William Arthur Waldegrave, Baron Waldegrave of North Hill, (; born 15 August 1946) is a British
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 ...
politician who served as a
Cabinet minister
A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, � ...
from 1990 until 1997, and is a life member of the
Tory Reform Group
The Tory Reform Group (TRG) is a pressure group associated with the British Conservative Party that works to promote "modern, progressive Conservatism... economic efficiency and social justice" and "a Conservatism that supports equality, divers ...
. Since 1999, he has been 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 ...
in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
. Since 8 February 2009, Lord Waldegrave has been the
Provost of
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
. Additionally, he was inaugurated as
Chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
of the
University of Reading
The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...
on 9 December 2016.
Waldegrave's 2015 memoir, ''A Different Kind of Weather'', discusses his high youthful political ambition, his political and to some extent personal life, and growing acceptance that he would not achieve his ultimate ambition. It also provides an account of the Heath, Thatcher and—to a lesser extent—Major governments, including his role in the development of the 'community charge' or
poll tax
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources.
Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments fr ...
. It includes a chapter entitled 'The Poll Tax – all my own work'.
Waldegrave served as a Trustee (1992–2011) and Chair (2002–2011) of the
Rhodes Trust
Rhodes House is a building part of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on South Parks Road in central Oxford, and was built in memory of Cecil Rhodes, an alumnus of the university and a major benefactor. It is listed Grade II* ...
, during which time he also helped to create and served as a Trustee of the
Mandela Rhodes Foundation
A Mandela Rhodes Scholarship provides full funding for up to a maximum of two years of postgraduate study for an African citizen under 30 years of age. The award is open to all African citizens under the age of 30 years and recipients must study t ...
. His portrait hangs at
Rhodes House
Rhodes House is a building part of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on South Parks Road in central Oxford, and was built in memory of Cecil Rhodes, an alumnus of the university and a major benefactor. It is listed Grade II* on ...
, Oxford.
He was the Chairman of Trustees of the
National Museum of Science and Industry
The Science Museum Group (SMG) consists of five British museums:
* The Science Museum, London, Science Museum in South Kensington, London
* The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester
* The National Railway Museum in York
* The Locomotion Mu ...
from 2002 to 2010.
Early life
Bearing the title ''The Honourable'' from birth as a younger son of an Earl, Waldegrave was the youngest (by six years) of the seven children of Mary Hermione Grenfell and the
12th Earl Waldegrave, his elder brother being
the present Earl. His father's title was created five generations earlier for the diplomat and ambassador
James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave, whose grandfather was
James II and VII.
Waldegrave is the nephew of the courtier
Dame Frances Campbell-Preston and one of his sisters is
Lady Susan Hussey
Susan Katharine Hussey, Baroness Hussey of North Bradley, (''née'' Waldegrave; born 1 May 1939), known as Lady Susan Hussey, is a British noblewoman who served as a Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth II and as a Lady of the Household ...
, who became Baroness Hussey of North Bradley upon
her husband's elevation to the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
.
Education
Waldegrave was educated at
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
, where he won the
Newcastle Scholarship
The Newcastle Scholarship is an annual prize awarded at Eton College in England for the highest performance in a series of special written examinations taken over the course of a week. It was instituted and first awarded in 1829 and is the college ...
in 1965, and at
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12th ...
, where he served for a term as president of the
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...
. Oxford was followed by
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in the United States, on a
Kennedy Scholarship
Kennedy Scholarships provide full funding for up to ten British post-graduate students to study at either Harvard University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Susan Hockfield, the sixteenth president of MIT, described the schol ...
. In 1971, he was elected a Prize Fellow of
All Souls College, Oxford
All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...
, and is now a Distinguished Fellow.
Early career
In 1971, Waldegrave was working at the
Conservative Research Department
The Conservative Research Department (CRD) is part of the central organisation of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. It operates alongside other departments of Conservative Campaign Headquarters in Westminster.
The CRD has been descr ...
; that March he was appointed to the
Central Policy Review Staff
The Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS), nicknamed the "Think-Tank", was an independent unit within the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom tasked with developing long term strategy and co-ordinating policy across government departments. It was es ...
(CPRS, also referred to as the 'Think-Tank'). "He was from the beginning one of the most active 'philosophers' of the CPRS, and the proponent of strong views about its proper roles and functions". He was one of the few openly political members of the staff and was used by Victor Rothschild, head of the CPRS, as a link with both the Conservative party (then in government) and the outside, non-Civil Service world. He left in December 1973.
Parliamentary career
He was elected to the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
as
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 of ...
(MP) for
Bristol West in 1979. He was regarded as a member of the "wet" or moderate tendency of the Conservative Party, and despite this progressed well from the backbenches in
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 ...
's government.
As junior minister
He became a
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (or just Parliamentary Secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), Secretary of State) is the lowest of three tiers of Minister (government), government minist ...
at the
Department of Education and Science
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
in 1981 before moving to the
Department of the Environment
An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...
in 1983. He remained at Environment, becoming a
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 ...
in 1985, until he became a Minister of State at the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ministries of fore ...
in 1988. In this post he was involved in setting policy on arms exports to Iraq; the initial draft of the
Scott Report
The Scott Report (the ''Report of the Inquiry into the Export of Defence Equipment and Dual-Use Goods to Iraq and Related Prosecutions'') was a judicial inquiry commissioned in 1992 after reports surfaced of previously restricted arms sales to ...
found that he had agreed in February 1989 to relax the policy, but had sent out 38 untrue letters to Members of Parliament stating that the policy was unchanged. However,
Sir Richard Scott exonerated Waldegrave of "duplicitous intent" in wrongly describing the Government's policy.
