John Hare, 1st Viscount Blakenham explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Viscount Blakenham
Honorific-Suffix:OBE PC DL
Office:Chairman of the Conservative Party
Term Start:20 October 1963
Term End:28 July 1965
Leader:Alec Douglas-Home
Predecessor:Iain Macleod
Successor:Edward du Cann
Office1:Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Term Start1:October 1963
Term End1:October 1964
Monarch1:Elizabeth II
Primeminister1:Alec Douglas-Home
Leader1:The Lord Carrington
Successor1:The Lord Champion
Order2:Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Term Start2:20 October 1963
Term End2:18 October 1964
Monarch2:Elizabeth II
Primeminister2:Alec Douglas-Home
Predecessor2:Iain Macleod
Successor2:Douglas Houghton
Order3:Minister of Labour
Term Start3:27 July 1960
Term End3:20 October 1963
Monarch3:Elizabeth II
Primeminister3:Harold Macmillan
Predecessor3:Edward Heath
Successor3:Joseph Godber
Order4:Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Term Start4:6 January 1958
Term End4:27 July 1960
Monarch4:Elizabeth II
Primeminister4:Harold Macmillan
Predecessor4:Derick Heathcoat-Amory
Successor4:Christopher Soames
Order5:Secretary of State for War
Term Start5:18 October 1956
Term End5:6 January 1958
Monarch5:Elizabeth II
Primeminister5:Sir Anthony Eden
Harold Macmillan
Predecessor5:Anthony Head
Successor5:Christopher Soames
Office6:Member of Parliament
for Sudbury and Woodbridge
Term Start6:5 July 1945
Term End6:5 December 1963
Predecessor6:Walter Ross-Taylor
Successor6:Keith Stainton
Birth Date:1911 1, df=yes
Nationality:British
Party:Conservative
Spouse:Hon. Nancy Pearson
(1908–1994)

John Hugh Hare, 1st Viscount Blakenham, OBE, PC, DL (22 January 1911 – 7 March 1982) was a British Conservative politician.

Background and education

Blakenham was the third son of The Rt. Hon. Richard Hare, 4th Earl of Listowel, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, and The Hon. Freda Vanden-Bampde-Johnstone. His elder brother, The 5th Earl of Listowel, was a prominent Labour politician. He was educated at Eton.

Political career

Blakenham was an Alderman of London County Council between 1937 and 1952 and fought in the Second World War with the Suffolk Yeomanry in Italy and was awarded the Legion of Honour and appointed an OBE. He sat as Member of Parliament for Woodbridge between 1945 and 1950 and for Sudbury and Woodbridge between 1950 and 1963 and was vice-chairman of the Conservative Party between 1952 and 1955. He served under Sir Anthony Eden as Minister of State for the Colonies between 1955 and 1956 and under Eden and his successor, Harold Macmillan, as Secretary of State for War from 1956 to 1958.

He later held office under Macmillan as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1958 to 1960 and Minister of Labour between 1960 and 1963. He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1955 and in 1963 he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Blakenham, of Little Blakenham in the County of Suffolk. Blakenham then served under Sir Alec Douglas-Home as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords from 1963 to 1964 and was chairman of the Conservative Party between 1963 and 1965.[1]

Family

Lord Blakenham married the Hon. Nancy Pearson, daughter of Weetman Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray, on 31 January 1934. They had three children:

In 1967, Joanna married American attorney and Harvard Law School professor Stephen Breyer; Breyer would be appointed a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in 1980 and a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1994.

Lord Blakenham died in March 1982, aged 71, and was succeeded in the viscountcy by his only son, Michael. Lady Blakenham died in November 1994, aged 86.

Horticultural interests

In 1951 he purchased a wood close to his home, to make a woodland garden. Over the following years he created glades and paths through the bluebells and planted many rare plants, and became known as the Blakenham Woodland Garden.

Hare received the Victoria Medal of Honour from the Royal Horticultural Society in 1974. In 1982 he became treasurer of the Society.

The Blakenham Woodland Garden was inherited by his son and is open to the public.[2] On his death the wood was made into a charitable trust. His son, Michael Blakenham, a lifelong environmentalist has increased the stock of unusual specimens and has bought many rare including unnamed trees and shrubs from auctions at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.[3]

References

  1. Mosley, Charles (ed.) (2003) "John Hugh Hare, 1st Viscount Blakenham" Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage 107th edition, 3 volumes, Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A., volume 1, page 391.
  2. Web site: History of the Garden. Blakenham Woodland Garden. 2010-05-02. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110910192515/http://www.blakenhamwoodlandgarden.org.uk/about.html. 10 September 2011. dmy-all.
  3. Web site: The gardens today . 2010-05-02 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110910192702/http://www.blakenhamwoodlandgarden.org.uk/about2.html . 10 September 2011 .