David Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles

The Right Honourable The Viscount Eccles CH KCVO PC
1953 photograph of Eccles by Stoneman.
Paymaster General and Minister for the Arts
In office 20 June 1970 – 5 June 1973
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Harold Lever (Paymaster General) Jennie Lee (Minister for the Arts)
Succeeded by	Maurice Macmillan (Paymaster General) Norman St John-Stevas (Minister for the Arts)
Minister of Education
In office 14 October 1959 – 13 July 1962
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	Geoffrey Lloyd
Succeeded by	Edward Boyle
In office 18 October 1954 – 13 January 1957
Prime Minister	Anthony Eden
Preceded by	Florence Horsbrugh
Succeeded by	Quintin Hogg
President of the Board of Trade
In office 13 January 1957 – 14 October 1959
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	Peter Thorneycroft
Succeeded by	Reginald Maudling
Minister of Works
In office 1 November 1951 – 18 October 1954
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	George Brown
Succeeded by	Nigel Birch
Member of Parliament for Chippenham
In office 24 August 1943 – 13 July 1962
Preceded by	Victor Cazalet
Succeeded by	Daniel Awdry
Personal details
Born	(1904-09-18)18 September 1904
Died	24 February 1999(1999-02-24) (aged 94)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	The Hon. Sybil Dawson (1929-1977) Mary, Viscountess Eccles (1984-death)
Children	Selina Petty-FitzMaurice, Marchioness of Lansdowne The Hon. Simon Eccles The Hon. John Eccles; later 2nd Viscount Eccles
Alma mater	New College, Oxford
Occupation	Politician and Businessman
Religion	Church of England

David McAdam Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles CH KCVO PC (18 September 1904 – 24 February 1999) was an English Conservative politician.

Education and early career

Eccles was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he obtained a second-class degree in PPE. He worked with the Central Mining Corporation in London and Johannesburg. During the Second World War he worked for the Ministry of Economic Warfare from 1939 to 1940 and for the Ministry of Production from 1942 to 1943 and was Economic Adviser to the British ambassadors at Lisbon and Madrid from 1940 to 1942.

Political career

Eccles was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Chippenham in a wartime by-election in 1943, a seat he held until 1962. He served in the Conservative administrations of Churchill, Eden and Macmillan respectively as Minister of Works from 1951 to 1954 (in which position he helped organise the 1953 Coronation and was appointed KCVO), as Minister of Education from 1954 to 1957 and again from 1959 to 1962 and as President of the Board of Trade from 1957 to 1959. Eccles was also President of the Board of Trade in January 1957.^[1]

In 1962 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Eccles, of Chute in the County of Wiltshire, and in 1964 he was created Viscount Eccles, of Chute in the County of Wiltshire. Lord Eccles returned to the government in 1970 when Edward Heath appointed him Paymaster-General and Minister for the Arts, a post he held until 1973. As Minister for the Arts he clashed with the Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain Arnold Goodman over the funding of controversial plays and exhibitions and introduced mandatory admission charges at public museums and galleries. Lord Eccles was made a Doctor of Science (DSc) in 1966 by Loughborough University.^[2] He also received an Honorary Science Doctorate from the University of Bath in 1972.^[3]

Personal life

Eccles married, firstly, the Hon. Sybil Frances Dawson (1904–1977), daughter of Bertrand Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of Penn, on 1 October 1929. They had three children:

• The Hon. Selina Eccles; m. George Petty-FitzMaurice, 8th Marquess of Lansdowne; became The Marchioness of Lansdowne
• The Hon. Simon Dawson Eccles
• The Hon. John Dawson Eccles; later 2nd Viscount Eccles (born on 20 April 1931)

Widowed, he married again, this time to the book collector and philanthropist Mary Morley Crapo Hyde (1912–2003) on 26 September 1984. He died at age 94 at home of natural causes leaving an estate of approximately £2.4 million.^[4]

Styles and honours

• Mr David Eccles (1904–1943)
• Mr David Eccles MP (1943–1953)
• Sir David Eccles KCVO MP (1953–1962)
• The Rt. Hon. The Lord Eccles KCVO PC (1962–1964)
• The Rt. Hon. The Viscount Eccles KCVO PC (1964–1984)
• The Rt. Hon. The Viscount Eccles CH KCVO PC (1984–1999)

Notes

References

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Eccles

Presidents of the Board of Trade
Shaftesbury Bridgewater Stamford Weymouth Stamford Winchilsea Guilford Berkeley Suffolk Holderness Fitzwalter Monson Halifax Sandys Townshend Shelburne Hillsborough Dartmouth Hillsborough Nugent Hillsborough Dartmouth Sackville Carlisle Grantham Sydney Liverpool Montrose Auckland Bathurst Clancarty Robinson Huskisson Grant Vesey-Fitzgerald Herries Auckland Thomson Baring Thomson Labouchere Ripon Gladstone Dalhousie Clarendon Labouchere Henley Cardwell Stanley Henley Dnoughmore Gibson Northcote Richmond Bright Parkinson-Fortescue Adderley Sandon Chamberlain Richmond Stanhope Mundella Stanley Hicks Beach Mundella Bryce Ritchie Balfour Salisbury Lloyd George Churchill Buxton Burns Runciman Stanley Geddes Horne Baldwin Cunliffe-Lister Graham Cunliffe-Lister Runciman Stanley Duncan Lyttelton Duncan Llewellin Dalton Lyttelton Cripps Wilson Shawcross Thorneycroft Eccles Maulding Erroll Heath Jay Crosland Mason Noble Davies Walker Benn Varley Joseph Jenkin Shore Dell Smith Nott Biffen Cockfield Parkinson Tebbit Brittan Channon Young Ridley Lilley Heseltine Lang Beckett Mandelson Byers Hewitt Johnson Darling Hutton Mandelson Cable Javid Clark Fox

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 Brooke Boyd-Carpenter Wigg vacant Shackleton Hart Lever Eccles Macmillan Dell Williams A. Maude Pym Parkinson Gummer Clarke Brooke Caithness Ryder Belstead Cope Heathcoat-Amory Willetts Bates Robinson Primarolo Jowell F. Maude Hancock

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)