Angus Maude

Angus Edmund Upton Maude, Baron Maude of Stratford-upon-Avon (8 September 1912 – 9 November 1993), was a Conservative Party politician and British cabinet member from 1979 until 1981. He is the father of current Conservative MP Francis Maude.

Maude was educated at Rugby School and Oriel College, Oxford. He worked as a journalist and author.

Maude was elected Member of Parliament for Ealing South in 1950. He continued to work in journalism and was Director of the Conservative Political Centre, 1951-55. In 1958, he resigned his seat to become editor of the "Sydney Morning Herald", a post which he held until 1961. He returned to Parliament to represent the constituency of Stratford-on-Avon from a by-election in 1963 until 1983.

Maude was shadow aviation spokesman, but was sacked in 1967 by Edward Heath after criticising party policy. When Margaret Thatcher became leader, she brought him back into the fold after he played a key role in her bid for the leadership in 1975. When she came to power in May 1979, he was appointed to the position of Paymaster-General with a seat in the cabinet, but resigned relatively soon after, in January 1981. This was partly to make room for his son, Francis Maude, whose political career was getting underway.

Maude gave up his seat at the 1983 UK general election, and was elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer, Baron Maude of Stratford-upon-Avon, of Stratford-upon-Avon in the County of Warwickshire later that year. He died in 1993.

He was nicknamed "The Mekon" because of his prominent forehead and overbearing manner.

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk_politics/04/thatchers_government/html/maude.stm Thatcher's First Cabinet]