kent, Baron Thomson held the position of Party President, for Ashford Liberal Democrats, from 1999–2006

Death

He died on Friday 3 October 2008 at London's St Thomas' Hospital, after suffering a viral infection.^[2][3]

References