Rolf Dudley-Williams
Encyclopedia
Sir Rolf Dudley Dudley-Williams, 1st Baronet (originally (Rolf) Dudley Williams, 17 June 1908 – 8 October 1987) was a British
aeronautical engineer and Conservative Party
politician
.
and educated at Plymouth College
. He joined the Royal Air Force
cadet scheme in 1926 and studied at the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell. He was gazette
d in 1928 and appointed a Flying Officer
in 1930. From 1933 he was stationed at the Central Flying School, but the next year an injury saw him invalided out of the service.
and fellow ex-RAF officer James Collingwood Tinling
to set up Power Jets
Ltd in 1936 to develop Whittle's idea of jet engine
s for aircraft. In 1941 he was appointed Managing Director, and in 1944 he joined the Council of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors
and was made a Companion of the Royal Aeronautical Society
.
, Williams was Conservative
candidate for Brierley Hill
in Staffordshire
but lost to Labour. He was then selected for Exeter
, a Conservative held seat, and won it at the 1951 general election
.
to extend the legal protection against poaching
in 1952. During the 1954 controversy over Rudolph Cartier
's television adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four
by George Orwell
, Williams attacked "the tendency, evident in recent British Broadcasting Corporation
television programmes, notably on Sunday evenings, to pander to sexual and sadistic tastes".
Williams' campaign to retain his seat at the 1955 general election
was helped by Sir Frank Whittle, who had attempted to convert Williams to socialism while at Cranwell but was forcefully opposed to nationalisation after his treatment by Labour ministers in the 1940s. After his re-election, Williams advocated a hawkish approach to Egypt on the Suez issue, and supported police crackdowns on demonstrations for nuclear disarmament.
He served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary
to the Secretary of State for War in 1958, and to the Minister of Agriculture from 1960 to 1964. From the 1960s he made a specialism of opposing other MPs' Private Members' Bills, especially from Labour MPs. He helped Winston Churchill
take his seat when Churchill made a rare appearance in the House of Commons
chamber in 1963. On 10 July 1964 it was announced that he had adopted the new surname of Dudley-Williams. That year he was given a Baronet
cy.
, Dudley-Williams lost his seat in 1966
. Although taking some business appointments, he went into retirement so far as politics were concerned. However, in January 1975 during the Conservative Party leadership election, he joined with five other former Conservative MPs to write a letter to The Times
urging Edward Heath
to "now make way, so that the undoubted talents and leadership which he has kept muffled on the back benches should be given a chance to come to the fore".He is the grandfather of journalist Marina Hyde
.
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...
aeronautical engineer and Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
.
Royal Air Force career
Williams was born in PlymouthPlymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
and educated at Plymouth College
Plymouth College
Plymouth College is a co-educational independent school in Plymouth, Devon, England, for day and boarding pupils from the ages of 11 to 18...
. He joined the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
cadet scheme in 1926 and studied at the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell. He was gazette
Gazette
A gazette is a public journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper.In English- and French-speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name Gazette since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers bear the name The Gazette.Gazette is a loanword from the...
d in 1928 and appointed a Flying Officer
Flying Officer
Flying officer is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence...
in 1930. From 1933 he was stationed at the Central Flying School, but the next year an injury saw him invalided out of the service.
Jet engines
Deciding to go into business, Wiliams joined with fellow Cranwell pupil Frank WhittleFrank Whittle
Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS was a British Royal Air Force engineer officer. He is credited with independently inventing the turbojet engine Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a British Royal Air...
and fellow ex-RAF officer James Collingwood Tinling
James Collingwood Tinling
James Collingwood Burdett Tinling was an ex-RAF officer who joined with Rolf Dudley-Williams and Frank Whittle in 1936 to set up Power Jets Ltd, which manufactured the world's first working jet engine....
to set up Power Jets
Power Jets
Power Jets Ltd was a United Kingdom company set up by Frank Whittle for the purpose of designing and manufacturing jet engines.-History:Founded on January 27, 1936, the company consisted of Whittle, Rolf Dudley-Williams, James Collingwood Tinling, and Lancelot Law Whyte of investment bankers O T...
