Maurice Macmillan Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden
Office:Paymaster General
Primeminister:Edward Heath
Term Start:2 December 1973
Term End:4 March 1974
Predecessor:The Viscount Eccles
Successor:Edmund Dell
Office1:Secretary of State for Employment
Primeminister1:Edward Heath
Term Start1:7 April 1972
Term End1:2 December 1973
Predecessor1:Robert Carr
Successor1:William Whitelaw
Office2:Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Primeminister2:Edward Heath
Term Start2:23 June 1970
Term End2:7 April 1972
Predecessor2:Jack Diamond
Successor2:Patrick Jenkin
Office3:Member of Parliament
for South West Surrey
Term Start3:9 June 1983
Term End3:10 March 1984
Predecessor3:new constituency
Successor3:Virginia Bottomley
Office4:Member of Parliament
for Farnham
Term Start4:31 March 1966
Term End4:13 May 1983
Predecessor4:Godfrey Nicholson
Successor4:constituency abolished
Office5:Member of Parliament
for Halifax
Term Start5:26 May 1955
Term End5:25 September 1964
Predecessor5:Dryden Brook
Birth Date:27 January 1921
Birth Place:Westminster, London, England
Death Place:Westminster, London, England
Education:Eton College
Alma Mater:Balliol College, Oxford

Maurice Victor Macmillan, Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden, (27 January 1921 – 10 March 1984), was a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament. He was the only son of Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963.

Background and education

Macmillan was the only son of Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, and Lady Dorothy Cavendish, daughter of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. He served with the Sussex Yeomanry in Europe in the Second World War. Like his father, he was chairman of Macmillan Publishers, as well as a director of two news agencies.

Political career

Macmillan contested Seaham at the 1945 election, Lincoln in 1951 and Wakefield at a 1954 by-election. He served on Kensington Borough Council from 1949 to 1953, then was elected MP for Halifax at the 1955 general election but lost this seat in 1964. He was then elected for Farnham in 1966. This latter seat became South West Surrey at the 1983 election. He served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury (1963–64) under Alec Douglas-Home, and as Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1970–72), Secretary of State for Employment (1972–73) and Paymaster General (1973–74) under Edward Heath. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1972.

Family

Macmillan married the Honourable Katharine Ormsby-Gore, daughter of William Ormsby-Gore, 4th Baron Harlech, on 22 August 1942. They had four sons and a daughter:

Macmillan was for a time the owner of Highgrove House, which he sold to the Prince of Wales in 1980. Upon his father's elevation to the peerage as Earl of Stockton on 24 February 1984, Macmillan acquired the courtesy title Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden. He held the title for just days, dying in Westminster, London, on 10 March 1984, following a heart operation. He was 63. His father outlived him by almost three years, dying in December 1986 at the age of 92.[3]

Macmillan's son Alexander has held the title 2nd Earl of Stockton since the death of the first Earl.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Adam Macmillan Obituary (2016) - London, City of London - the Times. Legacy.com.
  2. Web site: Rachel Macmillan Died After Mugging, Her Brother Says . AP News . 22 August 2019 . 24 April 1987.
  3. Web site: 1986: Harold Macmillan dies . 7 July 2021.