The Right Honourable The Viscount Addison KG PC FRCS |
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Lord President of the Council | |
In office 9 March 1951 – 26 October 1951 |
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Monarch | George VI |
Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
Preceded by | Herbert Morrison |
Succeeded by | The Lord Woolton |
Paymaster General | |
In office 2 July 1948 – 1 April 1949 |
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Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
Preceded by | Hilary Marquand |
Succeeded by | Gordon Macdonald |
Lord Privy Seal | |
In office 7 October 1947 – 9 March 1951 |
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Monarch | George VI |
Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
Preceded by | The Lord Inman |
Succeeded by | Ernest Bevin |
Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs | |
In office 3 August 1945 – 7 July 1947 |
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Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
Preceded by | Viscount Cranborne |
Succeeded by | Philip Noel-Baker |
Leader of the House of Lords | |
In office 3 August 1945 – 26 October 1951 |
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Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
Preceded by | Viscount Cranborne |
Succeeded by | The Marquess of Salisbury |
Minister of Agriculture | |
In office 5 June 1930 – 24 August 1931 |
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Prime Minister | Ramsay Macdonald |
Preceded by | Noel Buxton |
Succeeded by | Sir John Gilmour, Bt |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries | |
In office 4 June 1929 – 5 June 1930 |
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Prime Minister | Ramsay Macdonald |
Preceded by | George Rous |
Succeeded by | Herbrand Sackville |
Minister without portfolio | |
In office 1 April 1921 – 14 July 1921 |
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Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
Preceded by | Laming Worthington-Evans |
Succeeded by | Anthony Eden |
Minister of Health | |
In office 24 June 1919 – 1 April 1921 |
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Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
Preceded by |
office established Himself (as President of the Local Government Board) |
Succeeded by | Alfred Mond |
President of the Local Government Board | |
In office 10 January 1919 – 24 June 1919 |
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Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
Preceded by | Auckland Geddes |
Succeeded by |
office abolished Himself (as Minister of Health) |
Minister of Reconstruction | |
In office 17 July 1917 – 10 January 1919 |
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Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
Preceded by | New office |
Succeeded by | Auckland Geddes |
Minister of Munitions | |
In office 10 December 1916 – 17 July 1917 |
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Prime Minister | David Lloyd George |
Preceded by | Hon. Edwin Samuel Montagu |
Succeeded by | Winston Churchill |
Member of Parliament for Swindon |
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In office 30 May 1929 – 27 October 1931 |
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Preceded by | Reginald Mitchell Banks |
Succeeded by | Reginald Mitchell Banks |
In office 25 October 1934 – 14 November 1935 |
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Preceded by | Reginald Mitchell Banks |
Succeeded by | Wavell Wakefield |
Member of Parliament for Shoreditch Hoxton (1910–1918) |
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In office 10 January 1910 – 15 November 1922 |
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Preceded by | Claude George Drummond Hay |
Succeeded by | Ernest Griffith Price |
Personal details | |
Born |
19 June 1869 Hogsthorpe, Lincolnshire |
Died | 11 December 1951 (aged 82) |
Nationality | British |
Political party |
Liberal Labour |
Spouse(s) | (1) Isobel Gray (d. 1934) (2) Beatrice Low (d. 1982) |
Alma mater | University of London |
Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison KG PC FRCS (19 June 1869 – 11 December 1951) was a British medical doctor and politician. By turns a Liberal and a Labourite, he served as Minister of Munitions during the First World War, and was later Minister of Health under David Lloyd George and Leader of the House of Lords under Clement Attlee.
He was a prominent anatomist, and perhaps the most eminent doctor ever to enter the Commons. He was a leader in issues of health, wartime munitions, housing and agriculture. Although not highly visible, he played a major role in the postwar governments that followed both world wars. Addison worked hard to promote the National Insurance scheme in 1911. Lloyd George made him the first Minister of Health during the wartime coalition, and Addison started up the first programme of publicly-funded local authority housing schemes with his Housing Act of 1919. He and Lloyd George fell out and he joined the Labour Party,
Addison was born in the rural parish of Hogsthorpe in Lincolnshire, the son of Robert Addison and Susan, daughter of Charles Fanthorpe. His family had owned and run a farm for several generations and he maintained a strong interest in agriculture and rural matters throughout his life. He attended Trinity College, Harrogate, from the age of thirteen. He trained in medicine at Sheffield School of Medicine and St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. His education was expensive for his family, and he insisted on re-paying his parents once he had begun his career.
In 1892, Addison graduated from the University of London as a Bachelor of Medicine and Science with honours in forensic medicine. A year later he qualified as a Medical Doctor and two years after that he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. He combined private practice with academic research, and taught anatomy at Sheffield School of Medicine. In 1896 he became professor of anatomy at the newly formed University College of Sheffield, and edited the Quarterly Medical Journal from 1898 to 1901. In 1901, he moved to London again, teaching at Charing Cross Hospital. He published his research on anatomy and became Hunterian professor with the Royal College of Surgeons.