Ltd in 1936 to develop Whittle's idea of jet engine
Jet engine
A jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...
s for aircraft. In 1941 he was appointed Managing Director, and in 1944 he joined the Council of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors
Society of British Aircraft Constructors
The Society of British Aerospace Companies, known as SBAC was the UK's national trade association representing companies supplying civil air transport, aerospace defence, homeland security and space...
and was made a Companion of the Royal Aeronautical Society
Royal Aeronautical Society
The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a multidisciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community.-Function:...
.
Politics
At the 1950 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1950
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...
, Williams was Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
candidate for Brierley Hill
Brierley Hill (UK Parliament constituency)
Brierley Hill parliamentary constituency was located in the West Midlands of England. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.- History :...
in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
but lost to Labour. He was then selected for Exeter
Exeter (UK Parliament constituency)
Exeter is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
, a Conservative held seat, and won it at the 1951 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1951
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats...
.
Parliament
While Williams concentrated on the aircraft industry and the RAF, he also introduced his own Private Member's BillPrivate Member's Bill
A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...
to extend the legal protection against poaching
Poaching
Poaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.It may be illegal and in...
in 1952. During the 1954 controversy over Rudolph Cartier
Rudolph Cartier
Rudolph Cartier was an Austrian television director, filmmaker, screenwriter and producer who worked predominantly in British television, exclusively for the BBC...
's television adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four (TV programme)
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a British television adaptation of the novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in December 1954. The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed...
by George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
, Williams attacked "the tendency, evident in recent British Broadcasting Corporation
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 programmes, notably on Sunday evenings, to pander to sexual and sadistic tastes".
Williams' campaign to retain his seat at the 1955 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1955
The 1955 United Kingdom general election was held on 26 May 1955, four years after the previous general election. It resulted in a substantially increased majority of 60 for the Conservative government under new leader and prime minister Sir Anthony Eden against Labour Party, now in their 20th year...
was helped by Sir Frank Whittle, who had attempted to convert Williams to socialism while at Cranwell but was forcefully opposed to nationalisation after his treatment by Labour ministers in the 1940s. After his re-election, Williams advocated a hawkish approach to Egypt on the Suez issue, and supported police crackdowns on demonstrations for nuclear disarmament.
He served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary
Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary is a role given to a United Kingdom Member of Parliament by a senior minister in government or shadow minister to act as their contact for the House of Commons; this role is junior to that of Parliamentary Under-Secretary, which is a ministerial post, salaried by...
to the Secretary of State for War in 1958, and to the Minister of Agriculture from 1960 to 1964. From the 1960s he made a specialism of opposing other MPs' Private Members' Bills, especially from Labour MPs. He helped Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
take his seat when Churchill made a rare appearance in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
chamber in 1963. On 10 July 1964 it was announced that he had adopted the new surname of Dudley-Williams. That year he was given a Baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
cy.
Later career
After an adverse swing at the 1964 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1964
The United Kingdom general election of 1964 was held on 15 October 1964, more than five years after the preceding election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party had retaken power...
, Dudley-Williams lost his seat in 1966
United Kingdom general election, 1966
The 1966 United Kingdom general election on 31 March 1966 was called by sitting Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Wilson's decision to call an election turned on the fact that his government, elected a mere 17 months previously in 1964 had an unworkably small majority of only 4 MPs...
. Although taking some business appointments, he went into retirement so far as politics were concerned. However, in January 1975 during the Conservative Party leadership election, he joined with five other former Conservative MPs to write a letter to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
urging Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
to "now make way, so that the undoubted talents and leadership which he has kept muffled on the back benches should be given a chance to come to the fore".He is the grandfather of journalist Marina Hyde
Marina Hyde
Marina Hyde is an English columnist who writes articles on topics such as current affairs, politics, celebrity and sport for The Guardian newspaper...
.