Reg Prentice
PC | |||||||||
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In office 31 May 1957 – 7 April 1979 | |||||||||
Preceded by | Percy Daines | ||||||||
Succeeded by | Ron Leighton | ||||||||
Personal details | |||||||||
Born | Reginald Ernest Prentice 16 July 1923 Croydon | ||||||||
Died | 18 January 2001 Mildenhall, Wiltshire | (aged 77)||||||||
Political party | Conservative (1977–2001) | ||||||||
Other political affiliations | Labour (before 1977) | ||||||||
Alma mater | London School of Economics | ||||||||
Reginald Ernest Prentice, Baron Prentice,
Education and war service
Reg Prentice was born in Croydon, Surrey, and educated at Whitgift School in South Croydon, then at the London School of Economics. He served in Austria and Italy during World War II.
Early politics
Prentice joined the staff of the
He was a councillor for Whitehorse Manor in the then-County Borough of Croydon from 1949, having stood unsuccessfully in Thornton Heath ward in 1947. He served on the Housing, Libraries, Planning & Development, Water and Reconstruction Committees.
He first stood, unsuccessfully, for parliament in Croydon North in 1950 and 1951, then Streatham in 1955. As Labour Member of Parliament from 1957 for East Ham North, later Newham North East, he was a minister of state in Harold Wilson's first government at Education and Science (1964–66), then as Minister of Public Buildings and Works (1966–67), and finally was put in charge of the still-new Ministry of Overseas Development (1967–69).
In the 1971 Shadow Cabinet election, Prentice just missed out on being elected, finishing in 13th place in the ballot for 12 available places. However in April 1972 the resignations from the shadow cabinet of Harold Lever and George Thomson saw Prentice and 14th placed candidate John Silkin join the body in their place. At the next shadow cabinet election, Prentice topped the poll and he was again re-elected in 1973, this time finishing in third place.[2]
When Labour regained power, he was
In 1975, after his
Switch of party
In 1977, Prentice left the Labour Party after a series of battles with left-wing constituency activists[3] and joined the Conservative Party.
He was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for
In the last few years before his death at age 77, he was President of the Devizes Conservative Association.
Death and legacy
Prentice died at his home in Mildenhall, Wiltshire.[1] His daughter, Christine, followed her father as a London Borough of Croydon councillor for Coulsdon East ward from 1992 to 1998.
A biography, which provides an in-depth account of Prentice's party-political transition during the 1970s, was published in 2015: Geoff Horn, Crossing the floor: Reg Prentice and the crisis of British social democracy.[4]
Archives
- Catalogue of the Prentice papers Archives Division, London School of Economics
References
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/75257. Retrieved 16 November 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ISBN 978-1-137-56708-6.
- ^ a b c d White, Michael (22 January 2001). "Lord Prentice of Daventry". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7190-9991-5. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
- ^ "The Dowager Lady Hesketh". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. 12 April 2006. Retrieved 18 March 2012.(subscription required)
- ^ "No. 51164". The London Gazette. 29 December 1987. p. 15767.
- ^ "No. 52824". The London Gazette. 4 February 1992. p. 1851.