John Jestyn Llewellin, 1st Baron Llewellin

Colonel John Jestyn Llewellin, 1st Baron Llewellin GBE, PC, MC, TD (6 February 1893 – 24 January 1957) was a British army officer, Conservative Party politician and minister in Winston Churchill's war government.

Background

Llewellin was the son of William Llewellin, of Upton House, Dorset, and Frances Mary, daughter of L. D. Wigan. He was educated at Eton.^[1]

Military career

Llewellin was commissioned into the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1914 and reached the rank of Major during the First World War, winning the Military Cross in 1917. He remained in the Territorial Army after the war and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the Dorset Heavy Brigade in 1932. He was promoted Colonel in 1936 and retired in 1938.

Political career

Llewellin was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Uxbridge in Middlesex in 1929. He held a number of ministerial posts in the Coalition government, eventually serving as President of the Board of Trade for two weeks in 1942. He subsequently became Minister of Aircraft Production in which capacity he served on the combined policy committee set up by the British and United States governments under the Quebec Agreement of 1943 to oversee the construction of the atomic bomb.

In December 1943 Lewellin's seat on the committee was assumed by Sir Ronald Campbell and Llewellin became Minister of Food, the position he held until the Churchill government fell to the Labour Party of Clement Attlee in July 1945. Llewellin lost his seat in the election and was raised to the peerage as Baron Llewellin, of Upton in the County of Dorset.^[2] After the war he served as Governor General of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland between 1953 and his death in January 1957.

Personal life

Lord Lewellin died in January 1957, aged 63, when the barony became extinct.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Jestyn Llewellin