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Arthur George Bottomley, Baron Bottomley, OBE, PC (7 February 1907 – 3 November 1995) was a British Labour politician, Member of Parliament and minister.

Early life

Before entering parliament he was a trade union organiser of the National Union of Public Employees (which later became part of UNISON). From 1929 to 1949 he was a councillor on Walthamstow Borough Council, and in 1945–1946 he was Mayor of Walthamstow. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1941 Birthday Honours.[1]

Parliamentary career

Bottomley was first elected to parliament in the 1945 general election for the Chatham division of Rochester and he held the seat (later renamed Rochester and Chatham) until losing it in the 1959 general election to the Conservative Julian Critchley. He returned to parliament by winning Middlesbrough East in a 1962 by-election and held the seat, and its successor Middlesbrough, until his retirement in 1983.

Bottomley was a junior minister in Clement Attlee's governments, being Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs (1946–47), Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (1947) and Secretary for Overseas Trade at the Board of Trade (1947–51). In Harold Wilson's governments he was Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (1964–66) — during which time he sought to deal with the consequences of Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence — and Minister of Overseas Development (1966–67).

Announced in the 1984 New Year Honours,[2] he was created a life peer as Baron Bottomley of Middlesbrough in the County of Cleveland, on 31 January 1984.[3]

Lord Bottomley died on 3 November 1995 at the age of 88.

Family

His wife, Bessie Ellen Bottomley (née Wiles), JP, whom he married in 1936,[4] was named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1970 "[f]or public and social services."

Bessie Ellen Bottomley died in 1998 in Redbridge, Essex.

Publications

  • The Use and Abuse of Trade Unions, London: Ampersand, 1963.
  • With George Sinclair, Control of Commonwealth Immigration. An Analysis and Summary of the Evidence taken by the Select Committee on Race Relations and Immigration 1969–70. London: Runnymede Trust, 1970 (ISBN 9780902397033).
  • Commonwealth, Comrades, and Friends, Somaiya Publications, 1986.

References

  1. ^ "No. 35184". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 1941. p. 3287.
  2. ^ "No. 49583". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1983. p. 1.
  3. ^ "No. 49637". The London Gazette. 3 February 1984. p. 1579.
  4. ^ Dalyell, Tam (7 November 1995). "OBITUARY: Lord Bottomley". The Independent.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Chatham
1945–1950 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Rochester and Chatham
1950–1959 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough East
1962–1974 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough
1974–1983 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
1964–1966 		Succeeded byas Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs
Preceded by Minister of Overseas Development
1966–1967 		Succeeded by
Categories
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