Geoffrey Rippon

The Right Honourable The Lord Rippon of Hexham PC QC
Shadow Foreign Secretary
In office 4 March 1974 – 11 February 1975
Leader	Ted Heath
Preceded by	Jim Callaghan
Succeeded by	Reginald Maudling
Secretary of State for the Environment
In office 5 November 1972 – 4 March 1974
Prime Minister	Ted Heath
Preceded by	Peter Walker
Succeeded by	Tony Crosland
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 25 July 1970 – 5 November 1972
Prime Minister	Ted Heath
Preceded by	Anthony Barber
Succeeded by	John Davies
Minister of Technology
In office 20 June 1970 – 25 July 1970
Prime Minister	Ted Heath
Preceded by	Tony Benn
Succeeded by	John Davies
Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
In office 1969 – 20 June 1970
Leader	Ted Heath
Preceded by	Reginald Maudling
Succeeded by	George Thomson
Member of Parliament for Hexham
In office 31 March 1966 – 11 June 1987
Preceded by	Rupert Speir
Succeeded by	Alan Amos
Member of Parliament for Norwich South
In office 26 May 1955 – 15 October 1964
Preceded by	Henry Strauss
Succeeded by	Christopher Norwood
Personal details
Born	28 May 1924 Penn, England
Died	28 January 1997 (aged 72) Broomfield, England
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	Brasenose College, Oxford

Aubrey Geoffrey Frederick Rippon, Baron Rippon of Hexham, PC, QC (28 May 1924 – 28 January 1997) was a British Conservative politician. He was Chairman of the European-Atlantic Group.

Early life

Born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, the son of the Somerset cricketer Sydney Rippon, Geoffrey Rippon was educated at King's College, Taunton, and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he was president of the University Conservative Association. He was called to the Bar in 1948 and was Mayor of Surbiton 1951–52 and a member of the London County Council from 1952.

Parliamentary career

After unsuccessfully contesting the seat of Shoreditch and Finsbury in both 1950 and 1951, he became MP for Norwich South in 1955.

As Minister for Public Building and Works in 1962, Rippon controversially sought to demolish and redevelop the Italianate Foreign and Commonwealth Office main building designed in the 1860's by Sir George Gilbert Scott.^[1][2] After campaign led by the Victorian Society and a public outcry the decision was overturned and the building was subsequently granted Grade 1 listed building status.

In 1964 Rippon was defeated, but moved to the constituency of Hexham in Northumberland at the 1966 general election and remained MP there until retiring in 1987. Among his posts in the Shadow Cabinet was that of Shadow Defence Secretary from 1969 to 1970.

In 1970 he became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster under Edward Heath, and being in favour of the Common Market was given the responsibility of negotiating Britain's entry into it. In 1972 he moved to become Secretary of State for the Environment. During his tenure the Department of the Environment was housed on Marsham Street in tower blocks of appalling ugliness, nicknamed 'the three ugly sisters'. Rippon is supposed to have commented to his civil servants that the view from the top floor was the best in London, as one could not see the towers themselves.

He was at one time a prominent member of the Conservative Monday Club, for whom he authored a booklet entitled Right Angle, and was guest-of-honour at their Annual Dinner in 1970. The Club was, however, divided on the EEC (European Community) issue, and at their conference in October 1971 members moved and carried a resolution opposing Britain's entry.

From 1979 to 1982, Rippon was President of the European Documentation and Information Centre (CEDI).

House of Lords

He was created a life peer on 5 October 1987 taking the title Baron Rippon of Hexham, of Hesleyside in the County of Northumberland.^[3]

References

• Copping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club – The First Decade, (Foreword by George Pole), Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, April 1972, (P/B).

1. Rippon, Geoffrey (13 November 1963). "Written Answers (Commons)". Hansard. 684 c3W. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
2. Jenkins, Simon (8 July 2011). "Sir George Gilbert Scott, the unsung hero of British architecture". Guardian.
3. The London Gazette: no. 51083. p. 12479. 8 October 1987.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Geoffrey Rippon