George Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth

George Morgan Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth, KT, PC, DL, FRSE (16 January 1921 – 3 October 2008) was a British politician and journalist who served as a Labour MP. He was a member of Harold Wilson's cabinet, and later became a European Commissioner.

The Right Honourable The Lord Thomson of Monifieth KT PC DL FRSE
Thomson in 1973
European Commissioner for Regional Policy
In office 6 January 1973 – 5 January 1977
President	François-Xavier Ortoli
Preceded by	Albert Borschette
Succeeded by	Antonio Giolitti
Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
In office 8 July 1970 – 10 April 1972
Leader	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Geoffrey Rippon
Succeeded by	Fred Peart
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 6 October 1969 – 20 June 1970
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Frederick Lee
Succeeded by	Anthony Barber
In office 6 April 1966 – 7 January 1967
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Douglas Houghton
Succeeded by	Frederick Lee
Minister without Portfolio
In office 17 October 1968 – 6 October 1969
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Patrick Gordon-Walker
Succeeded by	The Lord Drumalbyn
Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs
In office 29 August 1967 – 17 October 1968
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Herbert Bowden
Succeeded by	Michael Stewart (foreign and Commonwealth affairs)
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 23 March 1977 – 3 October 2008 Life peerage
Member of Parliament for Dundee East
In office 17 July 1952 – 1 March 1973
Preceded by	Thomas Cook
Succeeded by	George Machin
Personal details
Born	(1921-01-16)16 January 1921 Penn, Buckinghamshire, England
Died	3 October 2008(2008-10-03) (aged 87) London, England
Political party	Labour (before 1981) SDP (1981–1988) Liberal Democrats (from 1988)
Spouse	Grace Jenkins ​ (m. 1948)​
Children	2, including Caroline

In the 1980s, he joined the Social Democratic Party. Following the SDP's merger with the Liberal Party, he became a Liberal Democrat and sat as a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.

Early life

Thomson was educated at Grove Academy, Broughty Ferry, Dundee. At 16 he left school to become a local reporter with the Dundee newspaper, magazine and comic publishers DC Thomson. He became deputy editor of the firms' successful comic The Dandy and for a short time was its editor, despite being only 18 years old. He left the firm in 1940 to serve in the Royal Air Force. Due to eyesight problems he was not able to take a flight crew role and served on the ground for fighter command. He returned to DC Thomson in 1946, but left the firm after clashing with them over his right to join a trade union. He then became assistant editor, and later editor, of Forward, a Scottish-based socialist newspaper, from 1946 to 1953.

Political career

At the 1950 and 1951 general elections, Thomson stood unsuccessfully in Glasgow Hillhead. In 1952, he was elected Member of Parliament in a by-election for Dundee East, where he served until his resignation in 1972. He served in the Wilson government as Minister of State, Foreign Office, from October 1964 to April 1966, then as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1966 to 1967, and again from 1969 to 1970, Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs from 1967 to 1968, and Minister without Portfolio from 1968 to 1969. During his time as Commonwealth Secretary he had responsibility for trying to reach a settlement of the Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) question and for implementing sanctions against the regime there. He was one of the first British Commissioners of the European Community (EC) from 1973 to 1977, with responsibility for regional policy. As chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) from 1981 to 1988 he oversaw the introduction of Channel 4 and TV-am.

He was Chair of the Advertising Standards Authority from 1977 to 1980; Chair of the IBA 1981–88; a European Commissioner, with responsibility for Regional Policy 1973–76; First Crown Estate Commissioner from 1977 to 1980; and a Member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life from 1994 until 1997. He was Deputy Chair of the Woolwich Building Society from 1988 to 1991. He had been a Lords' Member of the Parliamentary Broadcasting Unit since 1993. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Television Society, and a patron of Sustrans.

In 1985 he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland; he chose "Does Public Broadcasting Have a Future? The Challenge of the New Technologies". After moving with his wife, Grace, to Charing, Kent, Thomson held the position of Party President, for Ashford Liberal Democrats, from 1999 to 2006.

Death

He died on Friday 3 October 2008 at London's St Thomas' Hospital, from a viral infection. He was survived by his wife, Grace (née Jenkins), Lady Thomson (1925–2014), and their two daughters, Ailsa and Caroline, the former chief operating officer of the BBC.

Honours

Thomson received an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1973.

Thomson was made a Privy Counsellor in 1966, was created a Life Peer on 23 March 1977 as Baron Thomson of Monifieth, of Monifieth in the District of the City of Dundee, and became a Knight of the Thistle in 1981.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by George Thomson
• Portraits of George Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth at the National Portrait Gallery, London