George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie

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File:Shield of Arms of George Kenneth Hotson Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, KT, KCVO, TD, PC, FRSGS.png
Shield of Arms of George Kenneth Hotson Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, KT, KCVO, TD, PC, FRSGS

George Kenneth Hotson Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, Baron Younger of Prestwick, Script error: No such module "If empty". (22 September 1931 – 26 January 2003), was a British Conservative Party politician and banker. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayr from 1964 to 1992. During the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, Younger served as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1979 to 1986, and as Secretary of State for Defence from 1986 to 1989.

Early life and career

Younger's forebear, George Younger (baptised 1722), was the founder of George Younger and Son of Alloa, the family's brewing business (not to be confused with Younger's of Edinburgh). Younger's great-grandfather, George Younger, was created Viscount Younger of Leckie in 1923. Younger was the eldest of the three sons of Edward Younger, 3rd Viscount Younger of Leckie.[1]

He was born in Stirling in 1931 and educated at Cargilfield Preparatory School, Winchester College, and New College, Oxford, where he obtained a Master's degree.[1] Joining the British Army, he served in the Korean War with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. On 7 August 1954, he married Diana Tuck, daughter of a Royal Navy captain. They had four children, including James Younger, who succeeded his father to the Viscountcy.[2]

Political career

He first stood for Parliament, unsuccessfully, in North Lanarkshire in the 1959 general election. Subsequently, he was initially selected to stand for the Kinross and West Perthshire seat in a by-election in late 1963, but agreed to stand aside to allow the new Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home the chance to enter the House of Commons.[1] He was viewed as a one-nation conservative.[1]

Following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather the 1st Viscount, Younger became Member of Parliament for Ayr in 1964 and served as Margaret Thatcher's Secretary of State for Scotland for seven years.[1] He subsequently succeeded Michael Heseltine as Secretary of State for Defence in 1986 when Heseltine resigned from the cabinet over a dispute about helicopters known as the Westland affair.[1] In the 1987 general election, as part of a considerable swing away from the Conservatives in Scotland, he retained his seat after three recounts, by a majority of just 182 votes (having been almost 8,000 votes in 1983). Incidentally, it was held by his successor Phil Gallie by an even smaller majority of 85 votes in 1992.

After parliament

Younger quit the cabinet in 1989, and joined the Royal Bank of Scotland, becoming its chairman in 1992. He was created a life peer as Baron Younger of Prestwick, of Ayr in the District of Kyle and Carrick, on 7 July 1992, five years before succeeding to the viscountcy. As such, he continued to sit in the House of Lords after the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999 which expelled most of the hereditary peers. In 1995, the Queen appointed him a knight of the Order of the Thistle.[3] Younger became Chancellor of Edinburgh's Napier University in 1993, and was Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for 2001 and 2002.

Younger died from cancer at his home in Gargunnock on 26 January 2003, at the age of 71.[4]

Notes

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References

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  1. ↑ a b c d e f Script error: No such module "template wrapper". Template:Link note
  2. ↑ "Entry for George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie" Burke's Landed Gentry of Great Britain, p. 1389, 9 April 2010.
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ "Obituary: Viscount Younger of Leckie" The Independent, 9 April 2010.

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Sources

  • Torrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries (Birlinn 2006)
  • Burke's Peerage & Baronetage (106th edition, 1999). Editor-in-chief: Charles Mosley; publisher: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd.

External links

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Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Member of Parliament
for Ayr
1964–1992 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
1975–1976 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Secretary of State for Scotland
1979–1986 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Secretary of State for Defence
1986–1989 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Viscount Younger of Leckie
1997–2003 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by

Template:Shadow Defence Secretaries Template:Secretary of State for Defence Template:Secretaries of State for Scotland Template:Thatcher Ministry Script error: No such module "Authority control".

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