History of the Stewarts | Famous Stewarts
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Michael Stewart
The son of Robert Wallace Stewart, author and lecturer, and Eva Stewart née Blaxle, Stewart was born in Bromley and educated at Catford, Christ´s Hospital and St. John´s College, Oxford, where he graduated with a first class degree in philosophy in 1929.
While at Oxford, Stewart was President of the Oxford Union, and of St John´s Labour Club (1929). Stewart began his career as an official in the Royal Household during 1931. He worked for a short period with the Secretariat of the League of Nations, before becoming a teacher, first at the Merchant Taylors´ School in London, then at Coopers´ Company´s School, Mile End, and then at Frome, Somerset. During World War II, Stewart served in the Middle East, joining the Intelligence Corps in 1942, before transferring to the Army Educational Corps in 1943. He was promoted to captain in 1944.
Stewart had contested the Lewisham West constituency in 1931 and 1935, and Fulham East in 1936; after the war he became MP for Fulham East 1945-55, then for Fulham 1955-74, and Hammersmith, Fulham 1974-79. He was also a Member of the European Parliament 1974-75. Soon after his initial election, Stewart was made a junior whip, then a junior minister, as Under-Secretary of State for War (1947–51) and later as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply (May–October 1951). Following Labour´s defeat in the 1951 election, he was a rising figure on the shadow front bench, serving as Shadow Minister of Education (1955–59) and then as Shadow Minister of Housing and Local Government (1959–64).
When Harold Wilson became Prime Minister in 1964, Stewart was appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science. He was promoted to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in January 1965, and the next year he became Secretary of State for Economic Affairs. From 1966 to 1968, he was First Secretary of State. He returned to the Foreign Office from 1968 to 1970.
Stewart was made a member of the Privy Council in 1964. In July 1979, he entered the House of Lords as a life peer with the title Baron Stewart of Fulham, of Fulham in Greater London. He died on the 10 of March, 1990, aged 83.
With thanks to Wikipedia and janus.lib.cam.ac.uk
