Norman Crowther Hunt, Baron Crowther-Hunt
Encyclopedia
Norman Crowther Hunt, Baron Crowther-Hunt (13 March 1920 – 16 February 1987) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 scholar and Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 politician. He served as a Minister of State
Minister of State
Minister of State is a title borne by politicians or officials in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a "minister of state" is a junior minister, who is assigned to assist a specific cabinet minister...

 in Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...

's 1974–1976 government, and became Rector of Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...

 in 1982.

Early life and education

Hunt was born in Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

 in 1920. He was educated at Belle Vue High School in Bradford, and studied history at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Sidney Sussex College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England.The college was founded in 1596 and named after its foundress, Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex. It was from its inception an avowedly Puritan foundation: some good and godlie moniment for the mainteynance...

 before becoming a research fellow there in 1949. He gained a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship
Harkness Fellowship
The Harkness Fellowships are a programme run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. They were established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several countries to spend time studying in the United States...

 studied American politics at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 and in 1952, he was elected to a tutorial fellowship in politics at Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...

.

Career

Hunt appeared regularly on BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television and radio, and hosted the weekly People and Politics on the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...

. In 1986, his work with the corporation lead to his appointment as chairman of its General Advisory Council.

Through his friendship with Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...

, Hunt was able to promote reform of the civil service and devolution, two issues on which he felt deeply. During Wilson's first term as Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...

, he served on the Committee on the Civil Service (1966–1968; chaired by Lord Fulton
John Fulton, Baron Fulton
John Scott Fulton, Baron Fulton was a British university administrator and public servant. In education, he served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wales and of the University of Sussex, and was chair of the Universities Central Council on Admissions between 1961 and 1964...

), and was appointed to the Royal Commission on the Constitution
Royal Commission on the Constitution (United Kingdom)
The Royal Commission on the Constitution, also referred to as the Kilbrandon Commission or Kilbrandon Report, was a long-running royal commission set up by Harold Wilson's Labour government to examine the structures of the constitution of the United Kingdom and the British Islands and the...

, chaired by Lord Crowther
Geoffrey Crowther, Baron Crowther
Geoffrey Crowther, Baron Crowther was a British economist, journalist, educationalist and businessman. He was editor of The Economist from 1938 to 1956.-Early life and education:...

 and later Lord Kilbrandon
Charles Shaw, Baron Kilbrandon
Charles James Dalrymple Shaw, Baron Kilbrandon PC was a Scottish judge and law lord.-Family and education:...

, in 1969.

On 9 July 1973, he was awarded a life peer
Life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...

age as Baron Crowther-Hunt, of Eccleshill
Eccleshill
Eccleshill is a Ward in the City of Bradford Metropolitan District in the county of West Yorkshire, England....

 in the West Riding of the County of York
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county, County of York, West Riding , was based closely on the historic boundaries...

.

To develop the government's devolution proposals following Wilson's return to power, Crowther-Hunt became a constitutional adviser to the government from March to October 1974. He then served as Minister of State, Education and Science until 1976, when he became Minister of State for the Privy Council Office, when he again dealt with devolution issues.

Disillusioned by the government's narrow, party-political attitude to devolution and obstructions to civil service reform, he returned to full-time teaching at Exeter College in 1976. He became Rector in 1982, a position which he served until his death from a heart attack in 1987.
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