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Public service

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Alldridge, L G H
1916
Lord Mayor of Birmingham.

Baker, Thomas
1824
Kt; Lord Mayor of Manchester, uncle of Edward White Benson (1848).

Bleyer, Stanley
1919
Lord Mayor of Birmingham (1970).

Bosworth, Neville BA
1935
Kt; Lord Mayor of Birmingham (1969).

Bowater, William
1871
Kt; Lord Mayor of Birmingham five times between 1909 and 1915.

Brooks, David
1870s (?)
Kt, GBE; solicitor; City of Birmingham Councillor from 1901, Lord Mayor of Birmingham 1918-1919

Butler, A V
1929
JP; elected first Mayor of new London Borough of Haringey in 1965, and again in 1977.

Collins, John
1940
High Sheriff of Oxford (1975); previously naval officer in World War II, followed by a business career

Davis, David
c 1877
Kt; Solicitor; Birmingham City Councillor 1901-1924; Lord Mayor of Birmingham (1921-1923)

Edwards, Samuel
1840s
Member of Birmingham City Council (1874-1920), Lord Mayor of Birmingham (1900-1901)

Eves, Charles
c 1882
Kt; chartered accountant and businessman; Sheriff of London (1919-1920)

Gardner, L B
c 1907
Mayor of Wednesbury (1949-1950)

Gregg, J F
1929
Town Clerk of Birmingham (1949-1960)

Hands, Harry
1876
Kt, KBE; Mayor of Capetown (1912-1913); Mayor of Greater Capetown (1916-1918)

Holding, P K
1936
Mayor of Tewkesbury (1964-1965).

Hollingworth P
1942
Lord Mayor of Birmingham (1982).

McLean, Keith
1970
Mayor of Milton Keynes (2015)

Smith, James
1864
Kt; last Mayor and first Lord Mayor of Birmingham (1895-1896).

Street, Andy
1981
Mayor of the West Midlands 2017-

Turner, Walford Hollier
1890s
Kt; Director, then Chairman, then President of Wright's Ropes; High Sheriff of Warwickshire (1951-1952)


POLITICIANS

Bennett, Peter Frederick Blaker
1890s
Chairman and Managing Director of Joseph Lucas Ltd, knighted 1941; Conservative MP for Edgbaston (1940-1953), Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and National Service (1951-1952), elevated to the peerage in 1953 as Baron Bennett of Edgbaston; previously President of the Federation of British Industries and UK Chairman of Anglo-American Council of Productivity; Director-General of Tanks and Transport at the Ministry of Supply during World War II

Bevan, A David Gilroy
1945
MP for Yardley (1979-1992).

Bird, Robert Bland
1895
Son of Sir Alfred Bird, 2nd baronet, KBE, Legion d'Honneur; Conservative MP for Wolverhampton West (1922-1929, 1931-1945), elected following death of his father who had held the seat since 1910

Bhatti, Saqib
2003
MP for Meriden (2019-), former President of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce

Blyth, Arthur
1839
Kt; Premier of South Australia (1864-1865, 1871-1872, 1873-1875); Agent-General for South Australia in London (1877-1891); KCMG 1877, CB 1886.

Blyth, Neville
1839
Brother of Arthur; Director of the Bank of South Australia; Treasurer (1868) and Minister of Education (1877), South Australia

Burley, Aidan
1997
MP for Cannock Chase (2010-2015)

Cartwright, J D
1840s
Emigrated to South Africa; MP in Cape Colony for many years, until formation of Union of South Africa in 1910

Colmore, Richard
1565
Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford; Chancellor of Durham; Commissioner to treat with the Scots about border disputes (1595)

Davies, Wyndham
1943
Medical practitioner; MP for Perry Barr.

Foley, Paul
1600
Speaker of the House of Commons (1695).

Gedge, Sydney
c 1848
Son of Rev Sydney Gedge, Second Master at KES under Prince Lee; solicitor; Conservative MP for Stockport (1886-1892); MP for Walsall (1895-1900); Governor of the Church Missionary Society

Gunnell, W John
1952
MP for Leeds South and Morley (1992).

Haselhurst, Alan GB
1951
Kt; Left at the end of his third year after a winsome performance as Madame Pons in Jules Romains' play Dr Knock; MP for Saffron Walden (re-elected 1992); PS to the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1979-1981); Deputy Speaker in the House of Commons (2002).

