Charles Delacourt-Smith, Baron Delacourt-Smith

Charles George Percy Delacourt-Smith, Baron Delacourt-Smith PC JP (25 April 1917 – 2 August 1972[1]) was a British trade unionist and Labour Party politician.

The Right Honourable The Lord Delacourt-Smith PC JP
Minister of State for Technology with Eric Varley
In office 1969–1970
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Minister	Tony Benn
Member of Parliament for Colchester
In office 26 July 1945 – 3 February 1950
Preceded by	Oswald Lewis
Succeeded by	Cuthbert Alport
Personal details
Born	25 April 1917
Died	2 August 1972 (aged 55)
Spouse(s)	Margaret Hando
Children	1 son, 2 daughters
Alma mater	Wadham College, Oxford

Background and education

Born in Windsor and named after his father, he was the only son of Charles Smith and his wife Ethel.[2] He was educated at The Windsor Boys' School and went then to Wadham College, Oxford, graduating with a Master of Arts[3] At Oxford he was elected Librarian of the Oxford Union.

Working life

After university, he became employed at the New Fabian Research Bureau as a research assistant.[2] In 1939, he came to the Civil Service Clerical Association and was an assistant secretary until 1953.[2] Subsequently, he joined the Post Office Engineering Union, serving as its general secretary 1967.[1] In 1960, he was nominated a Justice of the Peace, assigned to the County of London.[2]

Political career

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Delacourt-Smith entered the Royal Engineers in July 1940.[2] He was commissioned in January 1943 and was transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps, where he was promoted to captain and was mentioned in despatches.[3] After the end of the war Delacourt-Smith was admitted to the British House of Commons in 1945, having been elected for Colchester.[3] He represented the constituency until 1950 and during this time was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Philip Noel-Baker in the latter's capacity as Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations.[3] In 1947, he was chosen as an executive member of Labour's Research Department, a position he held for the next four years.[2]

Delacourt-Smith was created a life peer as Baron Delacourt-Smith, of New Windsor, in the Royal County of Berkshire in 1967 and thus was enabled to a seat in the House of Lords.[4] Two years later he was appointed Minister of State for Technology and on this occasion sworn of the Privy Council.[1] In 1970, when the Conservative Party took office he was replaced as Minister.[1]

Personal life

In 1939, he married Margaret, the daughter of Frederick Hando.[5] They both had one son and two daughters.[5] Together with his wife and younger daughter, he assumed the additional surname Delacourt by a deed poll in 1967.[6] He died, aged 55, at the Westminster Hospital, London in 1972, after suffering a stroke while making a speech in the House of Lords, being survived by his wife.[5] Two years after his death she received a life peerage in her own right.[7]

Works

• Democratic Sweden (1938), Smith, G. and Cole, M. (eds), Routledge
• Britain's Food Supplies in Peace and War (1940), Smith, C., Routledge
• Modern Turkey (1940), Parker, J. and Smith, C., Routledge

Notes

1. Silva (1973), p. 510
2. Who's Who (1963), p. 2825
3. Dod (1969), p. 78
4. "No. 44432". The London Gazette. 17 October 1967. p. 11275.
5. Dod (2004), p. 538
6. "No. 44422". The London Gazette. 3 October 1967. pp. 10717–10718.
7. "No. 46352". The London Gazette. 24 September 1974. p. 7918.

References

• Who's Who 1963. London: Adam & Charles Black Ltd. 1963.
• Charles Roger Dod and Robert Philip Dod (1969). Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1969. Dod's Parliamentary Companion Ltd.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
• Charles Roger Dod and Robert Phipps Dod (2004). Dod's Parliamentary Companion 2004. Vacher Dod Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-905702-43-3.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
• Michel Silva, ed. (1973). Britannica Book of the Year 1973. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. ISBN 0-85229-282-1.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Charles Delacourt-Smith, Baron Delacourt-Smith
• Portraits of Charles Delacourt-Smith, Baron Delacourt-Smith at the National Portrait Gallery, London