Richard Law, 1st Baron Coleraine

The Right Honourable
The Lord Coleraine
PC
Minister of Education
In office
24 May 1945 – 26 July 1945
Preceded by Rab Butler
Succeeded by Ellen Wilkinson
Member of Parliament
for Haltemprice
In office
24 February 1950 – 12 February 1954
Preceded by New constituency
Succeeded by Patrick Wall
Member of Parliament
for Kingston upon Hull South West
In office
28 October 1931 – 26 July 1945
Preceded by John Arnott
Succeeded by Sydney Smith
Personal details
Born Richard Kidston Law
(1901-02-27)27 February 1901
Died 15 November 1980(1980-11-15) (aged 79)
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Spouse(s) Mary Virginia Nellis
Children 2
Parents
Education Shrewsbury School
Alma mater St John's College, Oxford
Occupation Politician

Richard Kidston Law, 1st Baron Coleraine, PC (27 February 1901 – 15 November 1980) was a British Conservative politician.

Background and early life

He was the youngest son of the former Conservative Prime Minister Bonar Law and his wife Annie. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and St John's College, Oxford.[1]

Political career

Law was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hull South West in the general election of 1931 and held the seat until 1945. In 1940 he was appointed Financial Secretary to the War Office. He was then transferred to the post of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs until 1943. While in the latter post he took part in the Bermuda Conference on the fate of European Jewry[2] and was sworn of the Privy Council in the 1943 New Year Honours.[3]

He was then Minister of State, also at the Foreign Office, until 1945, when he served briefly as Minister of Education in Churchill's caretaker government. In a by-election in November 1945 he became MP for Kensington South, which he held until February 1950.

Law was again elected as an MP in the election of 1951, this time for Haltemprice, but he resigned this seat in February 1954 and was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Coleraine of Haltemprice in the East Riding of the County of York.[4]

Family

Lord Coleraine (when still Richard Law) had married Mary Virginia, daughter of Abraham Fox Nellis, of Rochester, New York, in 1929. He died on 15 November 1980, age 79, and was succeeded in the barony by his son James Martin Bonar Law.

Styles of address

  • 1901–1931: Mr Richard Law
  • 1931–1943: Mr Richard Law MP
  • 1943–1945: The Rt Hon. Richard Law MP
  • 1945: The Rt Hon. Richard Law
  • 1945–1950: The Rt Hon. Richard Law MP
  • 1950–1951: The Rt Hon. Richard Law
  • 1951–1954: The Rt Hon. Richard Law MP
  • 1954–1980: The Rt Hon. The Lord Coleraine PC

Books

Return from Utopia

In 1950 Law published Return from Utopia, a book in which he stated his belief that trying to use the power of the state to create any sort of Utopia is not just unattainable but positively evil, because one of the first principles to be sacrificed is the principle of freedom and individual choice. Law argued:

To turn our backs on Utopia, to see it for the sham and the delusion that it is, is the beginning of hope. It is to hold out once again the prospect of a society in which man is free to be good because he is free to choose. Freedom is the first condition of human virtue and Utopia is incompatible with freedom. Come back from Utopia and hope is born again.[5]

For Conservatives Only

In 1970 Lord Coleraine published another book, For Conservatives Only, in which he criticised the Conservative leadership of the time for, in his view, sacrificing Tory principles for electoral expediency and the pursuit of the "middle ground". At this time he was Patron of the Selsdon Group of Conservative MPs.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Richard Kidston Law, 1st Baron Coleraine". The Peerage. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  2. ↑ David Blair, "The Bermuda Conference that Failed to Save the Jews," The Daily Telegraph (London), Saturday 31 January 2015.
  3. ↑ "No. 35841". The London Gazette. 29 December 1942. p. 1.
  4. ↑ "No. 40103". The London Gazette. 16 February 1954. p. 1008.
  5. ↑ Richard Law, Return from Utopia (London: Faber & Faber, 1950), p. 9.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
John Arnott		 Member of Parliament for Hull South West
1931–1945		 Succeeded by
Sydney Herbert Smith
Preceded by
Sir William Davison		 Member of Parliament for Kensington South
1945–1950		 Succeeded by
Sir Patrick Spens
New constituency Member of Parliament for Haltemprice
1950–1954		 Succeeded by
Sir Patrick Wall
Political offices
Preceded by
Edward Grigg		 Financial Secretary to the War Office
1940–1941		 Succeeded by
Duncan Sandys
Preceded by
Rab Butler		 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
1941–1943		 Succeeded by
George Henry Hall
Preceded by
Unknown		 Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
1943–1945		 Succeeded by
William Mabane
Preceded by
Rab Butler		 Minister of Education
1945		 Succeeded by
Ellen Wilkinson
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Coleraine
1954–1980		 Succeeded by
James Martin Bonar Law
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