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Humphrey Edward Gregory Atkins, Baron Colnbrook KCMG PC (12 August 1922 – 4 October 1996) was a British politician[2] and a member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from 1979 to 1982.
Atkins was born on 12 August 1922, in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, son of Capt Edward Davis Atkins and Violet Mary née Preston and lived in Kenya until the age of three. He and his wife Margaret née Spencer-Nairn (1924-2012) had four children, three daughters and one son.[1][3][4]
Atkins was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, and served in the Royal Navy from 1940 to 1948. He worked for a linoleum manufacturer then became a director of a financial advertising agency. He contested the constituency of West Lothian in 1951, and was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Merton and Morden in 1955. He became MP for the Spelthorne in 1970.
Atkins was a Conservative Chief Whip from 1973 to 1979, and served as a Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1979 to 1981. On September 1981, he was appointed as Lord Privy Seal, which was a role as the chief government spokesman in the House of Commons for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. This role was necessary because the Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, sat in the House of Lords. He resigned in April, 1982, along with Lord Carrington over the Falklands invasion. Atkins left the House of Commons in 1987, and was made a life peer as Baron Colnbrook of Waltham St Lawrence in the County of Berkshire.[1]
Atkins died on 4 October 1996.[3]
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