Hemming, John Alexander Melvin
1978
MP for Yardley 2005, the first Liberal or Liberal Democrat to win a Birmingham seat since 1969

Hickman, Alfred
1850
Kt, baronet; ironmaster and MP for Wolverhampton West (1885-1886, 1892-1906)

Hill, Alexander Staveley
1840s
QC, MP for Coventry (1868-1874), West Staffordshire (1874-1885), Kingswinford (1885-1900)

Hill, David R
1967
Director of Communications, Labour Party HQ and later at 10 Downing St.

Hollingsworth, J H
1946
MP for All Saints, Birmingham (1959-1964) - with a majority of 20.

Hooley, Frank O
c 1942
Labour MP for the Heeley Division of Sheffield (1966-1970, 1974-1983)

Hughes, Edwin
1850s
Kt; MP for Woolwich (1885-1902); colonel of the London Artillery Volunteers; member of the London County Council (1889-1902); Mayor of Woolwich (1901)

Humphrey, Leonard
1924
Possibly the first non-white pupil of Caribbean origin; Minister for Education, Sierra Leone.

Jackson, W F
c 1911
Labour MP for Brecon & Radnor 1939-1945; raised to the peerage 1945 as Baron Jackson of Glewstone

Ling, John de Courcy
1952
Foreign Office (1959-1978); MEP for East Warwickshire (1979-1989).

Lowe, Francis
c 1870
Kt, baronet; Conservative MP for Edgbaston (1898-1929)

Moorsom, J M
1857
QC and Editor of the Law Reports; MP for Great Yarmouth (1892-1900)

Powell, John Enoch
1930
PC; MBE; Professor of Greek at Sydney University (1937-1939); Brigadier; MP for Wolverhampton West (1950-1974); Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1957-1958); Minister of Health (1960-1963); MP for South Down (1974-1987).

Shilton, Richard
1595
Treasurer of the Inner Temple; Solicitor General (1625-1634); MP for Bridgnorth; governor of KES.

Stone, John Benjamin
1850s
Kt; first Mayor of Sutton Coldfield 1886; MP for Birmingham East (1895-1909); prolific amateur documentary photographer, eg travelling with scientific expedition to Brazil to photograph total solar eclipse in 1893

Webbe, William Harold
1904
Kt; MP for Abbey Division of Westminster 1939-50 and for the Cities of London and Westminster 1950-1959.

Willetts, David
1974
Director of the Conservative Centre for Policy Studies (1987-1992); MP for Havant (1992-2015); Paymaster General (1996); Minister of State for Universities and Science (2010-2015); raised to the peerage as Lord Willetts 2015


PUBLIC / CIVIL SERVANTS

Barnes, J Sidney
1908
CB, KCBE; brother of E W Barnes; Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, Prince Louis of Battenberg, during World War I; Director of Greenwich Hospital

Bond, Ian
1979
After 28 years in the Foreign Office, became the Foreign Policy Director of the Centre for European Reform in 2013

Browett, Leonard
1903
Kt, KCB; Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade, and later to the Ministry of Transport

Brown, Frederick Herbert Stanley
1929
Kt (1967); Chairman, Central Electricity Generating Board (1965-1971)

Craddock, Tim
1974
British Ambassador to Estonia (1997-2000), British Ambassador to UN organisations, principally UNESCO, in Paris (2003-2006)

Drew, John
1955
Head of the London Office of the European Committee.

Edis, Richard John Smale
1962
Ambassador to Mozambique (1992-1995), Ambassador to Tunis (1995-1998).

Edmondston, James Douglas
1939
British Council, ultimately Representative Norway.

Figures, Colin F
1944
Kt; Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet Office; Head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6).

Fortington, Harold Augustus
1909
Director of the Department of Munitions and Raw Materials in the War Office (1914-1918); Director-General of Progress and Statistics in the War Office (1939-1940) and a civilian member of the Army Council.

Gane, Barrie
1955
OBE, CMG (1988); Counsellor, Foreign Office.

Gatty, Trevor
1948
OBE; Counsellor, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1977-1981); Consul-General for South Eastern United States (1981-1985).

Grimley, W H
1840s
Indian civil servant: Commissioner of Chota, Nagpore from 1889, member of the Bengal Legislative Council; CIE

Halford-McLeod, Aubrey Seymour (formerly Halford)
1933
Diplomat, becoming Consul-General in Munich (1960-1966), and then Ambassador to Iceland (1966-1972) during the ‘Cod War'; CMG

Ham, Gordon Lupton
1904
Malayan Civil Service (1908-1940); President of the Municipal Commissioners, Penang (1927); Under Secretary, Straits Settlements (1933); acted as Colonial Secretary (1933-35); appointed British Resident, Negri Sembilan (1936).

Harborne, Peter G
1963
British Ambassador to the Slovak Republic (1995), subsequently High Commissioner in Trinidad and Tobago.

