Hervey Rhodes, Baron Rhodes

Hervey Rhodes, Baron Rhodes KG, PC, DFC (12 August 1895 – 11 September 1987) was a Labour Party politician.

Rhodes was educated at St Mary's School, Greenfield, Saddleworth, near Oldham, then at Huddersfield Technical College.

During the Great War he served with the Royal Flying Corps, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar as an Observer. He was badly wounded during the War and walked with a limp for the rest of his life. He left with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

During the Second World War, Rhodes, by then a mill-owner and Chairman of the Saddleworth Rural District Council, became the Commanding Officer of the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV), formed in 1940 to defend England against the Armies of the Third Reich, then in occupation of much of North Europe and having succeeded in expelling the British Expeditionary Force from Europe at Dunkirk.

Initially, the LDV were issued only with an armband and brought along to parades and training such implements as they could lay their hands on. Quite soon some wag named the LDV "The Look, Duck & Vanish". The name was quickly changed to Home Guard and within a few short weeks the Home Guard was equipped with .303 Lee-Enfield rifles, khaki uniform, like the Army and had Officers and NCOs appointed. Hervey Rhodes became the CO of the 36th (West Riding) Battalion, Duke of Wellington's Regiment. Major Rhodes (soon Lt. Col.) came round to his various companies, limping, complete with stick and pipe. The Battalion was soon quite well-together and equipped with Thompson sub-machine guns and later, Sten guns and other weaponry. Rhodes served as CO of the Battalion until the Home Guard was disbanded. He then was able to develop his political career, alongside his business interests at his Mill at Delph.

In the 1945 general election, Rhodes stood without success as the Labour candidate in Royton, Oldham, Lancashire. A few months later, however, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Ashton under Lyne in a by-election on 1st October created by William Jowitt's elevation to the peerage.

Rhodes was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Hilary Marquand, as Paymaster-General and Minister of Pensions. In 1950, he was promoted to Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, serving until Labour's defeat at the 1951 general election.

He served as MP until the 1964 general election, when he was succeeded by Robert Sheldon. He was made a life peer in 1964 as Baron Rhodes, of Saddleworth in the West Riding of the County of Yorkshire. He again held office as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade from 1964 until 1967. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire from 1968. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1969, a Knight of the Garter in 1972 and served as Deputy-Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester from 1974.

See also

* Ashton-under-Lyne (UK Parliament constituency)
* Ashton-under-Lyne by-election, 1945

References

*Rayment