Arthur Bottomley

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Arthur George Bottomley, Baron Bottomley, OBE PC (7 February 1907 – 3 November 1995) was a British Labour politician, Member of Parliament and minister. His wife was Dame Bessie Bottomley.

Before entering parliament he was a trade union organiser of the National Union of Public Employees (which later became part of UNISON). From 1929 to 1949 he was a councillor on Walthamstow Borough Council, and in 1945-1946 he was Mayor of Walthamstow.

He was first elected to parliament in the 1945 general election for the Chatham division of Rochester and he held the seat (later renamed Rochester and Chatham) until losing it in the 1959 general election to the Conservative Julian Critchley. He returned to parliament by winning Middlesbrough East in a by-election in 1962 and held the seat, and its successor Middlesbrough, until his retirement in 1983.

He was a junior minister in Clement Atlee's governments, being Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs (1946-47), Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (1947) and Secretary for Overseas Trade at the Board of Trade (1947-51). In Harold Wilson's governments he was Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations (1964-66) — during which time he sought to deal with the consequences of Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence — and Minister of Overseas Development (1966-67).

He was created a life peer in the 1984 New Year's Honours as Baron Bottomley, of Middlesbrough in the County of Cleveland. He died on 3 November 1995.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Leonard Frank Plugge	Member of Parliament for Chatham 1945–1950	Succeeded by (constituency abolished)
Preceded by (new constituency)	Member of Parliament for Rochester and Chatham 1950–1959	Succeeded by Julian Critchley
Preceded by Hilary Marquand	Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough East 1962–February 1974	Succeeded by (constituency abolished)
Preceded by (new constituency)	Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough February 1974–1983	Succeeded by Stuart Bell
Political offices
Preceded by Duncan Sandys	Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations 1964–1966	Succeeded by (position abolished: see Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs)
Preceded by Anthony Greenwood	Minister of Overseas Development 1966–1967	Succeeded by Reginald Prentice