As a Cabinet minister
He was promoted to the Cabinet as
Secretary of State for Health
The secretary of state for health and social care, also referred to as the health secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department of Health and Social Care. The incumbent ...
in November 1990, just days before Thatcher's resignation, and remained a member of the Cabinet throughout
John Major
Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament ...
's time as
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
. He became
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 the
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...
with responsibility for public services and science in 1992,
Secretary of State of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1994 and
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The chief secretary to the Treasury is a ministerial office in the government of the United Kingdom. The office is the second most senior in the Treasury, after the chancellor of the Exchequer. The office was created in 1961, to share the burde ...
in 1995.
As member of the House of Lords
After losing his Commons seat to
Valerie Davey
Valerie Davey (born Valerie Corbett; 16 April 1940) is a former Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol West in England.
Early life
Born in Surrey, Davey studied theology and history at the University of Birmingham and gained a PGCE at t ...
in the
1997 general election, he entered the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
being created 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 Waldegrave of North Hill, ''of
Chewton Mendip
Chewton Mendip is a village and civil parish in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. It is situated north of Wells, south of Bath and Bristol on the A39 very close to the A37. The village is in a valley on the Mendip Hills and is the ...
in the
County of Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
'', on 28 July 1999.
Private sector
Lord Waldegrave was a Director of Adam & Company, a member of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, from 2017 to 2018. He has been a Director of Coutts & Company, also a member of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, since 2012. He is currently non-executive director of
GW Pharmaceuticals
GW Pharmaceuticals is a British pharmaceutics company known for its multiple sclerosis treatment product nabiximols (brand name, Sativex) which was the first natural cannabis plant derivative to gain market approval in any country. Another cannab ...
, which is involved in the
cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...
business.
Personal life
He is married to
Caroline Burrows, cookery writer and managing director of
Leith's School of Food and Wine. They have four children, Katherine, Elizabeth, James and Harriet.
Waldegrave is a trustee of
Cumberland Lodge
Cumberland Lodge is a 17th-century Grade II listed country house in Windsor Great Park 3.5 miles south of Windsor Castle. Since 1947 it has been occupied by the charitable foundation known as Cumberland Lodge, which holds residential conferences ...
, an educational charity. He is an active member of the Board of Managers for the
Lewis Walpole Library,
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
.
Other notable events
Waldegrave attended
Bilderberg Group
The Bilderberg meeting (also known as the Bilderberg Group) is an annual off-the-record conference established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defin ...
meetings four times: 1987, 1988, 1990 and 1995.
In 1993, when he was the British science minister Waldegrave offered a prize for the best lay explanation of the
Higgs Boson
The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field,
one of the fields in particle physics theory. In the Stand ...
. He had observed that British taxpayers were paying a lot of money (in contributions to
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
) for something very few of them understood, and he challenged UK particle physicists to explain, in a simple manner on one piece of paper, 'What is the Higgs Boson, and why do we want to find it?'
Professor David Miller's metaphor, which he entitled "A quasi-political explanation of the Higgs boson", is probably the most quoted explanation of the Higgs Boson and won the prize:
*Miller asked his listeners to imagine a room full of Conservative party workers quietly talking to one another. This represents the Higgs field in space.
*A former Conservative Prime Minister enters the room. All the workers she passes are strongly attracted to her. As she moves through the room, the cluster of admirers around her create resistance to her movement, and she becomes 'heavier'. This can be imagined as how a particle moves through the Higgs field. The field clusters around a particle, resisting its motion and giving it mass.
*If a sleazy rumour crosses the room, it creates the same sort of clustering. The workers gather together to hear the details, the cluster can move across the room as the workers pass on the details to their neighbours. This cluster is the Higgs particle or Higgs Boson.
Further reading
*Waldegrave, William: ''A Different Kind of Weather - A Memoir'', Constable (2015);
References
External links
*
Announcement of his introduction at the House of Lords
House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 19 October 1999
*A more recent picture: http://cdn.mattchedit.com/cms/LIVE/businesslife.co/resources/rsz_lord_waldegrave__martin_hall.jpg
First interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 12th and 13th June 2011 (video)
Second interview 28th June 2013 (video)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Waldegrave, William
1946 births
21st-century memoirists
Agriculture ministers of the United Kingdom
Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster
Waldegrave
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Conservative Party (UK) life peers
English memoirists
People educated at Eton College
Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford
Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Harvard University alumni
Kennedy Scholarships
Living people
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
People from Mendip District
People from Somerset
Presidents of the Oxford Union
Presidents of the Oxford University Conservative Association
Secretaries of State for Health (UK)
UK MPs 1979–1983
UK MPs 1983–1987
UK MPs 1987–1992
UK MPs 1992–1997
Waldegrave family
Younger sons of earls
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Chief Secretaries to the Treasury
Provosts of Eton College