Michael Stewart, Baron Stewart of Fulham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Robert Michael Maitland Stewart, Baron Stewart of Fulham, CH PC (6 November 190613 March 1990) was a British Labour politician who served twice as Foreign Secretary in the first cabinet of Harold Wilson.

The son of Robert Wallace Stewart, author and lecturer, and Eva Stewart née Blaxley, Stewart was born in Bromley and educated at Brownhill Road Elementary School, Catford, Christ's Hospital and St. John's College, Oxford, where he graduated with a first class BA in philosophy in 1929.

While at university, Stewart was President of the Oxford Union, and of St John's Labour Club (1929). He worked for a short period with the Secretariat of the League of Nations, before becoming a schoolmaster, first at the Merchant Taylors' School in London, then at Coopers' Company's School, Mile End, and then at Frome, Somerset. During World War II, Stewart served in the Middle East, joining the Intelligence Corps in 1942, before transferring to the Army Educational Corps in 1943. He was promoted to captain in 1944.

On 26 July 1941 he married Mary Birkinshaw, later Baroness Stewart of Alvechurch; they had no children.

Stewart had contested the West Lewisham constituency in 1931 and 1935, and East Fulham in 1936; after the war he became MP for Fulham East 1945-55, then for Fulham 1955-74, and Hammersmith, Fulham 1974-79. Soon after his initial election, he was made a junior whip, then a junior minister, as Under-Secretary of State for War (1947-51) and later as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply (May-October 1951). Following Labour's defeat in the 1951 election, Stewart was a rising figure on the shadow front bench, serving as Shadow Minister of Education (1955-59) and then as Shadow Minister of Housing and Local Government (1959-64).

When Harold Wilson became Prime Minister in 1964, Stewart was appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science. He was promoted to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in January 1965, and then Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in 1966. From 1966 to 1968, he was First Secretary of State. He returned to the Foreign Office from 1968 to 1970.

A committed pro-European, Stewart was Leader of the Labour Delegation to the Council of Europe in June 1970, and joint president of the Labour Committee for Europe with George Brown and Roy Jenkins. He served as a member of the European Parliament from 1975 to 1976.

Stewart was made a member of the Privy Council in 1964. In July 1979, he entered the House of Lords as a life peer with the title Baron Stewart of Fulham, of Fulham in Greater London.

  • The Forty Hour Week (Fabian Society), (1936)
  • Bias and Education for Democracy (1937)
  • The British Approach to Politics (1938)
  • Modern Forms of Government (1959)
  • Life and Labour (1980) - his autobiography
  • European Security: the case against unilateral nuclear disarmament (1981)
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William Astor
Member of Parliament for Fulham East
19451955
Succeeded by
Constituency abolished
(Successor constituency: Fulham)
Preceded by
New constituency
(Predecessor constituencies:
Fulham East and Fulham West)
Member of Parliament for Fulham
19551979
Succeeded by
Martin Stevens
Political offices
Preceded by
Arthur Pearson
Comptroller of the Household
(government whip)
1945–1946
Succeeded by
Frank Collindridge
Preceded by
Quintin Hogg
Secretary of State for Education and Science
1964–1965
Succeeded by
Anthony Crosland
Preceded by
Patrick Gordon Walker
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
1965–1966
Succeeded by
George Brown
Preceded by
George Brown
Secretary of State for Economic Affairs
1966–1967
Succeeded by
Peter Shore
Preceded by
George Brown
First Secretary of State
1966-1968
Succeeded by
Barbara Castle
Preceded by
George Brown
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
1968
Succeeded by
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Preceded by
New Office
Predecessor offices:
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and
Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
1968–1970
Succeeded by
Sir Alec Douglas-Home
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.