George Richard Hodges Nugent, Baron Nugent of Guildford, (6 June 1907 – 16 March 1994),[1] known as Sir Richard Nugent, 1st Baronet between 1960 and 1966, was a British Conservative politician.
Nugent was the son of Colonel George Roubiliac Hodges Nugent and his wife Violet Stella, daughter of Henry Theopphilus Sheppard.[2] He was educated at the Imperial Service College and went then to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.[1]
In 1926, Nugent was commissioned into the Royal Artillery, leaving it after three years.[1] He joined the County Council for Surrey in 1944 and became an alderman in 1951, representing the county later as a Justice of the Peace.[3] Nugent entered the British House of Commons in 1950, sitting as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Guildford until 1966.[4] He became Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in 1951, an office he held until 1957.[1] Subsequently, he served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport until October 1959.[1] Nugent was created a Baronet, of Dunsfold in the County of Surrey, on 27 January 1960 and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1962.[3] He received a life peerage with the title Baron Nugent of Guildford, of Dunsfold in the County of Surrey on 31 May 1966.
In 1944, Nugent became a member of the National Farmers Union's executive council and in 1948 a vice-chairman of the National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs, occupying both posts until 1951.[3] He chaired the Thames Conservancy Board for fourteen years from 1960 and was nominated a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1962.[1] Two years later, he became chairman of the Animal Virus Research Institute until 1977.[3] Nugent became the first chairman of the National Water Council in 1973, resigning after five years.[3] He was president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and in 1981 he succeeded in introducing seat belt legislation through an amendment to the Transport Bill.[5]
On 29 July 1937, Nugent married Ruth Stafford, daughter of Hugh Granville Stafford.[2] He and his wife were both awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Surrey in December 1968.[6] Nugent died at Dunsfold in 1994.[3]
| Escutcheon: | Ermine two Bars Gules a Canton of the last |
| Crest: | A Cockatrice with wings expanded Vert charged with a Rose Argent barbed and seeded proper |
| Supporters: | Dexter: a Cockatrice wings addorsed Vert beaked combed and wattled Gules; Sinister: a Swan wings addorsed Argent, each gorged with a Collar Or charged with thee Crescents Sable |
| Coronet: | Coronet of a baron |
| Motto: | Degrevi (I have resolved)[7] |