Robert Hudson, 1st Viscount Hudson

Robert Spear Hudson, 1st Viscount Hudson CH PC (15 August 1886 – 2 February 1957)[1] was a British Conservative Party politician who held a number of ministerial posts during World War II.

He was the eldest son of Robert William Hudson who had inherited the substantial family soap business and sold it, and Gerda Frances Marion Bushell. Hudson was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford. He entered the Diplomatic Service in 1911, becoming an attaché and first minister before entering politics.

Hudson was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Whitehaven in 1924 and served there until losing in 1929.[2] In 1931 he was returned for Southport.[2] He served in several ministerial posts, becoming a Privy Counsellor in 1938 and the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries in 1940, a post he would hold until the 1945 election. In the opinion of Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton, Hudson "was by far the best of Ministers of Agriculture in either war...he was determined to see that farmers and landowners alike utilised every acre of soil to help keep the nation from starvation".[3]

He had a particular interest in farming and was a member of the council of the Royal Agricultural Society.

Hudson was created Viscount Hudson in 1952.

References

  1. "Peerages beginning with "H" (part 5)". Leigh Rayment's Peerage pages. Retrieved 2009-04-21.
  2. 1 2 Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. pp. 246, 317. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
  3. The Rt. Hon. Earl Winterton P.C., Orders of the Day (London: Cassell, 1953), p. 272.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Thomas Gavan Duffy
Member of Parliament for Whitehaven
19241929
Succeeded by
Morgan Philips Price
Preceded by
Godfrey Dalrymple-White
Member of Parliament for Southport
19311952
Succeeded by
Roger Fleetwood Hesketh
Political offices
Preceded by
George Tryon
Minister of Pensions
1935–1936
Succeeded by
Herwald Ramsbotham
Preceded by
Euan Wallace
Secretary for Overseas Trade
1937–1940
Succeeded by
Geoffrey Shakespeare
Preceded by
Sir John Gilmour
Minister of Shipping
1940
Succeeded by
Ronald Cross
Preceded by
Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries
1940–1945
Succeeded by
Tom Williams
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Viscount Hudson
1952–1957
Succeeded by
Robert William Hudson
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