Arthur Hobhouse

Sir Arthur Lawrence Hobhouse (February 15, 1886 – January 20, 1965) was a long-serving English local government Liberal politician, who is best remembered as the architect of the system of National parks of England and Wales.

Hobhouse was the son of the prominent Henry Hobhouse and was educated at Eton College, St Andrew's University and Trinity College, Cambridge where he graduated in Natural Sciences. He practised as a solicitor until the outbreak of World War I, when he joined the British Expeditionary Force. After the War he joined the Claims Commission, dealing with claims against Allied forces in the Abbeville area, and rose to the rank of Staff Captain.

Returning to civilian life, Hobhouse took to farming on a family estate in Somerset. He was elected Member of Parliament for Wells at the 1923 General Election but lost the seat in 1924, failing to regain it in 1929. He was elected to Somerset County Council in 1925, became an alderman in 1934, and was chairman of the council from 1940 to 1947.

In 1945 he was appointed by Lewis Silkin, the Minister of Town and Country Planning, to chair the National Parks Committee. The resulting Hobhouse Report was the basis for the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. Of the 12 parks it proposed, 10 were implemented in the 1950s, the New Forest was approved in 2004, and the South Downs is proceeding through the approval process.

Hobhouse was knighted in 1942. Sir Arthur also served as chair of the Rural Housing Committee 1942-1947, was pro-chancellor of Bristol University, and was both chairman and president of the County Councils Association of England and Wales.

His son, Paul, married Penelope Chichester-Clark.

ources

* Obituary: 'Sir Arthur Hobhouse: A long record of public service', "The Times", January 21, 1965