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Humphrey Atkins

British politician (1922-1996)

Summary

British politician (1922-1996)

Field	Value
honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
name	The Lord Colnbrook
honorific-suffix
image	Humphrey Atkins 1963.jpg
image_size	200px
caption	Atkins in 1963
office	Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
(Government spokesperson for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs)
primeminister	Margaret Thatcher
term_start	11 September 1981
term_end	7 April 1982
predecessor	Ian Gilmour
successor	Baroness Young
office1	Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
primeminister1	Margaret Thatcher
term_start1	4 May 1979
term_end1	11 September 1981
predecessor1	Roy Mason
successor1	Jim Prior
office2	Opposition Chief Whip of the House of Commons
leader2	Edward Heath
Margaret Thatcher
term_start2	4 March 1974
term_end2	4 May 1979
predecessor2	Bob Mellish
successor2	Michael Cocks
office3	Government Chief Whip of the House of Commons
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
primeminister3	Edward Heath
term_start3	2 December 1973
term_end3	4 March 1974
predecessor3	Francis Pym
successor3	Bob Mellish
office4	Government Deputy Chief Whip
Treasurer of the Household
primeminister4	Edward Heath
term_start4	18 June 1970
term_end4	2 December 1973
predecessor4	Charles Morris
successor4	Bernard Weatherill
office5	Member of Parliament
for Spelthorne
term_start5	18 June 1970
term_end5	18 May 1987
predecessor5	Beresford Craddock
successor5	David Wilshire
office6	Member of Parliament
for Merton and Morden
term_start6	26 May 1955
term_end6	29 May 1970
predecessor6	Robert Ryder
successor6	Janet Fookes
birth_date
birth_place	Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, England
death_date
death_place	Waltham St Lawrence, Berkshire, England
party	Conservative
spouse	Margaret Spencer-Nairn
children	4
relatives	Anna Keay (granddaughter)

|honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable |honorific-suffix = (Government spokesperson for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) Margaret Thatcher Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury Treasurer of the Household for Spelthorne for Merton and Morden John Keay (son-in-law) Humphrey Edward Gregory Atkins, Baron Colnbrook, (12 August 1922 – 4 October 1996) was a British politician and a member of the Conservative Party. He served for 32 years as a Member of Parliament (MP), and served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from 1979 to 1982.

Early life

Atkins was born on 12 August 1922, in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, son of Captain Edward Davis Atkins and Violet Mary (). His family spent his first few years in Kenya, returning to England after his father died from being attacked by a rhinoceros. Atkins was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, and served in the Royal Navy from 1940 to 1948.

In 1944, Atkins married Margaret Spencer-Nairn. He worked for Nairn's, his wife's family's linoleum business in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, then became a director of a financial advertising agency.

Political career

Atkins contested the constituency of West Lothian in 1951, and was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Merton and Morden in 1955. He became MP for Spelthorne in 1970.

Atkins was the Conservative Chief Whip from 1973 to 1979, and served as a Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1979 to 1981. In September 1981, he was appointed as Lord Privy Seal, which was a role as the chief government spokesman in the House of Commons for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. This role was necessary because the Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, sat in the House of Lords. He resigned in April 1982, along with Lord Carrington, over the Falklands invasion.

Atkins was appointed to the Order of St Michael and St George as a Knight Commander (KCMG) in the 1983 Dissolution Honours. He left the House of Commons in 1987 and was created a life peer on 16 October as Baron Colnbrook, of Waltham St Lawrence in the Royal County of Berkshire.

Death

Atkins died from cancer on 4 October 1996, aged 74, at home in Waltham St Lawrence, Berkshire.

References

[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10892310/Anna-Keay-on-India-motherhood-and-the-Duke-of-Monmouth.html?msockid=38f173fb6e26676738cf66fe6f5566a1 The Telegraph website, ''Anna Keay on India, motherhood and the Duke of Monmouth'', article by Hermione Lister Kaye dated June 13, 2014]
(7 October 1996). "Obituaries : Lord Colnbrook". The Independent.
Roth, Andrew. (2004). "Atkins, Humphrey Edward Gregory, Baron Colnbrook (1922–1996), politician".
Froggatt, Richard. "Humphrey Atkins (1922–1996): Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 1979–1981". Ulster History Circle.
[https://members.parliament.uk/constituency/1940/overview UK Parliament website, ''Merton and Morden'']
[https://members.parliament.uk/constituency/2734/overview UK Parliament website, ''Spelthorne'']
[https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/biography/Humphry_Atkins_1979.html CAIN website, ''Atkins, Humphrey Edward Gregory'']
{{London Gazette. (21 July 1983)
{{London Gazette. (21 October 1987)

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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