John Boyd-Carpenter, Baron Boyd-Carpenter

John Archibald Boyd-Carpenter, Baron Boyd-Carpenter, PC, DL (2 June 1908 – 11 July 1998) was a British Conservative politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Kingston-upon-Thames from 1945 to 1972, when he was made a life peer. He served in several ministerial roles throughout the Conservative governments of 1951 to 1964, and was Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General from 1962 to 1964.

Early life John Archibald Boyd-Carpenter was born in Harrogate on 2 June 1908. He was the only son of Conservative politician Sir Archibald Boyd-Carpenter MP and his wife Annie Dugdale. His grandfather was William Boyd Carpenter, an Anglican bishop. He graduated with a BA in History, and a Diploma in Economics in 1931. He was Harmsworth Law Scholar at the Middle Temple in 1933 and called to Bar the next year, and practised in the London and South-East Circuit. In December 1955 he was moved to the position of Minister of Pensions and National Insurance, which he held until July 1962 (the young Margaret Thatcher served under him as Parliamentary Secretary, her first ministerial job, from October 1961). In 1971, Lloyd was elected Speaker of the House, another job that Boyd-Carpenter had desired; The Times said his failure to become speaker was a "major disappointment" of his political career. he served as Opposition Front Bench Spokesman on Housing, Local Government and Land, 1964–66, and as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee from 1964 to 1970. His successor at the ensuing byelection was Norman Lamont, the future Chancellor of the Exchequer under John Major.

As the first Chairman of the UK's CAA, Boyd-Carpenter was in charge at the time of the collapse of the UK airline Court Line and their subsidiary Clarksons Travel Group in August 1974.

Personal life In 1937, Boyd-Carpenter married Margaret ("Peggy") Mary, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel George Leslie Hall, OBE, of the Royal Engineers.