Sir Kenneth Pugh Thompson, 1st

Baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

(24 December 1909 – 4 January 1984) was a British company director and politician from

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. He served fourteen years in

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

but is most known for his contribution to local government where he was chairman of

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

County Council and deputy chairman of the Merseyside Development Corporation. He had a son, Sir Paul Thompson and a daughter, Patricia, with his wife, Lady Nanne Thompson.

Early life

Thompson was born in

and went to Bootle Grammar School. Rather than go to university he became a newspaper reporter for several years, and then went into commerce. During the 1930s he was a lecturer for the pro-free market Economic League. He was also an active member of the Conservative Party and in 1938 was elected to Liverpool City Council.

Wartime

Due to contracting polio as a child he could not be sent to fight; so during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Thompson became a civil servant working as a Regional Officer for the Ministry of Information, and remained active in Liverpool. After the end of the war he became a director of several Liverpool companies.

Politics

At the 1950 general election, Thompson was selected to try to regain the Liverpool Walton constituency for the Conservatives after its loss at the previous election. He won the seat back with a majority of more than 4,000. Thompson retained his seat on Liverpool City Council despite his entrance on the national political stage. He proved a popular Member and was chosen as Secretary of the

1922 Committee The 1922 Committee, formally known as the Conservative Private Members' Committee, or sometimes simply the 22, is the parliamentary group of the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party in the British House of Commons of the United Kingdom, H ...

after the 1951 election. Thompson's commercial experience was drawn on when he was brought into negotiations on trade with

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, which eventually led to a successful reopening of commercial relations. In 1956 he was made Chairman of the Conservative National Advisory Committee on Local Government.

Government

In 1957 Thompson was brought into the government as Assistant

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. History The practice of having a government official ...

. No longer able to afford the time, he gave up his seat on Liverpool City Council at the next election in 1958. After the 1959 general election he was promoted to be Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education. Thompson left the government in

Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986), was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Nickn ...

's "

Night of the Long Knives The Night of the Long Knives (, ), also called the Röhm purge or Operation Hummingbird (), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, ord ...

" reshuffle in July 1962. The next year he received a

Baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

Defeat

Liverpool as a whole showed a strong swing to the Labour Party at the 1964 general election and Thompson lost his seat to the Labour left-winger

Eric Heffer Eric Samuel Heffer (12 January 192227 May 1991) was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of th ...

. He wrote a volume of memoirs called "Member's Lobby" in 1966, followed by "Pattern of Conquest" the next year. He returned to business but remained involved in politics, and in 1973 was elected to the newly created Merseyside County Council.

Merseyside

Thompson was chosen to lead the Conservative group in 1974. In the 1977 elections, the Conservatives won majority control and from 1977 to 1981 Thompson served as chairman of the council. When the Thatcher government created in 1980 the

Merseyside Development Corporation The Merseyside Development Corporation was a central government-appointed Development Corporation set up in 1981 by Margaret Thatcher's government to regenerate the Mersey docks of Liverpool, Bootle, Wallasey and Birkenhead. History The corpor ...

to regenerate the area, Thompson was appointed as deputy chairman. He received an honorary

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...

degree from the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

in 1982.

Arms

References

*"Who Was Who", A & C Black *Obituary, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 6 January 1984 *M. Stenton and S. Lees, "Who's Who of British MPs" Vol. IV (Harvester Press, 1981) {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Kenneth 1909 births 1984 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Councillors in Liverpool UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Liverpool constituencies Ministers in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home governments, 1957–1964