Nicholas Edwards, Baron Crickhowell

Roger Nicholas Edwards, Baron Crickhowell, PC (born 25 February 1934) is a British Conservative Party politician and a former Secretary of State for Wales.^[1]

Background

Educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, 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.

Political career

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. 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.

National Rivers Authority

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.

Welsh National Opera

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.

References

External links

• The Baron Crickhowell (Burke's Peerage)
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Nicholas Edwards

Secretaries of State for Wales Wales Office 1964–1970 Griffiths Hughes Thomas 1970–1974 Thomas 1974–1979 Morris 1979–1997 Edwards Walker Hunt Redwood Hunt Hague 1997–2010 Davies Michael Murphy Hain* Murphy Hain 2010–present Gillan Jones Crabb *Also Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (2005–2007)