| The Right Honourable The Lord Crickhowell PC |
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|---|---|
| Secretary of State for Wales | |
| In office 4 May 1979 – 13 June 1987 |
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| Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher |
| Preceded by | John Morris |
| Succeeded by | Peter Walker |
| Member of Parliament for Pembrokeshire |
|
| In office 18 June 1970 – 11 June 1987 |
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| Preceded by | Desmond Donnelly |
| Succeeded by | Nicholas Bennett |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 25 February 1934 |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Roger Nicholas Edwards, Baron Crickhowell, PC (born 25 February 1934) is a British Conservative Party politician and a former Secretary of State for Wales.
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Educated at Westminster School, he was a director of William Brandt's insurance brokers and a director of National & Grindlays Bank Ltd. He left insurance to take Desmond Donnelly's old seat of Pembroke and served as Secretary of State for Wales in Margaret Thatcher's first and second administrations.
Lord Crickhowell currently sits in the House of Lords as a life peer. He has been associated with many British institutions, including the University of Wales, Cardiff (now Cardiff University), at which he served as president and became an honorary fellow. He received an honorary LL.D. from the University of Glamorgan.
At the 1970 general election, he was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Pembrokeshire, which he represented until his retirement at the 1987 general election. From 1975 to 1979, he was Opposition Spokesman for Welsh Affairs (in other words, the Shadow Secretary of State for Wales). When Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979, Edwards was appointed Secretary of State for Wales. So far, he remains the only Conservative Welsh Secretary elected in a Welsh constituency. He served in that position until 1987, when he was given a life peerage as Baron Crickhowell, of Pont Esgob in the Black Mountains and County of Powys.
Lord Crickhowell was the sole chairman of the National Rivers Authority (NRA) from its inception in 1989 until its merger into the newly created Environment Agency in 1996. Although his was a direct political appointment from the Conservative party who were in power at the time of the establishment of the NRA, Lord Crickhowell showed a courageous commitment to the principles of the NRA and the legislation that it enforced speaking out strongly in favour of the natural environment and supporting strong enforcement action against major corporate polluters.
During the 1990s Lord Crickhowell became a leading figure in the campaign for a permanent home for the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff. When the plans were rejected by the Government in 1995, he launched an angry and public attack on his former Conservative colleagues.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Desmond Donnelly |
Member of Parliament for Pembrokeshire 1970–1987 |
Succeeded by Nicholas Bennett |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by John Morris |
Secretary of State for Wales 1979–1987 |
Succeeded by Peter Walker |
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