Iain Norman Macleod, a leading Conservative politician who died within a month of becoming chancellor of the exchequer.
Background
Iain Norman Macleod was born at Skipton, in Yorkshire, on 11 November 1913, the son of Norman Macleod and his wife, Annabel. His father was a Scottish doctor who practiced in Skipton but retained his contacts with Scotland by maintaining a small property at Lewis.
Education
Iain was educated at Fettes College and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he obtained a second-class degree in history. In September 1939 he joined the Royal Fusiliers as a private, and quickly rose through the ranks.
He was involved in the D-Day landings in 1944.
Career
Macleod attempted to win a parliamentary seat for the Outer Hebrides in the 1945 general election but came in last. On demobilization in 1946 he joined the Conservative parliamentary secretariat and began to work his way up within the Conservative Party, becoming an expert on social services. He was elected as MP for Enfield West in 1950, a seat he held until his death in 1970. He quickly became a member of Angus Maudes One Nation Group, and it was he who edited the group’s pamphlet One Nation in 1950.
He gained no position in Churchill’s government when it came to power in 1951. He was appointed minister of health in 1952.
In December 1955, following Sir Anthony Eden’s rise to the premiership, Macleod entered the cabinet as minister of labor.
Macleod had some misgivings over the Suez Crisis of 1956 but was not so closely involved that he felt the need to resign. Moreover, he benefited from Sir Anthony Eden’s resignation in favor of Harold Macmillan, with whom he had good relations. In 1959, Macmillan appointed Macleod secretary of state for the colonies, helping speed the move toward independence for Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, and Nyasaland. In October 1961, Macleod became chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, leader of the House of Commons, and chairman of the Conservative Party organization. However, he was removed from all three positions in 1963, having become unpopular with the right wing of the Conservative Party over the speedy dismantling of the British Empire, and having failed to arrest the declining fortunes of the Conservative government.
From 1963 to 1965, he was the editor of the Spectator and wrote extensively on Conservative policies and the Conservative leadership crisis of 1963. With the defeat of the Conservative Party in 1964 he was invited to join the shadow cabinet by Sir Alec Douglas Home, his first brief role being responsibility for dealing with the steel industry. He became shadow chancellor of the exchequer in 1965. With the return of Edward Heath’s Conservative government, he was appointed chancellor of the exchequer on 20 June
1970; but he suffered appendicitis and died of a heart attack soon after, on 20 July 1970.
Personality
He earned a reputation as an effective speaker on health. (He once suggested in debate that discussing the National Health Service without Aneurin Bevan “would be like putting on Hamlet with no one to play the part of the First Gravedigger.”)
Connections
In 1941 he married Evelyn Hester Blois.