William Charles Whitlock (

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, 20 June 1918 – 2 November 2001, Leicester) was a British Labour Party politician. Whitlock was educated at Itchen Grammar School and the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

. He volunteered for the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

upon graduation, and soon joined the Hampshires. Part of the British Expeditionary Force, he was one of those evacuated on the last day at Dunkirk, escaping aboard a

fishing trawler A fishing trawler is a commercial fishing vessel designed to operate fishing trawls. Trawling is a method of fishing that involves actively dragging or pulling a trawl through the water behind one or more trawlers. Trawls are fishing nets th ...

. At the end of 1940, he volunteered for the Airborne forces. Assigned to the British 1st Airborne Division, he landed near Nijmegen during Operation Market Garden and was one of the relatively few British airborne troops to escape death or capture during the operation. An excellent linguist, he remained in the Army for an extra year, acting as a German translator during the occupation. He was appointed as an area organiser of the

Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) is a trade union in the United Kingdom, consisting of around 360,000 members. Usdaw members work in a variety of occupations and industries including: shopworkers, factory and warehouse wo ...

in 1946. In 1957, he became President of the Leicester City Labour Party. Whitlock was elected as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for Nottingham North in 1959. Throughout his career, he was a champion of improved conditions for office workers. A party whip from 1962, Whitlock was appointed Vice-Chamberlain of the Household in 1964, and retained the office until 1966. He was then briefly a

Lord Commissioner of the Treasury In the United Kingdom there are at least six Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, serving as a commission for the ancient office of Treasurer of the Exchequer. The board consists of the First Lord of the Treasury, the Second Lord of the ...

before being appointed Comptroller of the Household. In 1967, he was again briefly a Commissioner of the Treasury before being appointed

Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations The Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations was a junior ministerial post in the United Kingdom Government from 1947 until 1966. The holder was responsible for assisting the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations in dealing with B ...

. At that office, he was responsible for African affairs, and he advocated the admission of Asians expelled from

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

into Britain. At the merger of the Foreign Office and Commonwealth Relations in 1968, he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. Sent in 1969 to negotiate with the fledgling government of

Anguilla Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The terr ...

, then seceding from

Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis (), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country and microstate consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain ...

, he was unceremoniously expelled from the country at gunpoint. The incident ended his ministerial career. In 1983, he unexpectedly lost his seat to the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

candidate

Richard Ottaway Sir Richard Geoffrey James Ottaway (born 24 May 1945) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Croydon South from 1992 to 2015. He was previously MP for Nottingham North from 1983 to 1987. Early l ...

as part of Labour's national landslide defeat that year. The margin of defeat of 362 votes (0.8%) was less than the 1,184 votes gained by the Communist candidate John Peck.

Notes

Sources

*''Times Guide to the House of Commons'', 1966 and 1983 *''The

Almanac of British Politics The ''Almanac of British Politics'' is a reference work which aims to provide a detailed look at the politics of the United Kingdom (UK) through an approach of profiling the social, economic and historical characteristics of each parliamentary cons ...

1999'' *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitlock, William 1918 births 2001 deaths Military personnel from Southampton Royal Hampshire Regiment soldiers British Army personnel of World War II Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 Alumni of the University of Southampton Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970