Sir Frederick Vernon Corfield (1 June 1915 – 25 August 2005) was a British
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
politician and minister.
Early life
Corfield was the son of Brigadier Frederick Alleyne Corfield of the
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...
and Mary Graham Vernon, daughter of Thomas Bowater Vernon of Hanbury,
Walllington (then in
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
).
[Burke's Landed Gentry 1952, article Corfield of Chatwall, p.531.] His father also owned the Chatwall estate at
Cardington, Shropshire
Cardington is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is situated south of Shrewsbury, near Caer Caradoc Hill, and the nearest town is Church Stretton. The parish also contains the villages of Enchmarsh and Plaish, and most of the ...
, which Frederick inherited on his father's death in 1939.
He was educated firstly at Brockhurst Preparatory School
[ at ]Church Stretton
Church Stretton is a market town in Shropshire, England, south of Shrewsbury and north of Ludlow. The population in 2011 was 4,671. and then at Cheltenham College
("Work Conquers All")
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public schoolIndependent School Day and Boarding School
, religion = Church of England
, president =
, head_label = Head
, head = Nicola Huggett
...
and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Sig ...
. He was commissioned into the Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
in 1935. He was then posted to India until 1939, only to be sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force after the outbreak of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. By 1940 he was serving in the 51st (Highland) Division
The 51st (Highland) Division was an infantry division of the British Army that fought on the Western Front in France during the First World War from 1915 to 1918. The division was raised in 1908, upon the creation of the Territorial Force, as ...
, and mentioned in dispatches, but, as the Germans advanced, the division was cut off and forced to surrender. Thus Corfield spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner of war, latterly at Oflag IX A/Z at Rotenburg an der Fulda
Rotenburg an der Fulda (officially ''Rotenburg a.d. Fulda'') is a town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany lying, as the name says, on the river Fulda (river), Fulda.
Geography
Location
The town lies south of the S ...
. During his time as a prisoner he studied law, and passed examinations qualifying as a barrister.[''The Corfields: A history of the Corfields from 1180 to the present day'', p.114.]
After his return to England he was called to the bar at Middle Temple in 1946 and spent a year in the army's Judge Advocate General's branch within England.[ This did not suit him. He spent the next decade mainly as a farmer; first on the family farm at Chatwall in Shropshire, whose main estate he sold in 1951 (keeping some land whose rents he donated to Cardington church, whose ]advowson
Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, ...
he also retained) then on a farm at Middle Lypiatt near Stroud
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021.
Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...
in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
.
Political career
In 1955 he became MP for South Gloucestershire
South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming part ...
.
Shortly after becoming an MP he launched a private member's bill to improve compensation for compulsory land purchases. He received a second reading for his bill in February 1958, against government advice, and its general principles were incorporated in the Town and Country Planning Act of 1959.
He became secretary of the Conservative MPs' agriculture committee (1956–62), and chairman of its small farms subcommittee (1957–58). He also became parliamentary private secretary to Airey Neave
Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave, (;) (23 January 1916 – 30 March 1979) was a British soldier, lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP) from 1953 until his assassination in 1979.
During World War II he was the first British prisoner-of-war
...
. Under Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Caricatured as "Supermac", he ...
and Alec Douglas-Home
Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel (; 2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995), styled as Lord Dunglass between 1918 and 1951 and being The 14th Earl of Home from 1951 till 1963, was a British Conservative politician who se ...
he held the position of Joint Parliamentary Secretary of Housing and Local Government (1962–4). He became an opposition spokesman on land and natural resources 1964–65 and subsequently an executive member of the 1922 Committee
The 1922 Committee, formally known as the Conservative Private Members' Committee, is the parliamentary group of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The committee, consisting of all Conservative backbench member ...
.
