Edward Wakefield

Sir Edward Birkbeck Wakefield, 1st Baronet, (24 July 1903 – 14 January 1969) was a British civil servant and Conservative Party politician.

Early life Wakefield was born 24 July 1903 in Kendal the third son of Roger William Wakefield. His elder brother was Wavell Wakefield, 1st Baron Wakefield of Kendal, also a Conservative politician. His youngest brother, Roger Cuthbert Wakefield, was an early British & Irish Lion, touring on the 1927 British Lions tour to Argentina.

He was educated at Haileybury and at Trinity College, Cambridge, afterwards joining the Indian Civil Service in 1927 and serving in Punjab, Rajputana, Kathiawar, Baluchistan, Central India, Tibet and the Persian Gulf. He was Chief Minister of Kalat State 1933–1936, of Nabha State 1939–1941 and of Rewa State 1943–1945, and was Joint Secretary, Political Department, Delhi, 1946–1947. He was awarded a bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society in 1936.

Political career He was elected as the member of parliament (MP) for West Derbyshire in 1950, holding the seat until 1962. He held a series of appointments as a whip, first as Assistant Whip, 1954–1956; then as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, 1956–1958; Comptroller of Her Majesty's Household, 1958–1959; Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, 1959–1960; and Treasurer of the Household, 1960–1962. orders = Insignia of a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire