Michael Hughes-Young, 1st Baron St Helens

Michael Henry Colin Hughes-Young, 1st Baron St Helens, MC (28 October 1912 – 27 December 1980) was a British army officer and politician. He served as a Government whip for nine years; after being defeated, he was given an hereditary peerage by the Crown.

Hughes-Young was the son of Brigadier-General Henry Young, a Northern Ireland-born Cavalry Officer who later served as Serjeant-at-Arms for the Parliament of Northern Ireland. He was sent to Selwyn House Preparatory School in Broadstairs, and then to Harrow School; he followed his father into the Army, studying at Sandhurst. In 1932 he joined the Black Watch.

In 1934, Hughes-Young was attached to the French Army on an exchange programme; in 1935 he was seconded to the King's African Rifles. On the outbreak of the Second World War he married Elizabeth Blakiston-Houston, also from Northern Ireland. He fought against Italy in Abyssinia, and later returned to Britain where he participated in the invasion of Europe; he was wounded twice and won the Military Cross.

Hughes-Young left the army, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, in 1947, and settled in Englefield Green in Surrey. He became an official of Conservative Central Office in the publicity department. At the 1951 general election, he fought St Helens against Hartley Shawcross, the President of the Board of Trade in the Labour government; this was a safe Labour constituency but it gave Hughes-Young much experience of fighting an election campaign.

...
Wikipedia