1.
James Prior (surgeon)
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Sir James Prior was an Irish surgeon and writer. The son of Matthew Prior, he was born at Lisburn about 1790 and he entered the Royal Navy as a surgeon, and sailed from Plymouth in the frigate HMS Nisus on 22 June 1810. His next expedition, also in the Nisus, was to Table Bay, St. Helena, Rio de Janeiro, Prior was present at the surrender of Heligoland, which was confirmed to the United Kingdom by the treaty of Kiel on 14 January 1814. He then became surgeon to the Chatham division of the Royal Marines. His next appointment was that of assistant to the director-general of the department of the navy. Prior was elected member of the Royal Irish Academy and Athenæum Club in 1830 and he was knighted at St. Jamess Palace on 11 June 1858. For many years before his death he resided at Norfolk Crescent, Hyde Park and he died at Brighton on 14 November 1869. Priors major works were biographies of Edmund Burke and Oliver Goldsmith, the Memoir of the Life and Character of Edmund Burke appeared in 1824, and was reissued, enlarged to two volumes, in 1826. The third edition came out in 1839, the fourth in 1846, and, after it had been revised by the author, when John Forster brought out in 1848 his Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmith, he was accused by Prior of wholesale plagiarism. Washington Irving, in his Life of Goldsmith, admitted his obligations to Prior, voyage along the Eastern Coast of Africa, included in the second volume of Phillipss Voyages. The Remonstrance of a Tory to Sir Robert Peel,1827, the Country House and other Poems,1846. Invitation to Malvern, a poem with introductory poetical epistle to Charles Phillips,1851, lines on reading Verses of Admiral Smyth,1857. Life of Edmond Malone, with Selections from his Manuscript Anecdotes,1860, Prior married, in 1817, Dorothea, widow of a Mr. E. James. She died at Oxford Terrace, Hyde Park, on 28 November 1841, in 1847 he married Carolina, widow of Charles H. Watson, who died on 14 December 1881, aged 85. Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Lee, Sidney, ed. Prior
2.
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
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Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians, who are present or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, the Council also holds the delegated authority to issue Orders of Council, mostly used to regulate certain public institutions. The Council advises the sovereign on the issuing of Royal Charters, which are used to grant special status to incorporated bodies, otherwise, the Privy Councils powers have now been largely replaced by the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The Judicial Committee consists of judges appointed as Privy Counsellors, predominantly Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The Privy Council of the United Kingdom was preceded by the Privy Council of Scotland, the key events in the formation of the modern Privy Council are given below, Witenagemot was an early equivalent to the Privy Council of England. During the reigns of the Norman monarchs, the English Crown was advised by a court or curia regis. The body originally concerned itself with advising the sovereign on legislation, administration, later, different bodies assuming distinct functions evolved from the court. The courts of law took over the business of dispensing justice, nevertheless, the Council retained the power to hear legal disputes, either in the first instance or on appeal. Furthermore, laws made by the sovereign on the advice of the Council, powerful sovereigns often used the body to circumvent the Courts and Parliament. During Henry VIIIs reign, the sovereign, on the advice of the Council, was allowed to enact laws by mere proclamation, the legislative pre-eminence of Parliament was not restored until after Henry VIIIs death. Though the royal Council retained legislative and judicial responsibilities, it became an administrative body. The Council consisted of forty members in 1553, but the sovereign relied on a smaller committee, by the end of the English Civil War, the monarchy, House of Lords, and Privy Council had been abolished. The remaining parliamentary chamber, the House of Commons, instituted a Council of State to execute laws, the forty-one members of the Council were elected by the House of Commons, the body was headed by Oliver Cromwell, de facto military dictator of the nation. In 1653, however, Cromwell became Lord Protector, and the Council was reduced to thirteen and twenty-one members, all elected by the Commons. In 1657, the Commons granted Cromwell even greater powers, some of which were reminiscent of those enjoyed by monarchs, the Council became known as the Protectors Privy Council, its members were appointed by the Lord Protector, subject to Parliaments approval. In 1659, shortly before the restoration of the monarchy, the Protectors Council was abolished, Charles II restored the Royal Privy Council, but he, like previous Stuart monarchs, chose to rely on a small group of advisers. Under George I even more power transferred to this committee and it now began to meet in the absence of the sovereign, communicating its decisions to him after the fact. Thus, the British Privy Council, as a whole, ceased to be a body of important confidential advisers to the sovereign and it is closely related to the word private, and derives from the French word privé
3.
