John Ganzoni, 2nd Baron Belstead

The Right Honourable
The Lord Belstead
PC
Paymaster General
In office
28 November 1990  11 April 1992
Prime Minister John Major
Preceded by Richard Ryder
Succeeded by John Cope
Leader of the House of Lords
In office
10 January 1988  28 November 1990
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by The Viscount Whitelaw
Succeeded by The Lord Waddington
Lord Privy Seal
In office
10 January 1988  28 November 1990
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by The Lord Wakeham
Succeeded by The Lord Waddington
Personal details
Born (1932-09-30)30 September 1932
Died 3 December 2005(2005-12-03) (aged 73)
Political party Conservative
Alma mater Christ Church, Oxford

John Julian Ganzoni, 2nd Baron Belstead PC (30 September 1932 – 3 December 2005) was a British Conservative politician and peer who served as Leader of the House of Lords under Margaret Thatcher from 1988 to 1990.

Background and education

Ganzoni was the only son of Sir Francis Ganzoni, a barrister and Conservative MP for Ipswich who was created Baron Belstead in 1938, and his wife Gwendolen Gertrude Turner, daughter of Arthur Turner, of Ipswich. He went to Eton before reading history at Christ Church, Oxford.[1]

Political career

Belstead showed little interest in politics at first, and waited six years after succeeding to the peerage on his father's death in 1958 before making his maiden speech. In 1970 Edward Heath appointed him to become Parliamentary Under-Secretary to Margaret Thatcher at the Department of Education and Science, he was moved in the same rank to the Northern Ireland Office three years later. When Margaret Thatcher led the Tories back to power in 1979, she sent him to the Home Office. He was then made Minister at the Foreign Office when Lord Carrington and his team resigned after the Falklands invasion.

He next moved to the Ministry of Fisheries and Food, and went back to the Education Department again before becoming Deputy Leader to William Whitelaw as Leader of the House of Lords. He succeeded Whitelaw in that post in 1988. After losing his Cabinet seat in 1990 he became Paymaster-General and Northern Ireland Minister under John Major, retiring from the Government to become Chairman of the Parole Board in 1992.

In 1983, he was sworn of the Privy Council. After the House of Lords Act 1999 removed the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords, he was created a life peer (an honour given to all former Leaders of the House of Lords) as Baron Ganzoni, of Ipswich in the County of Suffolk. He also gave his name to the new "Belstead Centre" at Woodbridge School.

Personal life

Lord Belstead never married. He died in December 2005, aged 73, when both the hereditary peerage and the baronetcy became extinct.[1]

He was an active Freemason and president of the Board of General Purposes for the United Grand Lodge of England.[2]

Coat of arms

Arms of John Ganzoni, 2nd Baron Belstead
Notes
Coat of arms of the Ganzoni family
Coronet
A coronet of a Baron
Crest
A Demi Lion Or supporting a Gentian Plant as in the Arms
Escutcheon
Per fess Azure and Argent a Gentian Plant flowered and eradicated proper between in chief a Mullet and an Increscent both Or
Supporters
On either side a Seahorse proper gorged with a Collar pendent therefrom a Portcullis chained Or
Motto
Fidelitas Vincit (Fidelity overcomes)

References

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
The Viscount Whitelaw
Leader of the House of Lords
1988–1990
Succeeded by
The Lord Waddington
Preceded by
John Wakeham
Lord Privy Seal
1988–1990
Preceded by
Richard Ryder
Paymaster General
1990–1992
Succeeded by
John Cope
Party political offices
Preceded by
The Viscount Whitelaw
Leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords
1988–1990
Succeeded by
The Lord Waddington
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Joshua Rowley
Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk
1994–2003
Succeeded by
The Lord Tollemache
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Francis Ganzoni
Baron Belstead
1958–2005
Extinct
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