Selwyn Lloyd

John Selwyn Brooke Selwyn-Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd (28 July 1904 – 17 May 1978) was a British politician who served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1971 to 1976, having previously held various ministerial positions under Prime Ministers Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home between 1954 and 1964. A member of the Conservative Party, Lloyd served as Foreign Secretary from 1955 to 1960 and as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1960 to 1962. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wirral from 1945 to 1976. Born and raised in Cheshire, Lloyd was an active Liberal as a young man in the 1920s. In the following decade, he practised as a barrister and served on Hoylake Urban District Council, by which time he had become a Conservative Party sympathiser. During the Second World War he rose to be Deputy Chief of Staff of Second Army, playing an important role in planning sea transport to the Normandy beachhead and reaching the acting rank of brigadier. Elected to Parliament in 1945 as a Conservative, he held ministerial office from 1951, eventually rising to be Foreign Secretary under Prime Minister Anthony Eden from April 1955. His tenure coincided with the Suez Crisis, for which he at first attempted to negotiate a peaceful settlement, before reluctantly assisting with Eden's wish to negotiate collusion with France and Israel as a prelude to military action. He continued as foreign secretary under the premiership of Harold Macmillan until July 1960, when he was moved to the job of Chancellor of the Exchequer. In this job he set up the NEDC, but became an increasingly unpopular figure because of the contractionary measures which he felt compelled to take, including the "Pay Pause" of July 1961, culminating in the sensational Liberal victory at the Orpington...