Humphrey Atkins

Humphrey Edward Gregory Atkins, Baron Colnbrook KCMG PC (12 August 1922 – 4 October 1996) was a British politician^[2] and a member of the Conservative Party, he 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 née Preston and lived in Kenya until the age of three. He and his wife Margaret née Spencer-Nairn (1924-2012) had four children, three daughters and one son.^[1][3][4]

Career

Atkins was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, and served in the Royal Navy from 1940 to 1948. He worked for Nairn's, his wife's family's linoleum business in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, then became a director of a financial advertising agency. He contested the constituency of West Lothian in 1951, and was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Merton and Morden in 1955. He became MP for the Spelthorne in 1970.

Atkins was a 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 left the House of Commons in 1987 and was made a life peer as Baron Colnbrook of Waltham St Lawrence in the County of Berkshire.^[1]

Atkins died on 4 October 1996.^[3]

References

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Humphrey Atkins
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

Thatcher Cabinet
Humphrey Atkins Kenneth Baker Lord Belstead John Biffen Leon Brittan Peter Brooke Mark Carlisle Lord Carrington Paul Channon Kenneth Clarke Lord Cockfield Nicholas Edwards Norman Fowler Ian Gilmour Lord Gowrie John Gummer Lord Havers Quintin Hogg Michael Heseltine Michael Howard Sir Geoffrey Howe David Howell David Hunt Douglas Hurd Patrick Jenkin Michael Jopling Keith Joseph Tom King Norman Lamont Nigel Lawson Peter Lilley John MacGregor James Mackay John Major Angus Maude John Moore Tony Newton John Nott Cecil Parkinson Chris Patten Jim Prior Francis Pym Peter Rees Nicholas Ridley Malcolm Rifkind Lord Soames Norman St John-Stevas Norman Tebbit Margaret Thatcher David Waddington John Wakeham William Waldegrave Peter Walker William Whitelaw Lord Young of Graffham George Younger

Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland Office
Whitelaw Pym Rees Mason Atkins Prior Hurd King Brooke Mayhew Mowlam Mandelson Reid Murphy Hain* Woodward Paterson Villiers Brokenshire
*Also Secretary of State for Wales; Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland Opposition Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland