The Lord Houghton of Sowerby | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by Walter Bird, 1963 | |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
| In office 18 October 1964 – 6 April 1966 | |
| Prime Minister | Harold Wilson |
| Preceded by | The Lord Blakenham |
| Succeeded by | George Thomson |
| Member of Parliament forSowerby | |
| In office 17 March 1949 – 8 February 1974 | |
| Preceded by | John Belcher |
| Succeeded by | Max Madden |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 August 1898 |
| Died | 2 May 1996 (aged 97) |
| Spouse | Vera Travis |
Arthur Leslie Noel Douglas Houghton, Baron Houghton of Sowerby,CH, PC (11 August 1898 – 2 May 1996) was a BritishLabour politician. He was the last British Cabinet minister born in the 19th century. After he retired in 1967, every Cabinet minister has been born since 1900. He was also the last veteran ofWorld War I to serve in the Cabinet and both Houses of Parliament.
Houghton was born inLong Eaton,Derbyshire[1] and later secured a post in thecivil service. He then fought in theFirst World War, surviving theBattle of Passchendaele.
Houghton was a great believer in equality of opportunity and campaigned for certain numbers of lower (clerical) grade civil servants to have the chance of taking an examination that could lead to previously unheard-of promotion[citation needed]. In 1922, he founded theInland Revenue Staff Federation and was its leader from 1922 to 1960. He served on the General Council of theTrades Union Congress from 1952 to 1960, and as Chairman of the Staff Side Civil Service National Whitley Council from 1955 to 1957.
He was a panel member of a BBC radio programmeCan I help You? between 1941 and 1964. His connections with theLondon Labour movement and the Labour Party gave him the profile to become anAlderman of theLondon County Council - the forerunner of theGreater London Council - from 1947–1949.
AfterJohn Belcher quit theHouse of Commons over accusations of minor dishonesty, Houghton was persuaded to seek nomination for the subsequent by-election. He secured this and on 16 March 1949 was elected to Parliament for theYorkshire constituency ofSowerby with a majority of 2,152.
He was re-elected in the subsequent general elections of 1950, 1951, 1955, 1959, 1964, 1966 and 1970. His head for figures and tenacity made him a good candidate for Chairman of thePublic Accounts Committee in the House of Commons, succeedingHarold Wilson in this post after Wilson was elected Leader of the Labour Party in 1963. When, after 13 years in government, theConservative Party was defeated in October 1964, Houghton became acabinet minister in Wilson's first government and was appointed aPrivy Counsellor.
The post ofChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster after 1964 gave Houghton a position in the cabinet and special responsibility forSocial Services but not an actual department over which he could preside. This made it hard to be particularly effective as a minister, and in a 1966 reshuffle, Wilson made himMinister without Portfolio.
Houghton became aMember of the Order of the Companions of Honour on 5 January 1967[2] and was dropped from government in 1967 and became Chairman of theParliamentary Labour Party (PLP) which is a post designed to help shape and reflect the backbench Labour MPs' views but keep them in dialogue with the Labour leadership. His predecessor,Emanuel Shinwell, could be rather fiery and unpredictable. By contrast, Houghton had a tenacity and command of detail that made him a highly suitable person for the task, given there was perceived to be quite a lot of factionalism in the party at the time. He retired from the House of Commons at the February 1974 General Election and was elevated to theHouse of Lords asBaron Houghton of Sowerby, of Sowerby in the County ofWest Yorkshire a few months later on 20 June.[3]
Shortly before he died in 1996, he was the last member of the House of Lords to have fought in the First World War, and at 97, was then its oldest serving member.[1] A warm tribute was paid to him byTam Dalyell, himself a former MP, in one of Britain's national newspapers.[1]
TheLabour History Archive and Study Centre at thePeople's History Museum inManchester holds the collection of Douglas Houghton, whose papers include those of theParliamentary Labour Party, animal charities and pressure groups, as well as broadcasts, speeches and correspondence.[4]
Houghton was passionate about the subject ofanimal welfare and spoke in the House of Lords on the subject a number of times. Houghton andLord Platt proposed what became known as the Houghton/Platt Memorandum on Animal Experimentation to the Home Secretary on 4 August 1976.[5] He also inaugurated the "Putting Animals in Politics" campaign in 1976.[6] These led to the formation of Committee for the Reform of Animal Experimentation (CRAE) which aimed to reform the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876. The outcome was theAnimals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. Houghton was a patron ofFRAME (1987–1996).[5]Andrew Linzey has written that Houghton "devoted the last twenty-five years of his life to animal advocacy.[6]
In 1939, he marriedVera Houghton who also worked at Association of Officers for Taxes, before becoming a campaigner for abortion law reform and free birth control.[7]
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| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by New position | General Secretary of theInland Revenue Staff Federation 1936–1960 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1964–1966 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forSowerby 1949–1974 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party 1967–1974 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
