James Thomas, 1st Viscount Cilcennin

The Right Honourable
The Viscount Cilcennin
PC
First Lord of the Admiralty
In office
31 October 1951  2 September 1956
Monarch George VI
Elizabeth II
Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Sir Anthony Eden
Preceded by The Lord Pakenham
Succeeded by The Viscount Hailsham
Personal details
Born 13 October 1903
Died 13 July 1960 (1960-07-14) (aged 56)
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Spouse(s) Unmarried
Alma mater Oriel College, Oxford

James Purdon Lewes "Jim" Thomas, 1st Viscount Cilcennin (pronounced "Kilkennin") PC (13 October 1903 – 13 July 1960) was a British Conservative politician. He served as First Lord of the Admiralty between 1951 and 1956.

Background and education

Thomas was the son of James Lewes Thomas, JP, Caeglas, Llandilo, Carmarthenshire, and Anne Louisa, daughter of Commander George Purdon. He was educated at Rugby and Oriel College, Oxford.[1]

Political career

Thomas was private secretary to Stanley Baldwin, the leader of the Conservative Party, between 1929 and 1931.[1] The latter year he was elected Member of Parliament for Hereford.[1][2] He was Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Dominions Secretary, James Henry Thomas, between 1932 and 1935, to the Colonial Secretary, Thomas and from 1936 William Ormsby-Gore, between 1935 and 1937, and to the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, between 1937 and Eden's resignation in 1938. He entered the government as a Lord of the Treasury under Neville Chamberlain in 1939, an office he retained when Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940. In 1940 he was also PPS to the War Secretary.

In 1943 Churchill appointed Thomas Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, which he remained until 1945.[1] When Churchill returned as Prime Minister in 1951, Thomas was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.[3] He left the House of Commons in 1955 and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Cilcennin, of Hereford in the County of Hereford, in early 1956 (the title was pronounced "Kilkennin").[4] He continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until September 1956, when he resigned.[1] In 1957 he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Herefordshire,[5] a post he held until his early death three years later.

Personal life

Lord Cilcennin never married. He died in July 1960, aged 56, when the title became extinct.[1]

References

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Frank Owen
Member of Parliament for Hereford
19311955
Succeeded by
David Gibson-Watt
Political offices
Preceded by
George Hall
Financial Secretary to the Admiralty
1943–1945
Succeeded by
John Dugdale
(as Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty)
Preceded by
The Lord Pakenham
First Lord of the Admiralty
1951–1956
Succeeded by
The Viscount Hailsham
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Sir Richard Cotterell, Bt
Lord-Lieutenant of Herefordshire
1957–1960
Succeeded by
John Francis Maclean
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New title Viscount Cilcennin
1955–1960
Extinct
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