William Fletcher-Vane, 1st Baron Inglewood

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

The Lord Inglewood
Fletcher-Vane in 1949
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
In office
28 October 1960 – 16 July 1962
Prime MinisterHarold Macmillan
Preceded byJoseph Godber
Succeeded byJames Scott-Hopkins
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Pensions
In office
14 April 1958 – 20 October 1960
Prime MinisterHarold Macmillan
Preceded byRichard Wood
Succeeded byPatricia Hornsby-Smith
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
30 June 1964 – 22 June 1989
Hereditary peerage
Preceded byPeerage created
Succeeded byThe 2nd Lord Inglewood
Member of Parliament
for Westmorland
In office
5 July 1945 – 30 June 1964
Preceded byOliver Stanley
Succeeded byMichael Jopling
Personal details
Born12 April 1909
Died22 June 1989(1989-06-22) (aged 80)
Political partyConservative
Spouse
Mary Proby
(after 1949)
Children2, including Richard
EducationCharterhouse School
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge

Early life edit

Inglewood was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. William Lyonel Vane, a descendant of Gilbert Vane, 2nd Baron Barnard. His uncle Henry de Vere 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,[2] and subsequently inherited the estates of Hutton that were then in the possession of the Fletcher-Vane baronets under the control of trustees.[3] 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.[4] In 1883, the estate of the Fletcher-Vane baronets comprised some 7,194 acres.[5] After a year of ill health, Sir Francis died in a nursing home in Lambeth in 1934.[4] On his death, the Fletcher-Vane baronetcy became extinct.

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

Career edit

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.[6]

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.[6]

On 30 June 1964, he was ennobled as Baron Inglewood, of Hutton in the Forest in the County of Cumberland.[6][7]

Personal life edit

Lord Inglewood married Mary Proby, daughter of Sir Richard George Proby, 1st Baronet, in 1949. They had two sons.[8]

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][9]

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Inglewood, 1st Baron, (William Morgan Fletcher-Vane) (12 April 1909–22 June 1989)". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U165665. ISBN 978-0-19-954089-1. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  2. ^ "No. 33707". The London Gazette. 14 April 1931. p. 2459.
  3. ^ Hutton in the Forest Guide Book, no date.
  4. ^ a b "Sir Francis Patrick Fletcher Vane". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/77196. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ a b c d Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
  7. ^ "No. 43370". The London Gazette. 30 June 1964. p. 5649.
  8. ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Gentry Ltd (U.K.), 2003, p. 2046.
  9. ^ "News from the College of Arms". whitelionsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 15 December 2018.

External links edit

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Westmorland
19451964
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Pensions
1958–1960
With: Edith Pitt (until 1959)
Patricia Hornsby-Smith (from 1959)
Succeeded by
Preceded by Parliamentary Secretary to the
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

1960–1962
With: The Earl Waldegrave
Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Inglewood
1964–1989
Succeeded by