Maurice Macmillan

Maurice Victor Macmillan, also known by his courtesy title Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden, was born on 27 January 1921 and died on 10 March 1984. He was a British politician affiliated with the Conservative Party and served as a Member of Parliament. He was the only son of Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. His mother was Lady Dorothy Cavendish, the daughter of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire.

Macmillan received his education at Eton College and later attended Balliol College, Oxford. During the Second World War, he served in Europe with the Sussex Yeomanry. In his professional career, he was involved in publishing and media, notably acting as chairman of Macmillan Publishers, a company associated with his family, and serving as a director of two news agencies.

Politically, Macmillan contested parliamentary seats in Seaham in the 1945 election, Lincoln in 1951, and Wakefield in a 1954 by-election. He was a member of the Kensington Borough Council from 1949 to 1953. Macmillan was elected as the Member of Parliament for Halifax in the 1955 general election but lost this seat in 1964. He was subsequently elected as the MP for Farnham in 1966; the constituency was renamed South West Surrey in the 1983 election.

His governmental roles included serving as the Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 1963 to 1964 under Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home. He later held the positions of Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1970–1972), Secretary of State for Employment (1972–1973), and Paymaster General (1973–1974) during Edward Heath’s government. In 1972, he was sworn into the Privy Council.

Macmillan married the Honourable Katharine Ormsby-Gore, daughter of William Ormsby-Gore, 4th Baron Harlech, on 22 August 1942. They had five children: four sons—Alexander Daniel Alan Macmillan, Joshua Edward Andrew Macmillan, Hon. Adam Julian Robert Macmillan, and Hon. David Maurice Benjamin Macmillan—and a daughter, Hon. Rachel Mary Georgia Macmillan. His son Alexander succeeded as the 2nd Earl of Stockton after the death of Maurice’s father.

He was at one point the owner of Highgrove House, which he sold to the Prince of Wales in 1980. Following his father’s elevation to the peerage as Earl of Stockton on 24 February 1984, Maurice adopted the courtesy title Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden. He held this title for only 16 days before his death in Westminster, London, after a heart operation. He was 63 years old at the time of his death. His father, Harold Macmillan, died nearly three years later in December 1986, at the age of 92.

References and further information about his parliamentary contributions can be found in the Hansard archives covering the years 1803 to 2005.