Richard Wood, Baron Holderness

The Right Honourable The Lord Holderness PC DL
Minister of Overseas Development
In office 23 June 1970 – 4 March 1974
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Judith Hart
Succeeded by	Judith Hart
Minister of Pensions and National Insurance
In office 20 October 1963 – 18 October 1964
Prime Minister	Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded by	Niall Macpherson
Succeeded by	Peggy Herbison
Minister of Power
In office 14 October 1959 – 20 October 1963
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	The Lord Mills
Succeeded by	Frederick Erroll
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 7 August 1979 – 11 August 2002 Life peerage
Member of Parliament for Bridlington
In office 23 February 1950 – 3 May 1979
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	John Townend
Personal details
Born	Richard Frederick Wood (1920-10-05)5 October 1920
Died	11 August 2002(2002-08-11) (aged 81)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Diana Kellet ​ (m. 1947)​
Children	2
Parent(s)	Edward Wood, Lady Dorothy Evelyn Augusta Onslow
Alma mater	New College, Oxford

Richard Frederick Wood, Baron Holderness, PC, DL (5 October 1920 – 11 August 2002), was a British Conservative politician who held numerous ministerial positions from 1955 to 1974. He was distinctive in having lost both his legs in action in North Africa during World War II.

Early life, education and military service

Wood was the youngest son of Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, and Lady Dorothy Evelyn Augusta Onslow. Lady Onslow was a daughter of the 4th Earl of Onslow. He was educated at St Cyprian's School in Eastbourne, Eton College and New College, Oxford. He became honorary attaché at the British Embassy in Rome in 1940, and in 1941 he gained the rank of lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He fought in the Middle East between 1941 and 1943 and was severely wounded, losing both his legs in action. His elder brother Peter Wood was killed in action in Egypt in 1942.

Political career

Wood became MP for Bridlington in 1950 and held the seat until 1979. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Derick Heathcoat-Amory during his time successively as Minister of Pensions between 1951 and 1953, Minister of State at the Board of Trade between 1953 and 1954, and Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries between 1954 and 1955. Wood was then Joint Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance between 1955 and 1958, at the Ministry of Labour between 1958 and 1959 and at the Ministry of Power between 1959 and 1963. Wood urged Prime Minister Anthony Eden not to respond to the Suez Crisis overly aggressively, but his advice was ignored because of his father's association with appeasement and the Munich Agreement.

In 1959 he was invested as a Privy Counsellor (P.C.) and was Minister of Pensions and National Insurance from 1963 until the Conservative Party lost power in 1964. He was Minister of Overseas Development from 1970 to 1974 for the duration of the Heath Government. From 1987 to 1991 he was an energetic chairman of the Disablement Services Authority, charged with the improvement of artificial limb services: he then served as a junior Minister on services for disabled people.

Honours and personal life

Wood became Honorary Colonel of the Queen's Royal Rifles in 1962 and Honorary Colonel of the 4th (Volunteer) Battalion, Royal Green Jackets between 1967 and 1969. He held the office of Deputy Lieutenant (D.L.) of the East Riding, Yorkshire in 1967. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Law (LL.D.) by Sheffield University in 1962, by Leeds University in 1978 and by Hull University in 1982. He was a director of Hargreaves Group between 1974 and 1986 and also a director of FJC Lilley & Company. After he retired as an MP, Wood was given a life peerage on 7 August 1979 as Baron Holderness, of Bishop Wilton in the County of Humberside.

Wood married Diana Kellett, daughter of Colonel Edward Orlando Kellett, in 1947 and had a daughter and son.

Arms

• Times Guide to the House of Commons, 1951, 1966, October 1974
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lord Holderness