Angus Maude

The Right Honourable The Lord Maude of Stratford-upon-Avon TD PC
Paymaster General
In office 4 May 1979 – 5 January 1981
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Shirley Williams
Succeeded by	Francis Pym
Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon
In office 15 August 1963 – 9 June 1983
Preceded by	John Profumo
Succeeded by	Alan Howarth
Member of Parliament for Ealing South
In office 23 February 1950 – 12 June 1958
Preceded by	Constituency Created
Succeeded by	Brian Batsford
Personal details
Born	(1912-09-08)8 September 1912
Died	Banbury, Oxfordshire
Political party	Conservative
Children	Francis Maude
Alma mater	Oriel College, Oxford

Angus Edmund Upton Maude, Baron Maude of Stratford-upon-Avon, TD, PC (8 September 1912 – 9 November 1993) was a British Conservative politician and cabinet minister from 1979 until 1981. He was the father of former Conservative MP Francis Maude.

Early life

He was born at 44 Temple Fortune Lane, Hendon, Middlesex, the only child of Alan Hamer Maude (1885–1979), journalist and army officer, and Dorothy Maude Upton, daughter of Frederic Upton, a civil servant. Maude was educated, mainly in Classics, at Rugby School and at Oriel College, Oxford where he obtained a Second Class degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics in 1933. He became a journalist and author, working on The Times (1933–4) and The Daily Mail (1934–9).

Parliamentary career

Maude was elected Member of Parliament for Ealing South in 1950. He continued to work in journalism and was Director of the Conservative Political Centre, 1951–55. In 1958, he resigned his seat to become editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, a post which he held until 1961. He attempted to return to Parliament, but was beaten in a 1962 by-election at South Dorset by 704 votes by Labour's Guy Barnett. He was then elected to represent the constituency of Stratford-on-Avon from a by-election in 1963 until 1983.

Maude was shadow aviation spokesman, but was sacked in 1967 by Edward Heath after criticising party policy. When Margaret Thatcher became leader, she brought him back into the fold after he played a key role in her bid for the leadership in 1975. When she came to power in May 1979, he was appointed to the position of Paymaster-General with a seat in the cabinet, with Thatcher saying "I was anxious to have Angus Maude in the Cabinet to benefit from his years of political experience, his sound views, and his acid wit." However, Maude resigned relatively soon after, in January 1981, following which he received a knighthood.

House of Lords

Maude gave up his seat at the 1983 UK general election, and was elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer on 19 September 1983, taking the title Baron Maude of Stratford-upon-Avon, of Stratford-upon-Avon in the County of Warwickshire. He died in 1993.

He was nicknamed "The Mekon" because of his prominent forehead and overbearing manner.

External links

• Thatcher's First Cabinet
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Angus Maude

Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Ealing South 1950–1958	Succeeded by Brian Batsford
Preceded by John Profumo	Member of Parliament for Stratford-upon-Avon 1963–1983	Succeeded by Alan Howarth
Political offices
Preceded by Shirley Williams	Paymaster-General 1979–1981	Succeeded by Francis Pym