Edwin Plowden

Edwin Noel Auguste Plowden, Baron Plowden, GBE, KCB (6 January 1907 – 15 February 2001) was a British industrialist and public servant in the Treasury.

Before World War II, Plowden joined C Tennant Sons & Co, commodity dealers. As he spoke French and German and knew the European mainland well, he was put in charge of selling Palestine potash, in competition with the European potash cartel; he did so to such effect that his firm, as it had hoped, was invited to join the cartel.

During the war, he served in the Ministry of Economic Warfare, and later joined the Ministry of Aircraft Production, in which he remained until 1946. During 1945–46 he was chief executive in succession to Air Chief Marshal Sir Wilfrid Freeman.

Plowden was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1946 Birthday Honours, a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 1951 Birthday Honours and was promoted to a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1987 Birthday Honours.

He was created a life peer with the title Baron Plowden, of Plowden in the county of Shropshire on 17 February 1959. He later chaired the Select Committee on the European Communities of the Lords in session 1979–80.

His wife, Lady Bridget (née Bridget Horatia Richmond; 1910–2000), chaired the group which authored and published the 1967 Plowden Report on primary education. She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE).

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