William Waldegrave, Baron Waldegrave of North Hill

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Secretary of State for Health
In office
2 November 1990 – 10 April 1992
Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher
John Major
Preceded byKenneth Clarke
Succeeded byVirginia Bottomley
Junior ministerial offices
1981–1990
Sir Keith Joseph
Preceded byNeil Macfarlane
Succeeded byPeter Brooke · Bob Dunn
Parliamentary offices
Bristol West
In office
3 May 1979 – 8 April 1997
Preceded byRobert Cooke
Succeeded byValerie Davey
Personal details
Born
William Arthur Waldegrave

(1946-08-15) 15 August 1946 (age 78)
London, England
Political partyConservative
Spouse
Lady Hussey of North Bradley (sister)
EducationEton College
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
Harvard University

William Arthur Waldegrave, Baron Waldegrave of North Hill

Provost of Eton College from 2009 to 2024. Additionally, he was Chancellor of the University of Reading from 2016 to 2022.[1][2]

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 Poll Tax or community charge. It includes a chapter entitled 'The Poll Tax – all my own work'.[3]

Waldegrave served as a Trustee (1992–2011) and Chair (2002–2011) of the

Mandela Rhodes Foundation. His portrait hangs at Rhodes House, Oxford.[4]

He was the Chairman of Trustees of the

National Museum of Science and Industry from 2002 to 2010.[5]

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

James II and VII
.

Waldegrave is the nephew of the courtier Dame Frances Campbell-Preston and one of his sisters is Lady Susan Hussey, who became Baroness Hussey of North Bradley upon her husband's elevation to the House of Lords.

Education

Waldegrave was privately educated at Eton College, where he won the Newcastle Scholarship in 1965. He then studied at the University of Oxford where he was an undergraduate student of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. During his study, he served for a term as president of the Oxford Union and the Oxford University Conservative Association.[6] Oxford was followed by Harvard University in the United States, on a Kennedy Scholarship. In 1971, he was elected a Prize Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and is now[when?] a distinguished fellow.

Early career

In 1971, Waldegrave was working at the Conservative Research Department; that March he was appointed to the Central Policy Review Staff (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".[7] 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.[8] He left in December 1973.[9]

Parliamentary career

Waldegrave (right) with US President George H. W. Bush in 1990

He was elected to the

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
's government.

As junior minister

He became a

Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1988. In this post he was involved in setting policy on arms exports to Iraq; the initial draft of the Scott Report 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.[10]

As a Cabinet minister

He was promoted to the Cabinet as

Secretary of State for Health in November 1990, just days before Thatcher's resignation, and remained a member of the Cabinet throughout John Major's time as Prime Minister. He became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Cabinet Office 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
in 1995.

As member of the House of Lords

After losing his Commons seat to

County of Somerset, on 28 July 1999.[11]

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[when?] non-executive director of GW Pharmaceuticals, which is involved in the cannabis business.[12][13]

Personal life

He is married to

Leith's School of Food and Wine. They have four children, Katherine, Elizabeth, James and Harriet.[citation needed
]

Waldegrave is a trustee of Cumberland Lodge, an educational charity.[14] He is an active member of the Board of Managers for the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.[15]

Other notable events

Waldegrave attended

Bilderberg Group meetings four times: 1987, 1988, 1990 and 1995.[citation needed
]

In 1993, when he was the British science minister Waldegrave offered a prize for the best lay explanation of the

Higgs Boson. He had observed that British taxpayers were paying a lot of money (in contributions to CERN) 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?'[16]

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:[16][17]

  • 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.[citation needed]

Further reading

  • Waldegrave, William: A Different Kind of Weather - A Memoir, Constable (2015);
    ISBN 978-1-47211-975-9

Arms

Coat of arms of William Waldegrave, Baron Waldegrave of North Hill
Notes
The shield and crest are the same as those of the Earl Waldegrave.
Crest
Out of a ducal coronet Or a plume of five ostrich feathers the first two Argent the third per pale Argent and Gules the last two Gules.
Escutcheon
Per pale Argent and Gules.
Supporters
On either side a talbot reguardant Sable eased Or gorged with a mural crown Argent and holding in the mouth a columbine Gules slipped Or.
Motto
Coelum Non Animum (Always The Same Person)[18]

References

  1. ^ "University of Reading". University of Reading.
  2. ^ https://www.paullindley.uk/journal/a-new-kind-of-chancellor-for-the-university-of-readings-second-century
  3. ISBN 978-1-47211-975-9
  4. ^ "In responding to thanks, Waldegrave stresses international value of Rhodes Scholarships - The Rhodes Scholarships". Rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk. 21 October 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  5. ^ "Baron Waldegrave of North Hill". Parliament UK website. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  6. ^ "Past Presidents". Oxford University Conservative Association. 16 August 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  7. ^ Inside The Think Tank - Advising the Cabinet 1971–1983 Tessa Blackstone and William Plowden 1988
    ISBN 0 7493 0302 6
    p27
  8. ^ Inside The Think Tank - Advising the Cabinet 1971–1983 Tessa Blackstone and William Plowden 1988
    ISBN 0 7493 0302 6
    p28
  9. ^ Tessa Blackstone and William Plowden 1988
    ISBN 0 7493 0302 6
    Appendix 4
  10. ^ David Pallister, "Waldegrave: 'Untrue' letters sent to MPs", The Guardian, 16 February 1996, p. 12.
  11. ^ "No. 55571". The London Gazette. 3 August 1999. p. 8353.
  12. ^ "Board of Directors | GW Pharmaceuticals, PLC". Archived from the original on 5 October 2019. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  13. ^ "GWPH Stock Forecast, Price & News (GW Pharmaceuticals)". www.marketbeat.com.
  14. ^ "Lord Waldegrave: Cumberland Lodge". Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  15. ^ "The Lewis Walpole Library: Board of Managers". Library.yale.edu. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  16. ^ a b Coghlan, Andy (11 September 1993). "Rising to Waldegrave's challenge . . ". New Scientist.
  17. ^ Miller, David J. "A quasi-political Explanation of the Higgs Boson".
  18. ^ Debrett's Peerage. 2019. p. 4689.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Bristol West
1979–1997
 Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by
Secretary of State for Health

1990–1992 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1992–1994 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
1994–1995 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chief Secretary to the Treasury
1995–1997 		Succeeded by
Academic offices
Preceded by Chancellor of the University of Reading
2016-present 		Incumbent
Preceded by
Eric Anderson
Provost of Eton

2009–present 		Incumbent
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by
The Lord Harrison
 Gentlemen
Baron Waldegrave of North Hill 		Followed by
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