Arthur Bottomley

Arthur George Bottomley, Baron Bottomley, OBE, PC (7 February 1907 – 3 November 1995) was a British Labour politician, Member of Parliament and minister.

Before entering parliament he was a trade union organiser of the National Union of Public Employees (which later became part of UNISON). From 1929 to 1949 he was a councillor on Walthamstow Borough Council, and in 1945-1946 he was Mayor of Walthamstow.

He was first elected to parliament in the 1945 general election for the Chatham division of Rochester and he held the seat (later renamed Rochester and Chatham) until losing it in the 1959 general election to the Conservative Julian Critchley. He returned to parliament by winning Middlesbrough East in a by-election in 1962 and held the seat, and its successor Middlesbrough, until his retirement in 1983.

He was a junior minister in Clement Attlee's governments, being Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs (1946-47), Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (1947) and Secretary for Overseas Trade at the Board of Trade (1947-51). In Harold Wilson's governments he was Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (1964-66) — during which time he sought to deal with the consequences of Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence — and Minister of Overseas Development (1966-67).

He was created a life peer in the 1984 New Year's Honours as Baron Bottomley, of Middlesbrough in the County of Cleveland. He died on 3 November 1995.

Family

His wife, Bessie Ellen Bottomley, JP, was named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1970 "[f]or public and social services."

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Arthur Bottomley
• Catalogue of the Bottomley papers at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Leonard Frank Plugge	Member of Parliament for Chatham 1945–1950	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Rochester and Chatham 1950–1959	Succeeded by Julian Critchley
Preceded by Hilary Marquand	Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough East 1962–February 1974	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough February 1974–1983	Succeeded by Stuart Bell
Political offices
Preceded by Duncan Sandys	Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations 1964–1966	Succeeded by Herbert Bowden as Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs
Preceded by Anthony Greenwood	Minister of Overseas Development 1966–1967	Succeeded by Reginald Prentice

Persondata
Name	Bottomley, Arthur Bottomley, Baron
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	7 February 1907
Place of birth
Date of death	3 November 1995
Place of death