Maurice Macmillan

British politician (1921–1984)

The Right Honourable

Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden

Macmillan in 1957

Ministerial offices

Paymaster General
In office
2 December 1973 – 4 March 1974
Prime Minister| Edward Heath
Preceded by| The Viscount Eccles
Succeeded by| Edmund Dell
Secretary of State for Employment
In office
7 April 1972 – 2 December 1973
Prime Minister| Edward Heath
Preceded by| Robert Carr
Succeeded by| William Whitelaw
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In office
23 June 1970 – 7 April 1972
Prime Minister| Edward Heath
Preceded by| Jack Diamond
Succeeded by| Patrick Jenkin
Member of Parliament
for South West Surrey
In office
9 June 1983 – 10 March 1984
Preceded by| new constituency
Succeeded by| Virginia Bottomley
Member of Parliament
for Farnham
In office
31 March 1966 – 13 May 1983
Preceded by| Godfrey Nicholson
Succeeded by| constituency abolished
Member of Parliament
for Halifax
In office
26 May 1955 – 25 September 1964
Preceded by| Dryden Brook
Succeeded by| Shirley Summerskill
Personal details
Born| (1921-01-27)27 January 1921
Westminster, London, England
Died| 10 March 1984(1984-03-10) (aged 63)
Westminster, London, England
Spouse|

Katherine Ormsby-Gore

(m. 1942)​

Children|

* 5, including:
* Alexander Macmillan, 2nd Earl of Stockton

Parents|

* Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton
* Lady Dorothy Cavendish

Education| Eton College
Alma mater| Balliol College, Oxford

Maurice Victor Macmillan, Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden, PC (27 January 1921 – 10 March 1984), was a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament. He was the only son of Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963.

## Background and education

[edit]

Macmillan was the only son of Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, and Lady Dorothy Cavendish, daughter of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. He served with the Sussex Yeomanry in Europe in the Second World War. Like his father, he was chairman of Macmillan Publishers, as well as a director of two news agencies.

## Political career

[edit]

Macmillan contested Seaham at the 1945 election, Lincoln in 1951 and Wakefield at a 1954 by-election. He served on Kensington Borough Council from 1949 to 1953, then was elected MP for Halifax at the 1955 general election but lost this seat in 1964. He was then elected for Farnham in 1966. This latter seat became South West Surrey at the 1983 election. He served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury (1963–64) under Alec Douglas-Home, and as Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1970–72), Secretary of State for Employment (1972–73) and Paymaster General (1973–74) under Edward Heath. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1972.

## Family

[edit]

Macmillan married the Honourable Katharine Ormsby-Gore, daughter of William Ormsby-Gore, 4th Baron Harlech, on 22 August 1942. They had four sons and a daughter:

* Alexander Daniel Alan Macmillan, 2nd Earl of Stockton (born 10 October 1943)
* Hon. Joshua Edward Andrew Macmillan (1945–1965)
* Hon. Adam Julian Robert Macmillan (1948–2016)[1]
* Hon. Rachel Mary Georgia Macmillan (1955–1987)[2]
* Hon. David Maurice Benjamin Macmillan (born 1957); married English fashion designer Arabella Pollen in 1995 and has issue.

Macmillan was for a time the owner of Highgrove House, which he sold to the Prince of Wales in 1980. Upon his father's elevation to the peerage as Earl of Stockton on 24 February 1984,[3] Macmillan acquired the courtesy title Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden. He held the title for just 16 days, dying in Westminster, London, on 10 March 1984, following a heart operation. He was 63. His father outlived him by almost three years, dying in December 1986 at the age of 92.[4]

Macmillan's son Alexander has held the title 2nd Earl of Stockton since the death of the first Earl.

## Arms

[edit]

Coat of arms of Maurice Macmillan  |

Crest
[Upon a helm with a wreath Azure and Sable] within sprigs of oak fructed Or a dexter cubit Arm and a sinister Arm embowed both proper the dexter hand gauntleted Or and with the other brandishing a two handed Sword proper hilt pommel and quillons Sable.
Escutcheon
Argent a chief Or overall between three open books Proper edged Or and bound Azure those in chief inscribed respectively in letters Sable "Miseres" and "Discere" and that in base also in letters Sable inscribed "Succo" and as many mullets Azure a lion rampant Sable.

|

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Adam Macmillan Obituary (2016) – London, City of London – the Times". Legacy.com.
2. ^ "Rachel Macmillan Died After Mugging, Her Brother Says". AP News. 24 April 1987. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
3. ^ "No. 49660". The London Gazette. 29 February 1984. p. 2951.
4. ^ "1986: Harold Macmillan dies". 29 December 1986. Retrieved 7 July 2021.

