John Vaughan-Morgan, Baron Reigate


John Kenyon Vaughan-Morgan, Baron Reigate, , known as Sir John Vaughan-Morgan, Bt, between 1960 and 1970, was a British Conservative Party politician.

Family and early life

Vaughan-Morgan was the younger son of Sir Kenyon Pascoe Vaughan-Morgan, an army officer and Conservative member of parliament. His great-uncle was the Liberal politician Octavius Vaughan Morgan. He was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford.

Career

In 1928 he entered politics when he was elected to Chelsea Borough Council in London, and was chairman of East Fulham Conservative Association, the constituency previously represented by his father, from 1935–38.
In 1940 he married Emily Cross of New York City. The Second World War had broken out in 1939, and shortly after his marriage Vaughan-Morgan enlisted in the Welsh Guards. He spent the next five years in continuous active service outside the United Kingdom, ending the war as a staff officer for the 21st Army Group.
After the war he was elected to the London County Council to represent Chelsea in 1946, remaining on the council until 1952. At the 1950 general election he was elected to the Commons as member of parliament for Reigate in Surrey, holding the seat for twenty years until his retirement at the 1970 election. In 1957, he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health, and a Minister of State at the Board of Trade from 1957–59. Following the 1959 general election he returned to the backbenches.

Honours and arms

He was created a baronet, of Outwood in the County of Surrey, in the New Year Honours 1960 "for political and public services", and was appointed to the Privy Council in the 1961 Birthday Honours.
Following his retirement from the Commons, he was created a life peer as Baron Reigate, of Outwood in the County of Surrey on 2 July 1970. A director of a number of companies based in the City of London, he served as Master of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors in 1970. He was also Chairman of the Board of Westminster Hospital from 1963–1974. in 1971 he was made an honorary freeman of the Borough of Reigate. He died one week before his 90th birthday.