Godfrey Collins
Sir Godfrey Pattison Collins, was a Scottish Liberal Party politician.
He entered the Royal Navy in 1888 and was a midshipman, East Indian Station from 1890 to 1893. He was elected as Liberal Member of Parliament for Greenock in 1910 and sat for the constituency until his death.
He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to J. B. Seely, as Secretary of State for War from 1910 to 1914, and to J. W. Gulland, Chief Liberal Whip from 1915. He served in Egypt, Gallipoli, and Mesopotamia from 1915 to 1917, and was appointed a Lieutenant-Colonel in September 1916. He was a Junior Lord of the Treasury from 1919 to 1920 and Chief Liberal Whip from November 1924 to 1926. From 1932 to 1936 he served as Secretary of State for Scotland.
As Secretary of State for Scotland he was responsible for over thirty Bills affecting Scotland, chiefly: a scheme for the creation of smallholdings, the Herring Industry Act of 1935, the Illegal Trawling Act, the Education Bill of 1936, which sought to raise the school leaving age to fifteen from 1939, and the Housing Act of 1935, which laid down a statutory standard of overcrowding and sought to effect widespread slum clearances and the building of low-rent accommodation for low-wage earners.
He was appointed a CMG in 1917, KBE in 1919 and a Privy Counsellor in 1932.