## External links

[edit]

* Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden

Parliament of the United Kingdom

Preceded by

Dryden Brook

|  Member of Parliament for Halifax
1955–1964 | Succeeded by

Dr Shirley Summerskill

Preceded by

Godfrey Nicholson

|  Member of Parliament for Farnham
1966–1983 | Constituency abolished
New constituency |  Member of Parliament for South West Surrey
1983–1984 | Succeeded by

Virginia Bottomley

Political offices
Preceded by

John Diamond

|  Chief Secretary to the Treasury
1970–1972  | Succeeded by

Patrick Jenkin

Preceded by

Robert Carr

|  Secretary of State for Employment
1972–1973  | Succeeded by

William Whitelaw

Preceded by

The Viscount Eccles

|  Paymaster General
1973–1974  | Succeeded by

Edmund Dell

* v
* t
* e

Chief secretaries to the treasury

* Brooke
* Boyd-Carpenter
* Diamond
* Macmillan
* Jenkin
* Boardman
* Barnett
* Biffen
* Brittan
* Rees
* MacGregor
* Major
* Lamont
* Mellor
* Portillo
* Aitken
* Waldegrave
* Darling
* Byers
* Milburn
* Smith
* Boateng
* Browne
* Timms
* Burnham
* Cooper
* Byrne
* Laws
* Alexander
* Hands
* Gauke
* Truss
* Sunak
* Barclay
* Clarke
* Philp
* Argar
* Glen
* Trott
* Jones

* v
* t
* e

Paymasters general of the United Kingdom

* Parnell
* Stanley
* Knatchbull
* Baring
* Macaulay
* Granville
* Stanley
* Colchester
* Stanley
* Pleydell-Bouverie
* Lowe
* Donoughmore
* Lovaine
* Wilson
* Cowper
* Hutt
* Goschen
* Monsell
* Cave
* Dufferin
* Childers
* Adam
* Cave
* Plunket
* Wolverton
* Beauchamp
* Thurlow
* Beauchamp
* Brownlow
* Jersey
* Windsor
* Seale-Hayne
* Hopetoun
* Marlborough
* Crossley
* Causton
* Ashby
* Strachie
* Newton
* Henderson
* Compton-Rickett
* Walters
* vacant
* Chamberlain
* Joynson-Hicks
* Boyd-Carpenter
* Gosling
* vacant
* Sutherland
* Onslow
* Arnold
* vacant
* Walters
* Rochester
* Hutchison
* Munster
* Winterton
* vacant
* Cranborne
* vacant
* Hankey
* Jowitt
* Cherwell
* vacant
* Greenwood
* Marquand
* Addison
* Macdonald
* Cherwell
* Selkirk
* vacant
* Monckton
* Maulding
* Mills
* H. Brooke
* Boyd-Carpenter
* Wigg
* vacant
* Shackleton
* Hart
* Lever
* Eccles
* Macmillan
* Dell
* Williams
* A. Maude
* Pym
* Parkinson
* J. Gummer
* Clarke
* P. Brooke
* Caithness
* Ryder
* Belstead
* Cope
* Heathcoat-Amory
* Willetts
* Bates
* Robinson
* Primarolo
* Jowell
* F. Maude
* Hancock
* B. Gummer
* Stride
* Norman
* Dowden
* Mordaunt
* Ellis
* Argar
* Philp
* Quin
* Glen
* Thomas-Symonds

* v
* t
* e

Heath Cabinet

Edward Heath

* Anthony Barber
* Tom Boardman
* Gordon Campbell
* Robert Carr
* Lord Carrington
* John Davies
* Sir Alec Douglas-Home
* Ian Gilmour
* Lord Hailsham
* Sir Geoffrey Howe
* Earl Jellicoe
* Patrick Jenkin
* Sir Keith Joseph
* Iain Macleod
* Maurice Macmillan
* Reginald Maudling
* Michael Noble
* John Peyton
* Jim Prior
* Francis Pym
* Geoffrey Rippon
* Margaret Thatcher
* Peter Thomas
* Peter Walker
* Lord Windlesham
* William Whitelaw

* v
* t
* e

Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton

Constituencies|

* Stockton-on-Tees
* Bromley

Family|

* Daniel MacMillan (grandfather)
* Lady Dorothy Macmillan (wife)
* Maurice Macmillan (son)
* Alexander Macmillan, 2nd Earl of Stockton (grandson)
* Lady Caroline Faber (daughter)
* Mark Faber (grandson)
* David Faber (grandson)
* Julian Amery (son-in-law)
* Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire (brother-in-law)

Career|

* 1945 Bromley by-election
* Macmillan government
* US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement
* 1959 United Kingdom general election
* Wind of Change speech
* Night of the Long Knives
* Beeching reports
* Vassall affair
* Profumo affair
* Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Depictions|

* Supermac (1958 cartoon)
* Never So Good (play, 2008)
* The Crown (TV, 2017)

Related|

* Birch Grove
* The Middle Way (1938)
* 1960 University of Oxford Chancellor election
* 1963 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours
* Earl of Stockton
* Macmillan Publishers
* St Giles' Church, Horsted Keynes

*[m.]: married
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