First Commissioner of Works
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The First Commissioner of Works and Public Buildings was a position within the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and subsequent to 1922, within the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It took over some of the functions of the First Commissioner of Woods and Forests in 1851 when the portfolio of Crown holdings was divided into the public and the commercial. The position was frequently of cabinet level. The office was renamed Minister of Works and Buildings and First Commissioner of Works in 1940, Minister of Works and Planning upon receiving statutory planning powers from the Ministry of Health in 1942, Minister of Works when those planning powers were moved to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning in 1943, and finally Minister of Public Buildings and Works in 1962. In this last form the commissioner had "additional responsibility for studying the problems of the building industry". On 15 October 1970 the role was amalgamated with the Minister of Transport and the Minister of Housing and Local Government in the Department of the Environment.[1]
List of Works Commissioners and Ministers
[edit]First Commissioners of Works (1851–1940)
[edit]Ministers of Works & Buildings and First Commissioner of Works (1940–1942)
[edit]Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) | Term of office | Party | Ministry | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | John Reith 1st Baron Reith (1889–1971) [b] | 3 October 1940 | 11 February 1942 | Independent (National) | Churchill War (All parties) |
Ministers of Works and Planning (1942–1943)
[edit]Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) | Term of office | Party | Ministry | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | John Reith 1st Baron Reith (1889–1971) | 3 October 1940 | 11 February 1942 | Independent (National) | Churchill War (All parties) | |
![]() | Wyndham Portal 1st Baron Portal (1885–1949) | 22 February 1942 | February 1943 | Conservative |
Ministers of Works (1943–1962)
[edit]Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) | Term of office | Party | Ministry | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Wyndham Portal 1st Baron Portal (1885–1949) | February 1943 | 21 November 1944 | Conservative | Churchill War (All parties) | |
![]() | Duncan Sandys MP for Norwood (1908–1987) | 21 November 1944 | 26 July 1945 | Conservative | ||
Churchill Caretaker (Con.–N.Lib.) | ||||||
![]() | George Tomlinson MP for Farnworth (1890–1952) | 4 August 1945 | 10 February 1947 | Labour | Attlee (I & II) | |
![]() | Charles Key MP for Bow and Bromley (1883–1964) | 10 February 1947 | 28 February 1950 | Labour | ||
![]() | Richard Stokes MP for Ipswich (1897–1957) | 28 February 1950 | 26 April 1951 | Labour | ||
![]() | George Brown MP for Belper (1914–1985) | 26 April 1951 | 26 October 1951 | Labour | ||
![]() | Sir David Eccles MP for Chippenham (1904–1999) | 1 November 1951 | 18 October 1954 | Conservative | Churchill III | |
![]() | Nigel Birch MP for West Flintshire (1906–1981) | 18 October 1954 | 20 December 1955 | Conservative | ||
![]() | Patrick Buchan-Hepburn MP for Beckenham (1901–1974) | 20 December 1955 | 16 January 1957 | Conservative | Eden | |
![]() | Hugh Molson MP for High Peak (1903–1991) | 16 January 1957 | 22 October 1959 | Conservative | Macmillan (I & II) | |
![]() | Lord John Hope MP for Edinburgh Pentlands (1912–1996) | 22 October 1959 | 16 July 1962 | Conservative |
Ministers of Public Buildings and Works (1962–1970)
[edit]Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) | Term of office | Party | Ministry | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Geoffrey Rippon MP for Norwich South (1924–1997) | 16 July 1962 | 10 October 1964 | Conservative | Macmillan (I & II) | |
Douglas-Home | ||||||
![]() | Charles Pannell MP for Leeds West (1902–1980) | 19 October 1964 | 6 April 1966 | Labour | Wilson (I & II) | |
![]() | Reg Prentice MP for East Ham North (1923–2001) | 6 April 1966 | 29 August 1967 | Labour | ||
![]() | Bob Mellish MP for Bermondsey (1913–1998) | 29 August 1967 | 30 April 1969 | Labour | ||
![]() | John Silkin MP for Deptford (1923–1987) | 30 April 1969 | 19 June 1970 | Labour | ||
![]() | Julian Amery MP for Brighton Pavilion (1919–1996) | 23 June 1970 | 15 October 1970 | Conservative | Heath |
Notes
[edit]- ^ MP for Swansea until 1918; MP for Swansea West thereafter
- ^ MP for Southampton until 21 October 1940; elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Reith thereafter
References
[edit]- ^ Drewry, Gavin (2008). "Administering the English national heritage". In Fisch, Stefan (ed.). National approaches to the governance of historical heritage over time: a comparative report. Cahier d'histoire de l'administration. Amsterdam Berlin: IOS Press. pp. 189–190. ISBN 978-1-58603-853-3.