Nicholas Edwards, Baron Crickhowell

The Right Honourable The Lord Crickhowell PC
Secretary of State for Wales
In office 4 May 1979 – 13 June 1987
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	John Morris
Succeeded by	Peter Walker
Shadow Secretary of State for Wales
In office 18 February 1975 – 4 May 1979
Leader	Margaret Thatcher
Succeeded by	John Morris
Member of Parliament for Pembrokeshire
In office 18 June 1970 – 11 June 1987
Preceded by	Desmond Donnelly
Succeeded by	Nicholas Bennett
Personal details
Born	25 February 1934 London, England, UK
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

Roger Nicholas Edwards, Baron Crickhowell, PC (born 25 February 1934) is a British Conservative Party politician and a former Secretary of State for Wales.^[1]

Background

Educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was a director of William Brandt's insurance brokers and a director of National & Grindlays Bank Ltd. He left insurance to take Desmond Donnelly's old seat of Pembroke and served as Secretary of State for Wales in Margaret Thatcher's first and second administrations.

Lord Crickhowell currently sits in the House of Lords as a life peer. He has been associated with many British institutions, including the University of Wales, Cardiff (now Cardiff University), at which he served as president and became an honorary fellow. He received an honorary LL.D. from the University of Glamorgan.

Political career

At the 1970 general election, he was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Pembrokeshire, which he represented until his retirement at the 1987 general election. From 1975 to 1979, he was Opposition Spokesman for Welsh Affairs (in other words, the Shadow Secretary of State for Wales). When Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979, Edwards was appointed Secretary of State for Wales. He served in that position until 1987, when he was given a life peerage as Baron Crickhowell, of Pont Esgob in the Black Mountains and County of Powys.

National Rivers Authority

Lord Crickhowell was the sole chairman of the National Rivers Authority (NRA) from its inception in 1989 until its merger into the newly created Environment Agency in 1996. Although his was a direct political appointment from the Conservative party who were in power at the time of the establishment of the NRA, Lord Crickhowell showed commitment to the principles of the NRA and the legislation that it enforced. He spoke in favour of the natural environment and supporting strong enforcement action against major corporate polluters.

Welsh National Opera

During the 1990s Lord Crickhowell became a leading figure in the campaign for a permanent home for the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff. When the plans were rejected by the Government in 1995, he launched a public attack on his former Conservative colleagues.

References

1. Who's Who in European Politics page 149

External links

• The Baron Crickhowell (Burke's Peerage)
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Nicholas Edwards