Walter Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley

The Right Honourable The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley GCVO KCMG MC PC


Minister of Defence
In office 20 December 1955 – 18 October 1956
Prime Minister	Anthony Eden
Preceded by	Selwyn Lloyd
Succeeded by	Anthony Head

Personal details
Born	Walter Turner Monckton

Walter Turner Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, GCVO, KCMG, MC, PC (17 January 1891 – 9 January 1965) was a British politician.

Early years

Monckton was born in the small village of Plaxtol in north Kent. He was the eldest child of paper manufacturer Frank William Monckton (1861–1924), and his wife, Dora Constance (d. 1915).^[1] He was head boy of his preparatory school, The Knoll, at Woburn Sands in Buckinghamshire, and attended Harrow School from 1904 to 1910.^[1] He chose to enter Balliol College, Oxford as a commoner (despite winning in 1910 an Exhibition to Hertford College, Oxford) and obtained a third in classical moderations (1912) and a second in history (1914). He was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1913.^[1] He played cricket for Harrow against Eton in the famous Fowler's match in 1910. Whilst at Oxford, he played a first-class match for the combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricket team in 1911.

Career

A lawyer, Monckton served as advisor to Edward VIII during the abdication crisis, having been Attorney General to the Duchy of Cornwall since 1932. He was Recorder of Hythe from 1930-37.

He worked in propaganda and information during World War II and became Solicitor General in Winston Churchill's 1945 caretaker government, although he refused to join the Conservative Party. He finally joined after the war and became a Member of Parliament for Bristol West at a 1951 by-election. Churchill soon appointed him to the cabinet as Minister of Labour and National Service, in which post he served from 1951 to 1955. He was Anthony Eden's Minister of Defence 1955–56, but was the only cabinet minister to oppose his Suez policy, and was moved to Paymaster-General 1956–57.

Monckton was made Viscount Monckton of Brenchley in 1957. He had wanted to become Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales and indeed had been promised the job by Churchill and the subsequent two prime ministers, but in 1957 he decided instead to join the board of Midland Bank.^[2]

In 1960 he headed the Monckton Commission that concluded that the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland could not be maintained except by force or through massive changes in racial legislation. It advocated a majority of African members in the Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesian legislatures and giving these territories the option to leave the Federation after five years.^[3]^[4]

Personal life

He married Polly Colyer-Fergusson, daughter of Sir Thomas Colyer-Fergusson, the family who owned Ightham Mote, Sevenoaks. In 1947, he married, secondly, to Bridget Monckton, 11th Lady Ruthven of Freeland, CBE, the wartime head of the ATS counterpart in India, the Women's Army Corps (India), and also of the Women's Royal Indian Naval Service (WRINS). The viscountess was already a peer in her right, as the 11th Lady Ruthven of Freeland. Her title passed to her son by her previous marriage, the Earl of Carlisle, and not to her stepson, Viscount Monckton.

Lord Monckton of Brenchley was chairman of Midland Bank (1957–64), President of the Marylebone Cricket Club (1956–1957), President of Surrey County Cricket Club (1950–52 and 1959–65), Chairman of the Iraq Petroleum Company (1958), Chairman of the Advisory Commission on Central Africa (1960), and Chancellor of the University of Sussex (1961–65). He was succeeded by his son Gilbert on his death in 1965 at the age of 73.

References

1 2 3 ODNB.
↑ Devlin, Patrick, Easing the Passing, 1985. P 93
↑ R Blake, (1977). A History of Rhodesia, Knopf P.331. ISBN 0-394-48068-6.
↑ P Murray, (2005). British Documents on the End of Empire: Central Africa, Part I, Volume 9, pp.lxxiv-v, lxxx. ISBN 978-0-11290-586-8

Pugh, Martin. "Monckton, Walter Turner". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35061. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.); cited as ODNB.

Sources

The life of Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, Frederick Winston Furneaux-Smith, (1969)
Walter Monckton, H. Montgomery Hyde, (1991), ISBN 1-85619-045-5
Cricinfo profile

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Monckton of Brenchley
Monckton at the National Portrait Gallery

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Oliver Stanley	Member of Parliament for Bristol West 1951–1957	Succeeded by Robert Cooke
Legal offices
Preceded by David Maxwell Fyfe	Solicitor General for England and Wales May 1945–July 1945	Succeeded by Frank Soskice
Political offices
Preceded by Alfred Robens	Minister of Labour and National Service 1951–1955	Succeeded by Iain Macleod
Preceded by Selwyn Lloyd	Minister of Defence 1955–1956	Succeeded by Antony Head
Vacant Title last held by The Earl of Selkirk	Paymaster-General 1956–1957	Succeeded by Reginald Maudling
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Viscount Monckton of Brenchley 1957–1965	Succeeded by Gilbert Monckton

Defence Secretaries of the United Kingdom
Minister for Co-ordination of Defence	Sir Thomas Inksip The Lord Chatfield
Ministers for Defence	Winston Churchill Clement Attlee A. V. Alexander Manny Shinwell Winston Churchill The Earl Alexander of Tunis Harold Macmillan Selwyn Lloyd Sir Walter Monckton Anthony Head Duncan Sandys Harold Watkinson Peter Thorneycroft
Secretaries of State for Defence	Peter Thorneycroft Denis Healey The Lord Carrington Ian Gilmour Roy Mason Fred Mulley Francis Pym John Nott Michael Heseltine George Younger Tom King Malcolm Rifkind Michael Portillo George Robertson Geoff Hoon John Reid Des Browne John Hutton Bob Ainsworth Liam Fox Philip Hammond Michael Fallon

Paymasters General
Parnell Stanley Knatchbull Baring Macaulay Granville Stanley Colchester Stanley Pleydell-Bouverie Lowe Donoughmore Lovaine Wilson Cowper Hutt Goschen Monsell Cave Dufferin Childers Adam Cave Plunket Wolverton Beauchamp Thurlow Beauchamp Brownlow Jersey Windsor Seale-Hayne Hopetoun Marlborough Crossley Causton Ashby Strachie Newton Henderson Compton-Rickett Walters vacant Chamberlain Joynson-Hicks Boyd-Carpenter Gosling vacant Sutherland Onslow Arnold vacant Walters Rochester Hutchison Munster Winterton vacant Cranborne vacant Hankey Jowitt Cherwell vacant Greenwood Marquand Addison Macdonald Cherwell Selkirk vacant Monckton Maulding Mills H. Brooke Boyd-Carpenter Wigg vacant Shackleton Hart Lever Eccles Macmillan Dell Williams A. Maude Pym Parkinson J. Gummer Clarke P. Brooke Caithness Ryder Belstead Cope Heathcoat-Amory Willetts Bates Robinson Primarolo Jowell F. Maude Hancock B. Gummer Stride

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	Florence Horsbrugh (1951-1954 - in cabinet 1953-1954 only) 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)

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