Terence Higgins, Baron Higgins

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The Lord Higgins
Official portrait, 2018
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
In office
7 April 1972 – 4 March 1974
Prime MinisterEdward Heath
Preceded byPatrick Jenkin
Succeeded byJohn Gilbert
Member of Parliament
for Worthing
In office
15 October 1964 – 8 April 1997
Preceded byOtho Prior-Palmer
Succeeded byconstituency abolished
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
28 October 1997 – 1 January 2019
Life peerage
Personal details
Born (1928-01-18) 18 January 1928 (age 96)
Political partyConservative
Alma materGonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Terence Higgins, Baron Higgins
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Silver medal – second place 1950 Auckland 4x440 yard relay

Terence Langley Higgins, Baron Higgins, KBE, DL, PC (born 18 January 1928)[1] is a British Conservative Party politician and Commonwealth Games silver medalist winner for England. He also competed in the men's 400 metres at the 1952 Summer Olympics.[2]

Biography[edit]

Born in 1928, Higgins was educated at Alleyn's School, Dulwich. He served in the Royal Air Force from 1946 to 1948, and was a member of British Olympic Team in 1948 and 1952.[citation needed] In 1948 he immigrated to New Zealand, where he worked for a shipping firm, but seven years later returned to Britain to study economics as a mature student at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. During his time at Cambridge, Higgins was President of the Cambridge Union. After graduating in 1958, he spent a year as an economics lecturer at Yale University before choosing to work for Unilever as an economist.[1]

Higgins was the Member of Parliament for Worthing from 1964 to 1997,[3] and Financial Secretary to the Treasury between 1972 and 1974.[4] He became a Privy Councillor in 1979, and served on the Treasury Select Committee from 1979 to 1992 (serving as chairman from 1983 to 1992), and on the Liaison Committee from 1984 to 1997.[1]

Higgins was created a life peer as Baron Higgins, of Worthing in the County of West Sussex on 28 October 1997.[5] While in opposition, he served as the Conservative shadow minister for work and pensions in the House of Lords. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1993 New Years Honours List.[6]

His wife, Dame Rosalyn Higgins, with whom he has two children, was the President of the International Court of Justice. Higgins retired from the House of Lords on 1 January 2019.[7][8]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Higgins, Baron, (Terence Langley Higgins) (born 18 Jan. 1928)". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u20083. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  2. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Terry Higgins". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  3. ^ "Worthing MP's plan could 'save nation millions'". Mid Sussex Times. 30 January 2008. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
  4. ^ Cairncross, Frances; Cairncross, Alec (1992). The Legacy of the golden age: the 1960s and their economic consequences. Routledge. p. 194. ISBN 0-415-07154-2.
  5. ^ "No. 54936". The London Gazette. 3 November 1997. p. 12333.
  6. ^ "No. 53153". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1992. p. 7.
  7. ^ "Parliamentary career for Lord Higgins". members.parliament.uk.
  8. ^ "Lord Higgins". UK Parliament.

External links[edit]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Worthing
19641997
constituency abolished
Political offices
Preceded by Financial Secretary to the Treasury
1972–1974
Succeeded by
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gentlemen
Baron Higgins
Followed by