Background
Blakenham was the third son of The Rt.
Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom
Blakenham was the third son of The Rt.
He was educated at Eton.
Richard Hare, 4th Earl of Listowel, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, and The Honorary Freda Vanden-Bampde-Johnstone. He served under Sir Anthony Eden as Minister of State for the Colonies between 1955 and 1956 and under Eden and his successor, Harold Macmillan, as Secretary of State for War from 1956 to 1958.
He later held office under Macmillan as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1958 to 1960 and Minister of Labour between 1960 and 1963.
He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1955 and in 1963 he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Blakenham, of Little Blakenham in the County of Suffolk. Blakenham then served under Sir Alec Douglas-Home as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords from 1963 to 1964 and was chairman of the Conservative Party between 1963 and 1965.
Lord Blakenham married the Honorary Nancy Pearson, daughter of Weetman Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray, on 31 January 1934.
They had three children:
Honorary
Mary Anne Hare (b 9 April 1936)
Michael John Hare, 2nd Viscount Blakenham (b 25 January 1938)
Honorary Joanna Freda Hare (b 27 July 1942)
In 1967, Joanna married American attorney and Harvard Law School professor Stephen Breyer. Breyer would be appointed a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in 1980 and a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1994.
Lady Blakenham died in November 1994, aged 86.
In 1951 he purchased a wood close to his home. Over the following years he created glades and paths through the bluebells and planted many rare plants, and became known as the Blakenham Woodland Garden.
In 1982 he became treasurer of the Society. On his death the wood was made into a charitable trust.
38th United Kingdom Parliament. 39th United Kingdom Parliament. 40th United Kingdom Parliament.
41st United Kingdom Parliament.
42nd United Kingdom Parliament]
He sat as Member of Parliament for Woodbridge between 1945 and 1950 and for Sudbury and Woodbridge between 1950 and 1963 and was vice-chairman of the Conservative Party between 1952 and 1955.