William Fletcher-Vane, 1st Baron Inglewood explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Lord Inglewood
Honorific-Suffix:TD
Office1:Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Primeminister1:Harold Macmillan
Term Start1:28 October 1960
Term End1:16 July 1962
Predecessor1:Joseph Godber
Successor1:James Scott-Hopkins
Office2:Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Pensions
Primeminister2:Harold Macmillan
Term Start2:14 April 1958
Term End2:20 October 1960
Predecessor2:Richard Wood
Successor2:Patricia Hornsby-Smith
Office4:Member of Parliament
for Westmorland
Term Start4:5 July 1945
Term End4:30 June 1964
Predecessor4:Oliver Stanley
Successor4:Michael Jopling
Office3:Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Term Start3:30 June 1964
Term End3:22 June 1989
Hereditary peerage
Predecessor3:Peerage created
Successor3:The 2nd Lord Inglewood
Party:Conservative Party
Birth Date:12 April 1909
Education:Charterhouse School
Alma Mater:Trinity College, Cambridge
Children:2, including Richard

William Morgan Fletcher-Vane, 1st Baron Inglewood, TD (12 April 1909 – 22 June 1989), was a British Conservative Party politician.[1]

Early life

Inglewood was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. William Lyonel Vane, a descendant of Gilbert Vane, 2nd Baron Barnard. His uncle Henry Vane had succeeded as ninth Baron Barnard in 1891 on the death of his distant relative Harry Powlett, 4th Duke of Cleveland and 8th Baron Barnard. Inglewood's mother was Lady Katherine Louisa Pakenham, daughter of William Pakenham, 4th Earl of Longford (hence Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, was his first cousin).

On 9 April 1931, shortly before his 22nd birthday, he assumed by deed poll the additional surname of Fletcher, and subsequently inherited the estates of Hutton that were then in the possession of the Fletcher-Vane baronets under the control of trustees.[2] Inglewood was a distant cousin of the Fletcher-Vane baronets (they shared descent from Sir Henry Vane the Elder), but Sir Francis Fletcher-Vane, 5th and last of the Fletcher-Vane baronets of Hutton, was still alive in 1931 when Inglewood inherited.[3] In 1883, the estate of the Fletcher-Vane baronets comprised some 7,194 acres.[4] After a year of ill health, Sir Francis died in a nursing home in Lambeth in 1934.[3] On his death, the Fletcher-Vane baronetcy became extinct.

He was educated at Charterhouse and at Trinity College, Cambridge.[1]

Career

Inglewood served in the Second World War in France and the Middle East as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Durham Light Infantry, and was mentioned in despatches.

He was elected at the 1945 general election as Member of Parliament for Westmorland, and held the seat until his retirement from the House of Commons at the 1964 general election. He held ministerial office twice, in Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan's 1957–1964 government: as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Pensions from 1958 to 1960, and as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1960 to 1962. He was also Leader of the United Kingdom Delegation to the World Food Congress in Washington, D.C., in 1963.

On 30 June 1964, he was ennobled as Baron Inglewood, of Hutton in the Forest in the County of Cumberland.

Personal life

Lord Inglewood married Mary Proby, daughter of Sir Richard George Proby, 1st Baronet, in 1949. They had two sons.[5]

He died in June 1989, aged 80, and was succeeded in the barony by his son Richard, who also became a Conservative politician. His second son, Christopher, a barrister, was Portcullis Pursuivant from 2012 to 2017, and Chester Herald from 2017 to 2023.[6] [7]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Inglewood, 1st Baron, (William Morgan Fletcher-Vane) (12 April 1909–22 June 1989) . WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007 . 29 April 2019. 10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U165665. 978-0-19-954089-1 .
  2. [Hutton in the Forest]
  3. Sir Francis Patrick Fletcher Vane . 2004 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/77196.
  4. The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland. A List of all Landowners of 3,000 acres and upwards, by John Bateman FRGS. Published London, by Harrison of 59 Pall Mall, S.W., 1883.
  5. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Gentry Ltd (U.K.), 2003, p. 2046.
  6. Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
  7. Web site: News from the College of Arms . whitelionsociety.org.uk . 2018-12-15.