John Emerson Harding Harding-Davies, (8 January 1916 – 4 July 1979) was a British businessman who served as director-general of the
Confederation of British Industry
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is a UK business organisation, which in total claims to speak for 190,000 businesses, this is made up of around 1,500 direct members and 188,500 non-members. The non members are represented through the 1 ...
during the 1960s. He later went into politics and served in the Cabinet 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 ...
as the first
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
The secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The incumbent is a memb ...
, a position which he held from October 1970 to 4 November 1972. Davies was President of the Board of Trade, and from July to October 1970 was Minister of Technology. He became a Privy Councillor and, in 1972, was appointed
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. The position is the second highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the Prime Minister, and senior to the Minist ...
with special responsibilities for the co-ordination of British policy towards the European Communities. In 1979 Davies was to be made a
life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...
as Baron Harding-Davies, but died before the creation of the peerage passed the
Great Seal. Peerage history was made when, by Royal Warrant bearing the date 27 February 1980, Queen Elizabeth II granted his widow Vera Georgina the title of Lady Harding-Davies; his children
Frank Davies and Rosamond Ann Metherell were given the rank of children of a life peer.
Family and early life
Davies was born in
Blackheath Blackheath may refer to:
Places England
*Blackheath, London, England
** Blackheath railway station
**Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England
*Blackheath, Surrey, England
** Hundred of Blackh ...
, London, on 8 January 1916, the second son of Arnold Thomas Davies (1882–1966) a
Chartered accountant from
Folkestone
Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...
, by his wife Edith Minnie Harding (1880–1962) only child of Captain Francis Dallas Harding (1839–1902) - see
Harding of Baraset
William Harding of Baraset (1759–1822) was Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to George III, magistrate and deputy lieutenant of Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county t ...
- and Minnie Mary Malchus of Calcutta. Davies went to
Windlesham House School
Windlesham House School is an independent boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 4 to 13 on the South Downs, in Pulborough, West Sussex, England. It was founded in 1837 by Charles Robert Malden and was the first boys' preparatory schoo ...
in Sussex and
St Edward's School, Oxford
St Edward's School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in Oxford, England. It is known informally as 'Teddies'.
Approximately sixty pupils live in each of its thirteen houses. The school is a member of the Rugby G ...
. He followed his father into accountancy as an articled clerk from 1934; he had just obtained professional qualifications as the youngest Chartered accountant in the country in 1939, when 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 ...
led him to enlist in the
Royal Army Service Corps
The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was a corps of the British Army responsible for land, coastal and lake transport, air despatch, barracks administration, the Army Fire Service, staffing headquarters' units, supply of food, water, fuel and dom ...
. Davies was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and spent most of the war in the Combined Operations headquarters. From 1945 he worked for Combined Operations Experimental Establishment (COXE), and received the
MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
on demobilization in 1946. On 8 January 1943, he married Vera Georgina Bates, only child of George William Bates, Managing Director of
Barratts Shoes
Barratts was a brand of high street shoe shops operating in the UK and Ireland. The Barratts shoes brand traded from 100 UK and Ireland stores.
The company was established in Northampton in 1903, and became a highly successful brand known for it ...
, by his wife Elvina Rosa Taylor. The marriage produced two children; a daughter - Rosamond Ann, and a son - Francis William Harding Davies (
Frank Davies).
Business career
He joined the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company as an accountant in the marketing division. He qualified as a Fellow of the
Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1949. Davies worked for the company in London,
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
and Paris; the company renamed as
British Petroleum in 1954. In 1956, Davies was promoted to be General Manager (Markets) for BP, and in 1960 he was Director of BP Trading.
The next year, Davies was appointed as Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of
Shell-Mex & BP
Shell-Mex and BP Ltd was a British joint venture between petroleum companies Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) and BP. It was formed in 1932 when both companies decided to merge their United Kingdom marketing operations,Reference and contact details: GB ...
, becoming the youngest man ever to hold the post. This position put him in charge of a national chain of petrol stations. He also became a Director of
Hill Samuel
Hill Samuel is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group's Offshore Private Banking unit. It was formerly a leading British merchant bank and financial services firm before the takeover by TSB Group Plc. in 1987, which itself merged with ...
. Due to his position he was made a member of the grand council of the Federation of British Industry, and chaired a committee on technical legislation. His conduct on that committee was regarded as impressive.