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
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The Secretary of State is a Minister of the Crown who is accountable to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is the chief minister in the Northern Ireland Office. As with other ministers, the position is appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, the position is normally described simply as the Secretary of State by residents of Northern Ireland. g. Security, human rights, certain public inquiries and the administration of elections, created in 1972, the position has switched between Members of Parliament from the Conservative Party and Labour Party. This contrasts with the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Secretary of State for Wales, historically, the principal ministers for Irish affairs in the UK Government and its predecessors were, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, and the Home Secretary. In August 1969, for example, Home Secretary James Callaghan approved the sending of British Army soldiers to Northern Ireland, the office of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland was created following the suspension, then abolition, of the Northern Ireland Parliament, following widespread civil strife. The UK Government was increasingly concerned that the Northern Ireland Government was losing control of the situation, on 24 March 1972, it announced that direct rule from Westminster would be introduced. This took effect on 30 March 1972, the post effectively filled three roles which existed under the previous Stormont regime, the Governor of Northern Ireland, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and the Minister of Home Affairs. Direct rule was seen as a measure, with a power-sharing devolution preferred as the solution. The Sunningdale Agreement in 1973 resulted in a brief, power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive, from 1 January 1974, the strikers opposed the power-sharing and all-Ireland aspects of the new administration. The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention and Northern Ireland Assembly were unsuccessful in restoring devolved government, after the Anglo-Irish Agreement on 15 November 1985, the UK Government and Irish Government co-operated more closely on security and political matters. Following the Belfast Agreement on 10 April 1998, devolution returned to Northern Ireland on 2 December 1999 and this removed many of the duties of the Secretary of State and his Northern Ireland Office colleagues and devolved them to locally elected politicians, constituting the Northern Ireland Executive. On each of these occasions, the responsibilities of the ministers in the Executive then returned to the Secretary of State and his ministers. During these periods, in addition to administration of the region, power was again devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly on 8 May 2007. The Secretary of State retained responsibility for policing and justice until most of powers were devolved on 12 April 2010
4.
Margaret Thatcher
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She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century, and the first woman to have held the office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her The Iron Lady, a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics, as Prime Minister, she implemented policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism. A research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959, Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition and she became Prime Minister after winning the 1979 general election. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation, flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies and she narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in 1984. Thatcher was re-elected for a term in 1987. During this period her support for a Community Charge was widely unpopular and she resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a peerage as Baroness Thatcher which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. After a series of strokes in 2002, she was advised to withdraw from public speaking. Despite this, she managed to pre-record a eulogy to Ronald Reagan prior to his death, in 2013, she died of another stroke in London, at the age of 87. Always a controversial figure, she has described as one of the greatest and most influential politicians in British history. Thatcher was born Margaret Hilda Roberts on 13 October 1925, in Grantham and her father was Alfred Roberts, originally from Northamptonshire, and her mother was Beatrice Ethel from Lincolnshire. She spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned two grocery shops, Prior to the Second World War, in 1938 the Roberts family gave sanctuary to a teenage Jewish girl escaping Nazi Germany. Thatcher was to describe this in her memoirs as among the significant events of her formative years, Alfred Roberts was an alderman and a Methodist local preacher, and brought up his daughter as a strict Wesleyan Methodist attending the Finkin Street Methodist Church. He came from a Liberal family but stood as an Independent and he was Mayor of Grantham in 1945–46 and lost his position as alderman in 1952 after the Labour Party won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950. Margaret Roberts attended Huntingtower Road Primary School and won a scholarship to Kesteven and her school reports showed hard work and continual improvement, her extracurricular activities included the piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking. She was head girl in 1942–43, in her upper sixth year she applied for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, but she was initially rejected and was offered a place only after another candidate withdrew. Her dissertation was on the structure of the antibiotic gramicidin, even while working on chemistry, she was already thinking towards law and politics
5.
