Godfrey Huggins, 1st Viscount Malvern

Infobox Officeholder
honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable
name = The Viscount Malvern
honorific-suffix =
CH, KCMG, PC


imagesize = 150px
small

caption = Godfrey Huggins
order = 1st
office = Prime Minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
term_start = 1953
term_end = 1956
vicepresident =
viceprimeminister =
deputy =
lieutenant =
monarch = Elizabeth II
president =
primeminister =
governor =
governor-general =
governor_general =
succeeding =
predecessor = "New creation"
successor = Roland Welensky
constituency =
majority =
order2 = 4th
office2 = Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia
term_start2 =1933
term_end2 =1953
vicepresident2 =
viceprimeminister2 =
deputy2 =
lieutenant2 =
monarch2 =George V
Edward VIII
George VI
Elizabeth II
president2 =
primeminister2 =
governor2 =
succeeding2 =
predecessor2 = George Mitchell
successor2 =Garfield Todd
constituency2 =
majority2 =
order3 = 1st
office3 = Minister of External Affairs of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
term_start3 = September 7, 1953
term_end3 = November 2, 1956
vicepresident3 =
viceprimeminister3 =
deputy3 =
lieutenant3 =
monarch3 = Elizabeth II
president3 =
primeminister3 =
governor3 =
succeeding3 =
predecessor3 = "New creation"
successor3 = Roland Welensky
constituency3 =
majority3 =
order4 = 1st
office4 = Minister of Defence of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
term_start4 = September 7, 1953
term_end4 = November 2, 1956
vicepresident4 =
viceprimeminister4 =
deputy4 =
lieutenant4 =
monarch4 = Elizabeth II
president4 =
primeminister4 =
governor4 =
succeeding4 =
predecessor4 = "New creation"
successor4 = Roland Welensky
constituency4 =
majority4 =
order5 = 1st
office5 = Viscount Malvern
term_start5 = 1955
term_end5 = 1971
vicepresident5 =
viceprimeminister5 =
deputy5 =
lieutenant5 =
monarch5 = Elizabath II
president5 =
primeminister5 =
governor5 =
governor-general5 =
succeeding5 =
predecessor5 = "New creation"
successor5 = John Huggins
constituency5 =
majority5 =
birth_date = July 6, 1883
birth_place = United Kingdom
death_date = May 8, 1971
death_place =
nationality =
party =Reform Party
United Party
United Rhodesia Party
spouse =
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater =
occupation =
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website =
footnotes =

Godfrey Martin Huggins, 1st Viscount Malvern, CH, KCMG, PC, (July 6 1883 - May 8 1971) was a Rhodesian politician and physician. He was educated at Malvern College and St. Thomas's Hospital, London.

After practicing medicine and training as a surgeon in London, Huggins emigrated to Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia in 1911. He served in the armed forces as a surgeon in the First World War. He entered politics in 1923 and was elected to the Legislative Council of the colony upon its creation. He became Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia in 1933 when his Reform Party won that year's general election. (The Reform Party subsequently merged with the Rhodesian Party to form the United Party). Huggins won successive elections and was knighted in 1941 by King George VI.

Southern Rhodesia and its neighbours were crown colonies of the United Kingdom. Huggins became an advocate of federating several of the colonies so that they would become an independent state within the British Empire while maintaining white minority rule with only a small number of educated Blacks having the vote in addition to white settlers. As a result of his effort the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was created in 1953 uniting Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland with Huggins as the federation's first prime minister after his new United Federal Party won the federation's first general election. Huggins remained in office until 1956 and was elevated to the British peerage as Viscount Malvern prior to his retirement. He was succeeded as prime minister by Sir Roy Welensky. The biggest political issue of his tenure as Federal Prime Minister was the question of race relations. Huggins and other proponents of Federation claimed to stand for a policy of Partnership, which was claimed to be much more enlightened than the apartheid that the new Nationalist Party Government was then installing in South Africa. Partnership never got off the ground, not least because of the endless humiliations that white politicians including Huggins visited upon the few black members of parliament. One infamous quotation attributed to Huggins was that Partnership would be akin to "the partnership of rider and horse". Huggins' successor, Welensky, spent his time in office trying to prevent an inevitable breakup of the Federation.

Having served 23 years as Prime Minister, Huggins became the longest serving Prime Minister in British Commonwealth history, beating the records of Mackenzie King of Canada and Sir Robert Walpole of Great Britain and Ireland.

References

- Huggins of Rhodesia, by M. Gelfand and H Gann, published by Allen and Unwin, London, 1964

- Welensky's 4000 Days, by Roy Welensky. London, Collins.