CBI Director-General
The Federation merged with British Employers' Federation and the National Association of British Manufacturers in 1965 to form the
Confederation of British Industry
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is a UK business organisation, which in total claims to speak for 190,000 businesses, this is made up of around 1,500 direct members and 188,500 non-members. The non members are represented through the 1 ...
. Davies was appointed as its Director-General from that July, wanting the organisation to have a much higher profile than its predecessors. He supported initiatives such as the
National Economic Development Council
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
where government, employers and Trade unions met to discuss the economy, and set up a joint CBI-TUC joint committee. He was also supportive of British entry into the
European Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...
when the government applied in 1967.
Davies surprised some, such as
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
in May 1967, when he made a speech in California in which he observed that the Labour government's measures to keep pay and prices down were working; Powell considered this not only untrue but an example of collaboration in which "the very spokesmen of capitalism" were doing the work of the socialists. As CBI chief, Davies had some
quango
A quango or QUANGO (less often QuANGO or QANGO) is an organisation to which a government has devolved power, but which is still partly controlled and/or financed by government bodies. The term was originally a shortening of "quasi-NGO", where NG ...
appointments as a member of the
British Productivity Council The British Productivity Council (BPC) was a body that aimed to increase Britain's industrial efficiency. It was formed in 1953 and superseded the Anglo-American Council on Productivity (AACP), which was formed in 1948 and dissolved in 1952. Until ...
, the British National Export Council and the
Council of Industrial Design
The Design Council, formerly the Council of Industrial Design, is a United Kingdom charity incorporated by Royal Charter. Its stated mission is "to champion great design that improves lives and makes things better".
It was instrumental in the prom ...
. He was briefly a member of the Public Schools Commission.
However Davies was a
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 ...
by instinct and after the
devaluation
In macroeconomics and modern monetary policy, a devaluation is an official lowering of the value of a country's currency within a fixed exchange-rate system, in which a monetary authority formally sets a lower exchange rate of the national curre ...
of the
Pound sterling
Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...
in November 1967, he became much more critical of the government. Increasingly he would lambast Labour ministers on television, although he continued to work together with Ministers in private. Davies handed over the title of Director-General to
Campbell Adamson in 1969.
Political career
In 1969, Davies was recruited by
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 ...
to join his government once he won the next election. Heath was looking to lead a 'businesslike' government and believed that senior business figures serving in senior posts would provide more expert management. Davies began to be more quotably critical, describing the "solemn and binding" accord between the government and the TUC (after the failure of ''
In Place of Strife
''In Place of Strife'' ( Cmnd 3888) was a UK Government white paper written in 1969. It was a proposed act to use the law to reduce the power of trade unions in the United Kingdom, but was never passed into law. The title of the paper was a rework ...
'') as useful only in the lavatory.
He failed to win the selection for the Conservative nomination at the
Louth Louth may refer to:
Australia
*Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia
* Louth, New South Wales, a town
* Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia
**Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality
Canada
* Louth, Ontario
Ireland
* Cou ...
byelection of 1969, and for
Cities of London and Westminster for the general election. However, with Central Office support, Davies was found a seat at
Knutsford
Knutsford () is a market town in the borough of Cheshire East, in Cheshire, England. Knutsford is south-west of Manchester, north-west of Macclesfield and 12.5 miles (20 km) south-east of Warrington. The population at the 2011 Census wa ...
in Cheshire, which he easily won in the
general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
on 18 June 1970.
Trade and Industry
That October, Davies was promoted to be
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
The secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The incumbent is a memb ...
, a new department set up by Heath. He introduced himself at the Conservative Party Conference with a speech which reiterated Heath's pre-election policy of refusing to intervene in industry. The phrase most closely associated with him was said in the House of Commons on 4 November, when Davies said:
"We believe that the essential need of the country is to gear its policies to the great majority of people, who are not 'lame ducks', who do not need a hand, who are quite capable of looking after their own interests and only demand to be allowed to do so." (''Hansard
''Hansard'' is the traditional name of the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official print ...
'', 5th Series, volume 805, column 1211)
The term "lame ducks" became associated with Davies. However, when
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 ...
(a vital defence contractor) ran into financial difficulties early in 1971, it was decided that the government should help by bailing it out. When nugatory efforts did not help, the company was
nationalised
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 ...
to prevent it from going bankrupt.
