Harry Crookshank, 1st Viscount Crookshank

Harry Frederick Comfort Crookshank, 1st Viscount Crookshank CH PC (27 May 1893 – 17 October 1961), was a British Conservative politician. He was Minister of Health between 1951 and 1952 and Leader of the House of Commons between 1951 and 1955.

Background and education

Crookshank was born in Cairo, Egypt, the son of Harry Maule Crookshank and Emma, daughter of Major Samuel Comfort, of New York City. On his father's side he descended from Alexander Crookshank, of County Longford, Ireland, who represented Belfast in the Irish House of Commons and served as a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland. He was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford. In the First World War he joined the Hampshire Regiment and served as a Captain in the Grenadier Guards.^[1] On one occasion he was buried alive by an explosion for twenty minutes, and on another in 1916 he was castrated by shrapnel, requiring him to wear a surgical truss for the rest of his life.^[2] He was awarded by Serbia the Order of the White Eagle and Gold Medal for Valour.^[3]

He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1919 and worked at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. until 1924.

Political career

Crookshank was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Gainsborough in 1924, a seat he held for the next 32 years.^[1][4] He entered the government as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department in 1934 under Ramsay Macdonald. When Stanley Baldwin became Prime Minister in 1935 Crookshank was appointed Secretary for Mines, a post he retained when Neville Chamberlain became Prime Minister in 1937 until February 1939. In the latter year he was sworn of the Privy Council^[5] and made Financial Secretary to the Treasury. He continued in this post also when Winston Churchill came to power in 1940,^[6] and was then Postmaster General under Churchill between 1943 and 1945.^[1]

When the Conservatives returned to office under Churchill in 1951, Crookshank was appointed Minister of Health and Leader of the House of Commons, with a seat in the cabinet. In 1952 exchanged his post at the Ministry of Health for the sinecure post of Lord Privy Seal, while he remained as Commons Leader. He continued in these two positions until December 1955, the last year under the premiership of Sir Anthony Eden.^[1] In 1955 he was made a Companion of Honour.^[1][7] He retired from the House of Commons in 1956^[1][4] and was raised to the peerage as the Viscount Crookshank, of Gainsborough in the County of Lincoln, in January of that year.^[8] He had been offered a peerage by Churchill in February 1940 but considered it at the time an insult as his First World War wounds had left him incapable of fathering any heir to a title.^[9]

Papers released by The National Archives, London, November 2007, show that Crookshank, with Harold Macmillan, led a faction within the Cabinet of Sir Winston Churchill's government, who opposed what they perceived to be an attempt to bounce the Cabinet into a premature decision to authorise a British thermonuclear bomb programme in July 1954.

Personal life

Lord Crookshank was a 33rd degree Freemason.^[10]

Incapable as result of his First World War wounds of fathering children, Crookshank was a lifelong bachelor. He was also (not publicly) known as a homosexual and caused a near scandal when a male lover of his was adopted as Conservative candidate for the Grimsby constituency in 1958 but later withdrawn.^[9]

His home from 1937 was at 51 Pont Street, Kensington, London, where in 1947 he hosted a meeting of like-minded backbench MPs who unsuccessfully demanded Churchill's removal as Conservative Party leader.^[9]

He died of cancer^[9] at Chelsea, London, in October 1961, aged 68. The viscountcy died with him.^[1] Having been since 1960 High Steward of the City of Westminster, his funeral service took place at Westminster Abbey, followed by burial at Lincoln Cathedral.^[9]

References

Books cited

• Ball, Simon (2004). The Guardsmen. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-002-57110-4.  (a joint biography of Harold Macmillan, Lord Salisbury, Oliver Lyttelton and Crookshank)

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Harry Crookshank

Secretaries of State for Health Ministers of Health Christopher Addison Alfred Mond Arthur Griffith-Boscawen Neville Chamberlain William Joynson-Hicks John Wheatley Neville Chamberlain Arthur Greenwood Neville Chamberlain Edward Hilton Young Kingsley Wood Walter Elliot Malcolm MacDonald Ernest Brown Henry Willink Aneurin Bevan Hilary Marquand Harry Crookshank Iain Macleod Robin Turton Dennis Vosper Derek Walker-Smith Enoch Powell Anthony Barber Kenneth Robinson Secretaries of State for Social Services Richard Crossman Sir Keith Joseph Barbara Castle David Ennals Patrick Jenkin Norman Fowler John Moore Secretaries of State for Health Kenneth Clarke William Waldegrave Virginia Bottomley Stephen Dorrell Frank Dobson Alan Milburn John Reid Patricia Hewitt Alan Johnson Andy Burnham Andrew Lansley Jeremy Hunt

Leaders of the House of Commons Walpole Sandys Pelham Robinson H Fox Pitt the Elder Vacant (caretaker ministry) Pitt the Elder Grenville H Fox Grenville Conway North C Fox Townshend (C Fox/North) Pitt the Younger Addington Pitt the Younger C Fox Howick Perceval Castlereagh Canning Huskisson Peel Althorp Peel Russell Disraeli Russell Palmerston Disraeli Palmerston Gladstone Disraeli Gladstone Northcote Gladstone Hicks-Beach Gladstone R Churchill Smith Balfour Gladstone Harcourt Balfour Campbell-Bannerman Asquith Bonar Law A Chamberlain Bonar Law Baldwin MacDonald Baldwin MacDonald Baldwin MacDonald Baldwin N Chamberlain W Churchill Cripps Eden Morrison Chuter Ede Crookshank Butler Macleod Lloyd Bowden Crossman Peart Whitelaw Carr Prior Short Foot St John-Stevas Pym Biffen Wakeham Howe MacGregor Newton Taylor Beckett Cook Reid Hain Hoon Straw Harman Young Lansley Hague Grayling

Cabinet of Sir Winston Churchill (1951–1955) Prime Minister First Lord of the Treasury Sir Winston Churchill (1951–55) Lord Chancellor The Lord Simonds (1951–54) The Viscount Kilmuir (1954–55) Lord President of the Council The Lord Woolton (1951–52) The Marquess of Salisbury (1952–55) Lord Privy Seal The Marquess of Salisbury (1951–52) Harry Crookshank (1952–55) Chancellor of the Exchequer Rab Butler (1951–55) Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden (1951–55) Home Secretary Welsh Secretary Sir David Maxwell Fyfe (1951–54) Gwilym Lloyd George (1954–55) Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Derick Heathcoat-Armory (1954–55) Secretary of State for the Colonies Oliver Lyttelton (1951–54) Alan Lennox-Boyd (1954–55) Minister for Coordination of Transport, Fuel and Power The Lord Leathers (1951–53) Minister of Defence Winston Churchill (1951–52) The Earl Alexander of Tunis (1952–54) Harold Macmillan (1954–55) Minister of Education Sir David Eccles (1954–55) Minister of Health Harry Crookshank (1951–52) Ministry of Housing and Local Government Harold Macmillan (1951–54) Duncan Sandys (1954–55) Minister of Labour and National Service Sir Walter Monckton (1951–55) Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster The Lord Woolton (1952–55) Minister of Materials The Lord Woolton (1953–55) Paymaster General The Lord Cherwell (1951–53) Secretary of State for Scotland James Stuart (1951–55)