Humphrey Atkins
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Humphrey Edward Gregory Atkins, Baron Colnbrook KCMG PC was a British politician and a member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from 1979 to 1982. Atkins was born on 12 August 1922, in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, son of Captain Edward Davis Atkins and Violet Mary née Preston and he and his wife Margaret née Spencer-Nairn had four children, three daughters and one son. Atkins was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, and served in the Royal Navy from 1940 to 1948 and he worked for Nairns, his wifes familys 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 for Merton and he became MP for Spelthorne in 1970. Atkins was a Conservative Chief Whip from 1973 to 1979, on 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 and 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 in the 1983 Dissolution Honours and he 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. Atkins died on 4 October 1996, hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Humphrey Atkins Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs
6.
Douglas Hurd
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Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE, PC is a British Conservative politician who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1979 to 1995. Born in the town of Marlborough in Wiltshire, Hurd first entered Parliament in February 1974 as MP for the Mid Oxfordshire constituency. He stood unsuccessfully for the Conservative Party leadership in 1990, in 1997, Hurd was elevated to the House of Lords and is one of the Conservative Partys most senior elder statesmen. He is a patron of the Tory Reform Group and remains a figure in public life. He retired from the Lords in 2016, Douglas Hurd was born in 1930 in the market town of Marlborough in Wiltshire. His father Anthony Hurd and grandfather Sir Percy Hurd were also Members of Parliament and his uncle, Sir Archibald Hurd, was a leading Fleet Street shipping correspondent, who became a Freeman Honoris Causa of the Shipwrights Company in 1922 and was knighted in 1928. Hurd attended Twyford School and Eton College, where he was a Kings Scholar and he then went up to Cambridge University, where he graduated with a first-class degree in history at Trinity College as well as serving as president of the Cambridge Union Society. In 1952, Hurd joined the Diplomatic Service and he was posted to China, the United States and Italy, before leaving the service in 1966 to enter politics as a member of the Conservative Party. Hurd became PPS to the then Conservative leader Edward Heath, and was first elected to Parliament in February 1974 to represent the constituency of Mid Oxfordshire. After his election, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the February 1974 Dissolution Honours, gazetted on 2 April 1974. At the 1983 general election the seat was replaced by Witney, Hurd was appointed Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office upon the Conservative victory in the 1979 general election and remained in that post for the duration of the Parliament. After the 1983 election Thatcher moved Hurd to the Home Office, a month before the agreement was signed, however, Hurd returned to the Home Office, this time as Home Secretary, following the demotion of Leon Brittan to the Department of Trade and Industry. After a sound performance as Home Secretary, Hurds Cabinet career progressed further during the turbulent final months of Margaret Thatchers prime ministership. On 26 October 1989, Hurd moved to the Foreign Office, succeeding John Major and this was the post in which Hurd made his greatest political impact. Hurds Etonian education may have also been a disadvantage, Hurd was gracious in defeat and, on the formation of Majors first Cabinet, was returned to his former position as Foreign Secretary. Hurd was widely regarded as a statesmanlike British Foreign Secretary, his tenure having been particularly eventful. He oversaw Britains diplomatic responses to the end of the Cold War, Hurd was a signatory of the Maastrict Treaty establishing the European Union in 1992. Hurd welcomed a reunified Germany into the European political community in 1990, one of the defining features of Hurds tenure as Foreign Secretary was the British reaction to the increasingly vicious Yugoslav Wars
7.
Albert Booth
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Albert Edward Booth was a British left-wing Labour Party politician. Booth was educated at Marine School, South Shields and Rutherford College of Technology and he served as a councillor on Tynemouth Council 1962–65. He was Member of Parliament for Barrow-in-Furness from 1966 to 1983 and he also acted as the Labour Partys national Treasurer between 1983–1984. After boundary changes, his seat was renamed Barrow and Furness, for the 1983 General Election and this has often been attributed to Labours unilateralist policy of nuclear disarmament, and Booth himself identified with that, leading a CND march through his constituency. However, his constituents were reliant on the industries, particularly shipbuilding. However, a campaign against him centred in a local Catholic church, despite contesting Warrington South in 1987, Booth never won back a seat in Parliament
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