In June 1971, the
Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS) was a Scottish shipbuilding consortium, created in 1968 as a result of the amalgamation of five major shipbuilders of the River Clyde. It entered liquidation, with much controversy, in 1971. That led to a " work-in ...
went into receivership after the government refused it a £6 million loan. The workers at the yard, led by
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
shop stewards, decided to hold a 'work-in' when they occupied the yard and continued production. This industrial action tended to refute claims that trade unions were work-shy and was therefore embarrassing to the government. Davies' London home was firebombed by the
Angry Brigade
The Angry Brigade was a far-left British terrorist group responsible for a series of bomb attacks in England between 1970 and 1972. Using small bombs, they targeted banks, embassies, a BBC Outside Broadcast vehicle, and the homes of Conservati ...
on 31 July 1971. In February 1972, the government changed its policy and decided to retain three of the four shipyards at a cost of £35 million, although Davies knew they would never operate on a commercial basis.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
![John Harding-Davies gravestone](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/John_Harding-Davies_gravestone.jpg)
Davies moved sideways to become
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. The position is the second highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the Prime Minister, and senior to the Minist ...
in November 1972, with special responsibility for British relations with the
European Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...
which Britain joined on 1 January 1973. Davies' role was predominantly behind the scenes in making sure British law was in compliance with European law. In Cabinet discussions, Davies advocated a confrontational approach to the trade unions, although he feared for the future.
Opposition
After Heath left office in 1974, Davies retained his Parliamentary seat but was not given a post in the
Shadow Cabinet. He resumed his directorship of Hill Samuel. From May he took the Chairmanship of the European Scrutiny Committee of the House of Commons, examining the details of legislation, and won a strong reputation for looking in detail at the regulations coming out of the EC institutions. In 1975, Davies campaigned for a 'Yes' vote in the
referendum on EC membership.
Davies was nominated by the Conservative Party as a
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
er for the term beginning in 1977, but was unacceptable to the Labour government. However, in November 1976
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 ...
decided to sack
Reginald Maudling
Reginald Maudling (7 March 1917 – 14 February 1979) was a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1962 to 1964 and as Home Secretary from 1970 to 1972. From 1955 until the late 1960s, he was spoken of as a prospecti ...
as Shadow Foreign Secretary and appointed Davies to replace him. Thatcher's memoirs give praise for the effectiveness of Davies' work in the role.
Davies was not a strong supporter of
monetarism
Monetarism is a school of thought in monetary economics that emphasizes the role of governments in controlling the amount of money in circulation. Monetarist theory asserts that variations in the money supply have major influences on nation ...
, although he did agree with Thatcher's view on Soviet expansionism. The major disagreement within the Conservative Party was over
Rhodesia
Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
and whether to continue
sanctions on the government of
Ian Smith
Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to ...
: Davies believed that Smith was not entirely committed to a negotiated peace and therefore that sanctions should be maintained.
Illness and death
Davies was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour in 1978 and swiftly stood down from the Shadow Cabinet and from Parliament. Davies was granted the position of
Steward of the Manor of Northstead
The office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead functions as a procedural device to allow a member of Parliament (MP) to resign from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. As members of the House of Commons are forbidden ...
on 6 November 1978. In the Queen's birthday honours list of 1979, he was awarded a
life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...
age, but he died on 4 July 1979, before the patent of creation passed the
Great Seal. Peerage history was made when, by Royal Warrant bearing the date 27 February 1980, his widow Vera Georgina was granted the style and title of
Baroness Harding-Davies of St. Mellons, indicating the title Davies had intended to take; his children Francis William Harding Harding-Davies and Rosamond Ann Metherell were given the rank of children of life peers.
["Peerage Law", R. P. Gadd, ISCA Publishing, Bristol, at page 86]
References
* Appendix One, ''The Biographical Dictionary of Life Peers'' by
W. D. Rubinstein (
St Martin's Press, 1991)
* ''The Path to Power'' by
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 ...
(
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
, 1995)
* ''John Emerson Harding Davies'' by
Jason Tomes
Jason Tomes is a historian with a doctorate of philosophy.
Personal life
Between the years 1993 and 1995, he taught in Poland at Warsaw University and Adam Mickiewicz University. Since 1996, he has lectured in history and politics at Boston Unive ...
in
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
(
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 2004)
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, John
1916 births
1979 deaths
20th-century English businesspeople
BP people
British Army personnel of World War II
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Deaths from brain cancer in England
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
People educated at St Edward's School, Oxford
People educated at Windlesham House School
People from Blackheath, London
People from Shermanbury
Presidents of the Board of Trade
Royal Army Service Corps officers
UK MPs 1970–1974
UK MPs 1974
UK MPs 1974–1979
Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster