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. 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.

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Robert Hudson