Herwald Ramsbotham, 1st Viscount Soulbury


Herwald Ramsbotham, 1st Viscount Soulbury was a British Conservative politician. He served as a government minister between 1931 and 1941 and served as Governor-General of Ceylon between the years 1949 and 1954.

Background

Ramsbotham was the son of Herwald Ramsbotham, of Crowborough Warren, and Ethel Margaret Bevan.
He went to Uppingham School, Uppingham, Rutland, England.

Military career

Ramsbotham was commissioned a Temporary Lieutenant in 1915 and was promoted to temporary Captain later the same year. He was promoted to temporary Major by 1918 and received the Military Cross. He was appointed an OBE in 1919 and relinquished his commission that year.

Political career

Ramsbotham was elected Member of Parliament for Lancaster in 1929. In 1931 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education by Ramsay MacDonald, a post he retained when Stanley Baldwin became Prime Minister in June 1935, and then served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries between November 1935 and July 1936. In September 1936 he was made Minister of Pensions by Baldwin. He continued in this office when Neville Chamberlain became Prime Minister in May 1937. In June 1939 he was appointed First Commissioner of Works and sworn of the Privy Council.
Ramsbotham entered the cabinet in April 1940 as President of the Board of Education. He remained in this office after Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940 but was succeeded by R. A. Butler in July 1941. In August he was raised to the peerage as Baron Soulbury, of Soulbury in the County of Buckingham, and made Chairman of the Assistance Board, a post he held until 1948. Chairman of the Soulbury Commission 1944–45. Between 1949 and 1954 he served as Governor-General of Ceylon. He was appointed a GCMG in 1949 and a GCVO on 20 April 1954. On 10 June of that year, he was further honoured when he was created Viscount Soulbury, of Soulbury in the County of Buckingham.

Family

Lord Soulbury died in January 1971 at the age of 83.
He was succeeded in the viscountcy by his elder son James Herwald Ramsbotham. His younger son Sir Peter Ramsbotham notably served as British Ambassador to the United States from 1974 to 1977.

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