The Right Honourable The Lord Bottomley OBE PC
Bottomley in 1946
Minister of Overseas Development
In office 11 August 1966 – 29 August 1967
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Anthony Greenwood
Succeeded by	Reg Prentice
Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
In office 16 October 1964 – 1 August 1966
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Duncan Sandys
Succeeded by	Herbert Bowden
Secretary for Overseas Trade
In office 7 October 1947 – 26 October 1951
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	Harold Wilson
Succeeded by	Henry Hopkinson
Parliamentary offices Member of Parliament forMiddlesbrough Middlesbrough East (1962–1974) In office 15 March 1962 – 13 May 1983 Preceded by Hilary Marquand Succeeded by Stuart Bell Member of Parliament for Rochester and Chatham Chatham (1945–1950) In office 5 July 1945 – 18 September 1959 Preceded by Leonard Plugge Succeeded by Julian Critchley
Personal details
Born	Arthur George Bottomley 7 February 1907 London, England
Died	3 November 1995 (aged 88) London, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Bessie Wiles (m. 1936)

Arthur George Bottomley, Baron Bottomley,OBE PC (7 February 1907 – 3 November 1995) was a BritishLabour Party politician, Member of Parliament and minister.

Before entering parliament he was atrade union organiser of theNational Union of Public Employees (which later became part ofUNISON). From 1929 to 1949 he was a councillor onWalthamstow Borough Council, and in 1945–1946 he wasMayor ofWalthamstow. He was appointed anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the1941 Birthday Honours.^[1]

Bottomley was first elected toparliament in the1945 general election for theChatham division ofRochester and he held the seat (later renamedRochester and Chatham) until losing it in the1959 general election to theConservativeJulian Critchley. He returned to parliament by winningMiddlesbrough East in a1962 by-election and held the seat, and its successorMiddlesbrough, until his retirement in 1983.

Bottomley was a junior minister inClement Attlee's governments, being ParliamentaryUnder-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs (1946–47), ParliamentaryUnder-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (1947) andSecretary for Overseas Trade at theBoard of Trade (1947–51). InHarold Wilson's governments, Bottomley wasSecretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (1964–66) — during which time he sought to deal with the consequences ofRhodesia'sUnilateral Declaration of Independence — andMinister of Overseas Development (1966–67).

Announced in the1984 New Year Honours,^[2] he was created alife peer asBaron Bottomley ofMiddlesbrough in theCounty of Cleveland, on 31 January 1984.^[3]

Lord Bottomley died on 3 November 1995 at the age of 88.

His wife, Bessie Ellen Bottomley (née Wiles),JP, whom he married in 1936,^[4] was named aDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1970 "[f]or public and social services."

Bessie Ellen Bottomley died in 1998 inRedbridge, Essex.

• The Use and Abuse of Trade Unions, London: Ampersand, 1963.
• With George Sinclair,Control of Commonwealth Immigration. An Analysis and Summary of the Evidence taken by the Select Committee on Race Relations and Immigration 1969–70. London: Runnymede Trust, 1970 (ISBN 9780902397033).
• Commonwealth, Comrades, and Friends, Somaiya Publications, 1986.

• Hansard 1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by Arthur Bottomley
• Catalogue of the Bottomley papers at theArchives Division of theLondon School of Economics.
• Parliamentary Archives, Papers of Arthur Bottomley

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