Charles Delacourt-Smith, Baron Delacourt-Smith

The Right Honourable
The Lord Delacourt-Smith
PC JP
Minister of State for Technology
In office
1969–1970
Serving with Eric Varley
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
MinisterTony Benn
Member of Parliament for Colchester
In office
26 July 1945 – 3 February 1950
Preceded byOswald Lewis
Succeeded byCuthbert Alport
Personal details
Born
Charles George Percy Smith

25 April 1917
Died2 August 1972 (aged 55)
Political partyLabour
SpouseMargaret Hando
Children1 son, 2 daughters
Alma materWadham College, Oxford

Charles George Percy Delacourt-Smith, Baron Delacourt-Smith PC, JP (25 April 1917 – 2 August 1972[1]), was a British trade unionist and Labour Party politician.

Background and education

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Born in Windsor and named after his father, he was the only son of Charles Smith and his wife Ethel.[2] He was educated at Windsor Grammar School and went then to Wadham College, Oxford, graduating with a Master of Arts[3] At Oxford he was elected Librarian of the Oxford Union.

Working life

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After university, he became employed at the New Fabian Research Bureau as a research assistant.[2] In 1939, he came to the Civil Service Clerical Association and was an assistant secretary until 1953.[2] Subsequently, he joined the Post Office Engineering Union, serving as its general secretary 1967.[1] In 1960, he was nominated a justice of the peace, assigned to the County of London.[2]

Political career

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Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Delacourt-Smith entered the Royal Engineers in July 1940.[2] He was commissioned in January 1943 and was transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps, where he was promoted to captain and was mentioned in despatches.[3] After the end of the war Delacourt-Smith was admitted to the British House of Commons in 1945, having been elected for Colchester.[3] He represented the constituency until 1950 and during this time was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Philip Noel-Baker in the latter's capacity as Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations.[3] In 1947, he was chosen as an executive member of Labour's Research Department, a position he held for the next four years.[2]

Delacourt-Smith was created a life peer as Baron Delacourt-Smith, of New Windsor, in the Royal County of Berks in 1967 and thus was ennobled to a seat in the House of Lords.[4] Two years later he was appointed Minister of State for Technology and on this occasion sworn of the Privy Council.[1] In 1970, when the Conservative Party took office he was replaced as Minister.[1]

Personal life

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In 1939, he married Margaret, the daughter of Frederick Hando.[5] They both had one son and two daughters.[5] Together with his wife and younger daughter, he assumed the additional surname Delacourt by a deed poll in 1967.[6] He died, aged 55, at the Westminster Hospital, London in 1972, after suffering a stroke while making a speech in the House of Lords, being survived by his wife.[5] Two years after his death she received a life peerage in her own right.[7]

Works

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  • Democratic Sweden (1938), Smith, G. and Cole, M. (eds), Routledge
  • Britain's Food Supplies in Peace and War (1940), Smith, C., Routledge
  • Modern Turkey (1940), Parker, J. and Smith, C., Routledge

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d Silva (1973), p. 510
  2. ^ a b c d e f Who's Who (1963), p. 2825
  3. ^ a b c d Dod (1969), p. 78
  4. ^ "No. 44432". The London Gazette. 17 October 1967. p. 11275.
  5. ^ a b c Dod (2004), p. 538
  6. ^ "No. 44422". The London Gazette. 3 October 1967. pp. 10717–10718.
  7. ^ "No. 46352". The London Gazette. 24 September 1974. p. 7918.

References

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  • Who's Who 1963. London: Adam & Charles Black Ltd. 1963.
  • Charles Roger Dod; Robert Philip Dod (1969). Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1969. Dod's Parliamentary Companion Ltd.
  • Charles Roger Dod; Robert Phipps Dod (2004). Dod's Parliamentary Companion 2004. Vacher Dod Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-905702-43-3.
  • Michel Silva, ed. (1973). Britannica Book of the Year 1973. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. ISBN 0-85229-282-1.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Colchester
1945–1950 		Succeeded by
Non-profit organization positions
Preceded by General Secretary of the Post Office Engineering Union
1953–1972 		Succeeded by
Preceded by President of the Postal, Telegraph and Telephone International
1967–1969 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of State for Technology
1969–1970
With: Eric Varley 		Succeeded by
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