George Edward Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft of Dunstan and Hugh Molson

George Edward Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft of Dunstan (1909-94), was the son of Major George Edward Mervyn Thorneycroft and Dorothy Hope. He was educated at Eton and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. In 1930 Thorneycroft was commissioned into the Royal Artillery, but he resigned his commission three years later. He was called to the Bar in 1935. He was Conservative MP for Stafford, 1938-45, and for Monmouth, 1945-66; Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of War Transport, 1945; President of the Board of Trade, 1951-7; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1957-8; Minister of Aviation, 1960-2; Minister of Defence, 1962-4; and Chairman of the Conservative Party, 1975-81. Thorneycroft held chairmanships of a number of companies: SITPRO, 1968-75; Pirelli General, 1967-87; BOTB, 1972-5; Pye of Cambridge Ltd, 1967-79; Trusthouse Forte, 1969-81; British Reserve Insurance Company, 1980-7, and Gil, Carvajal and Partners Limited, 1981-94. He was President of Forte plc (formerly Trusthouse Forte), 1989-92, and Pirelli General and Pirelli UK from 1989 onwards. In 1967 Thorneycroft was made a life peer. He was a watercolourist of distinction and author of THE AMATEUR (London, 1985).