Background
Heathcoat Amory was born on 26 December 1899, the son of Ian Murray Heathcoat Heath- coat-Amory, second Baronet Amory, and his wife, Alexandra Georgina, daughter of Vice Admiral Henry George Seymour.
Heathcoat Amory was born on 26 December 1899, the son of Ian Murray Heathcoat Heath- coat-Amory, second Baronet Amory, and his wife, Alexandra Georgina, daughter of Vice Admiral Henry George Seymour.
Derick was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he obtained third-class honors in modern history. He then entered the family silk and textile business at Tiverton.
In 1932 he was elected to the Devon county council, on which he served for twenty years. He was also deeply involved in the Boy Scouts movement and the Federation of Boys’ Clubs, and in later life was chairman of Voluntary Service Overseas (1964-1975). During World War II he achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel onthe general staff of the Royal Artillery. Toward the end of the war, he landed with the paratroopers at Arnhem and was severely wounded.
In 1945 he became Conservative M.P. for Tiverton, and in 1951 he was made minister of pensions in Winston Churchill’s postwar government. In 1953 he was given the more important post of minister of the Board of Trade and was admitted to membership in the Privy Council. He then became minister of agriculture (1954-1958), and subsequently, chancellor of the exchequer (1958-1960). He was successful in both posts, but drew the most attention as chancellor. In that post he replaced Peter Thorneycroft, who had resigned with his Treasury ministers in what Harold Macmillan, then prime minister, called “a little local difficulty,” in which Harold Macmillan preferred to pursue a low interest rates policy, while Thorneycroft was attempting to push rates up. Within two months of taking office, Heathcoat Amory had produced a successful budget. For a time it looked as though he might be a possible successor to Prime Minister Macmillan; but he decided to retire at 60, saying that he did not approve of old men continuing to exercise political control.
On his retirement, in 1960, he was created the first Viscount Amory. He subsequently filled many distinguished positions, including those of high commissioner for Canada (1961-1963), chairman of the Medical Research Council (1960-1961 and 1965-1969), and chancellor of Exeter University (1972—1981). He died on 20 January 1981.
He was a much-respected politician whose political skills had enabled him to obtain high political office.