In 1970 Corfield was briefly Minister of State
Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In o ...
at the newly formed Department of Trade and Industry under John Davies. He subsequently held the positions of Minister for Aviation Supply and Aerospace Minister (1970–2) where he was responsible for the cancellation of the Black Arrow
Black Arrow, officially capitalised BLACK ARROW, was a British satellite carrier rocket. Developed during the 1960s, it was used for four launches between 1969 and 1971, all launched from the Woomera Prohibited Area in Australia. Its final flig ...
rocketry programme but provided financial assistance to Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to:
* Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct
Automobiles
* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
(whose Filton
Filton is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, north of Bristol. Along with nearby Patchway and Bradley Stoke, Filton forms part of the Bristol urban area and has become an overflow settlement for the city. Filton Church d ...
, Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
factory was within his constituency) when it ran into difficulties that hampered its defence commitments. This help included the nationalisation
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
of the strategically significant aero-engine part of RR. He also presided over the first full scale roll-out of Concorde
The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Studies started in 1954, and France an ...
.
He returned to the backbenches in 1972 and did not contest his Gloucestershire seat in the general election of February 1974, having decided to stand down because of his disagreement with the government's then economic policies and the leadership of Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conserv ...
and a conviction - proved correct - that his party would lose the election.[''The Corfields: A history of the Corfields from 1180 to the present day'', p.117.]
Later career
After this retirement from the Commons Corfield, who had become a member of the Queen's Counsel
In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...
in 1972, returned to legal pursuits, becoming a Bencher of the Middle Temple and sat as Recorder
Recorder or The Recorder may refer to:
Newspapers
* ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper
* ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US
* ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...
of a County Court
A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by the high ...
from 1979 to 1987. He joined the committee of the British Waterways Board
British Waterways, often shortened to BW, was a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom. It served as the navigation authority for the majority of canals and a number of rivers and docks in England, Scotland a ...
in 1974 and was its Vice-Chairman from 1980 to 1983.[''Who's Who 2000'', published A. & C. Black, p.443.] He took seats on the boards of various water companies, although in 1987 he opposed the universal privatisation of the nationalised water utilities that was introduced by the government of Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
.[
]
Publications
Corfield was author of the following legal works:
*''Corfield on Compensation'' (1959)
*''A Guide to the Community Land Act, 1976'' (1976)
*''Compulsory Acquisitional Compensation'' (with R.J.A. Chinworth) (1978)[
]
Personal life
On 10 August 1945 he married Elizabeth Mary Ruth Taylor, younger daughter of Edmund Coston Taylor of Longnor, Shropshire
Longnor is a village and civil parish off the A49 road, south of Dorrington and north of Leebotwood in Shropshire, England, with a population of 289. The nearest railway station is Church Stretton, 4.7 miles (7.6 km) away. The Cound Brook ...
, at Holy Trinity Church, Brompton in London. His mother wanted the wedding performed by her own cousin, the Dean of Canterbury
The Dean of Canterbury is the head of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Christ Church, Canterbury, England. The current office of Dean originated after the English Reformation, although Deans had also existed before this time; its immediate precur ...
, then Hewlett Johnson
Hewlett Johnson (25 January 1874 – 22 October 1966) was an English priest of the Church of England, Marxist Theorist and Stalinist. He was Dean of Manchester and later Dean of Canterbury, where he acquired his nickname "The Red Dean of Can ...
, but because of the couple's opposition to Johnson's pro-Communist politics, it was instead carried out by one of his father's relations, former Bishop Bernard Corfield
Bernard Conyngham Corfield (189022 July 1965) was an Anglican bishop who served as Bishop of Travancore and Cochin from 1938 to 1944.
Corfield was born into an ecclesiastical family — the second son of Egerton Corfield, a Church Mission S ...
.[''The Corfields: A history of the Corfields from 1180 to the present day'', p.113.]
He died in August 2005, aged 90.
References
External links
The Papers of Sir Frederick Corfield
held at Churchill Archives Centre
The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers of ...
, Cambridge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Corfield, Frederick
1915 births
2005 deaths
British Army personnel of World War II
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Knights Bachelor
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Ministers in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home governments, 1957–1964
People educated at Cheltenham College
Politicians awarded knighthoods
Politicians from Gloucestershire
Royal Artillery officers
UK MPs 1955–1959
UK MPs 1959–1964
UK MPs 1964–1966
UK MPs 1966–1970
UK MPs 1970–1974
World War II prisoners of war held by Germany