Heeley, Wilfred L
19th C
Historian, then had distinguished career in the Indian Civil Service; contemporary and friend of Burne-Jones, Lightfoot and William Morris.

Hopkins, Richard Valentine Nind
1899
Kt, GCB; Chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue (1922-1927); moved to the Treasury 1927, becoming Controller of Finance and Supply Services; Permanent Secretary to the Treasury and Head of the Civil Service (1942-1945), credited with bringing JM Keynes back to the Treasury

Hudson, Andrew
1976
CB. Director General, Public Services, HM Treasury, 2009-11; Chief Executive, Valuation Office Agency, 2004-09.

Hughes, Christopher
1960
Non-Executive Director of the Pension Protection Fund

Ibbotson, A W
1905
Kt; Senior Wrangler; a long and distinguished career in the Indian Civil Service.

James, H L
1938
Director-General of the National Association of Pension Funds; Press Secretary to Margaret Thatcher (1979).

Lee, T Peter
1959
Deputy Director-General of the Takeover Panel.

Lewis, Alfred Edward
1884
Kt; Deputy Chairman of the National Provincial Bank; member of the government's Economic Advisory Council (1930-1940)

Long, Christopher
1956
CMG; HM Ambassador in Berne; HM Ambassador in Cairo; HM Ambassador in Budapest.

Mackenzie, Alexander
1859
Kt; Chief Commissioner, Central Province of India; Chief Commissioner, Burma (1895); Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal; KCS.

Maskell, Chris
2002
Head of UK Trade and Investment for Iraq, based at British Embassy in Baghdad

Middleton, D K
1940
British High Commissioner, Papua New Guinea.

Papps, Alastair H
1961
Governor of HM Prisons - Acklington, Durham and Frankland; North Regional Director of Prisons; Director of Operations on Prisons Board 1995-1999; Associate Director in the Cabinet Office Centre for Management and Policy 1999-2002; CB 2002.

Parkes, Harry Smith
1840s
Kt; Consular Service, negotiated the surrender of Peking; then joined the Diplomatic Service, being Minister at the Court of Japan and then China; KCB at age 34.

Rigg E
19th C
Kt, CB, Director of the Operative Department of the Royal Mint

Sargent, Donald
1925
Kt; civil servant - Secretary, Supplementary Benefits Committee (1966-1968).

Skelsey, Geoffrey B
1962
Head of the Vice-Chancellor's Office, Cambridge University; since 1997, organiser of Royal visits, for which he was invested with the Royal Victorian Order by the Queen in 2002.

Slater, Alexander Ransford
1890s
Kt, CBE, GCMG; civil servant in Ceylon and Gold Coast; Governor of Sierra Leone (1922-1927); Governor of Gold Coast (1927-1932); Governor of Jamaica (1932-1934)

Smith, Paul
1974
British Council, serving in West Africa, then in London (vetting plays for British Council export support), then in many other parts of the world. In 2005 became Director in Egypt, then Director of the British Council in the USA and Cultural Counsellor to the British Embassy in Washington DC; has since held similar positions in Afghanistan and Indonesia

Smout, Arthur J G
1904
Kt; Director of ICI; Director General of Ammunition, Ministry of Supply during World War II; President of the Institute of Metals (1948-); in World War I, a shell produced under his direction brought down the first Zeppelin destroyed over Britain

Stopes-Roe, Jonathan
1969
Senior Civil Servant (Deputy Director) in the Department of Health (retired in 2011). A trustee of the Rationalist Association and of Highbury Vale Blackstock Trust. Eldest grandchild of Sir Barnes Wallis.

Swingler, Brian Edwin
1943
British Council, ultimately Representative France (1980-1984).

Tasker, Theodore S
1902
Kt; Indian Civil Service for 36 years, including 16 years in the administration of the Nizam of Hyderabad

Temple, Rawden JA
1927
Born Nessim Sabatani Afoumado, the son of a Sephardic Jew from Constantinople, changing his name early in his career at the bar; Kt; QC; Chief Social Security Commissioner (1975- ); Bencher of the Inner Temple for four decades, Treasurer in 1983.

Whalley, Robert M
1965
Director Counter-Intelligence and Terrorism, Home Office; CB 2005

Wright, Charles Francis
c. 1883
During the First World War became HM Chief Inspector of Factories. One of the first recipients of the OBE

Young, Alan F
1945
Malayan Civil Service (1953-62). The last in a long line of British Officers starting in 1870 to serve in the Chinese Affairs Department. Secretary for Chinese Affairs Johore (1960-62).