Third Churchill ministry

Third Churchill ministry
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
1951–1955
Date formed	26 October 1951 (1951-10-26)
Date dissolved	5 April 1955 (1955-04-05)
People and organisations
Monarch	George VI (1951–1952) Elizabeth II (1952–1955)
Prime Minister	Sir Winston Churchill
Deputy Prime Minister	Sir Anthony Eden
Total no. of members	149 appointments
Member party	Conservative Party
Status in legislature	Majority 321 / 625 (51%)
Opposition party	Labour Party
Opposition leader	Clement Attlee
History
Election	1951 general election
Legislature terms	40th UK Parliament
Predecessor	Second Attlee ministry
Successor	Eden ministry

This article is part of a series about Winston Churchill
Personal Early life Family Painting Writing Racial views Pets "Wilderness" years Later life Death and state funeral Operation Hope Not Policies Electoral history MP for Dundee MP for Epping MP for Woodford Liberal Government Tonypandy riots Siege of Sidney Street National Insurance Act 1911 Gallipoli campaign Russian Civil War Irish War of Independence Anglo-Irish Treaty Chanak Crisis Chancellor of the Exchequer Chancellorship 1926 General Strike British Gazette Prime Minister of the United Kingdom First premiership timeline Second World War War ministry crisis Invasion of Iceland Home Guard Dunkirk "We shall fight on the beaches" Atlantic Charter Invasion of Italy Tehran Conference Operation Overlord D-Day Yalta Conference VE Day Caretaker Government Potsdam Conference 1945 general election Mau Mau rebellion Malayan Emergency Books The World Crisis The Second World War A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Legacy Awards and honours Bibliography Cultural depictions

Winston Churchill formed the third Churchill ministry in the United Kingdom following the 1951 general election. He was reappointed as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by King George VI and oversaw the accession of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 and her coronation.

The Conservative Party returned to power in the United Kingdom after winning the 1951 general election following six years in opposition. This was the first majority Conservative government formed since Stanley Baldwin's 1924–1929 ministry. Winston Churchill became prime minister for a second time. Churchill's government had several prominent figures and up-and-coming stars. Rab Butler was appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer while Sir Anthony Eden returned as Foreign Secretary. The noted Scottish lawyer Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, who had gained fame as a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, became Home Secretary. He remained in this post until 1954, when he was ennobled as Viscount Kilmuir and appointed Lord Chancellor. Future Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan achieved his first major Cabinet position when he was made Minister of Defence in 1954.

Gwilym Lloyd George, younger son of former Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister David Lloyd George, replaced Sir David Maxwell Fyfe as Home Secretary in 1954. Florence Horsbrugh became the first woman to hold a Cabinet post in a Conservative government when she was appointed Minister of Education in 1951. Several figures who were later to achieve high offices held their first governmental posts. These included: future Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath, future Chancellors of the Exchequer Reginald Maudling, Peter Thorneycroft and Iain Macleod and future Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington. Other notable figures in the government were: John Profumo, Bill Deedes, David Ormsby-Gore and Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury.

The Churchill ministry was mainly concerned with international affairs, the widening Cold War and decolonialisation (especially the Mau Mau Uprising and the Malayan Emergency).

Despite suffering a stroke in 1953, Churchill remained in office until April 1955, when he resigned at the age of eighty. He was succeeded by his ambitious protégé and deputy, Sir Anthony Eden, who finally reached the post he had coveted for so long; although his premiership was to last for less than two years.

• Sir Winston Churchill – Prime Minister
• David Maxwell-Fyfe, 1st Viscount Kilmuir – Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
• Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury – Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council
• Harry Crookshank – Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
• Rab Butler – Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Sir Anthony Eden – Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• Gwilym Lloyd George – Secretary of State for the Home Department and Secretary of State for Welsh Affairs
• Derick Heathcoat-Amory – Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
• Alan Lennox-Boyd – Secretary of State for the Colonies
• Philip Cunliffe-Lister, 1st Viscount Swinton – Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations
• Harold Macmillan – Minister of Defence
• Sir David Eccles – Minister of Education
• Duncan Sandys – Minister of Housing and Local Government
• Sir Walter Monckton – Minister of Labour and National Service
• Frederick Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton – Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister of Materials
• Osbert Peake – Minister of Pensions
• James Stuart – Secretary of State for Scotland
• Peter Thorneycroft – President of the Board of Trade
• Norman Brook – Cabinet Secretary

Members of the Cabinet are in bold face.

• D. Butler and G. Butler (ed.). Twentieth Century British Political Facts 1900–2000.