Walter Elliot (Scottish politician)
Wakter Elliot Elliot 1 (1888-1958) was a prominent British Conservative politician in the interwar years.
The son of a Lanarkshire farmer, Elliot was raised in Glasgow and educated at the University of Glasgow where he read science and medicine. He then became a medical office to the Scots Greys and served in the First World War where he gained a Military Cross. He then entered politics and was elected as Member of Parliament for Lanark in the 1918 general election. He lost this seat was soon in the 1923 general election but in the 1924 general election he was elected as MP for Kelvingrove in Glasgow. He was seen by many as a rising star. In 1932 he entered the Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture and subsequently served as Secretary of State for Scotland and Minister of Health. Amongst his achievemtnes were the Agricultural Marketing Act which sought to protect food producers from going bankrupt amidst massive surpluses and collapsing prices, the introduction of free milk for school children and formation of the National Housing Company which built prefabricated "Weir Houses" in Clydeside.
In 1938 Elliot's career reached a truning point when he came close to resigning over the Munich Agreement but decided against. Consequently his political stock began to fall and when Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister in 1940, Elliot was dropped from the government. He later sevred as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
| Preceded by: John Gilmour |
Minister of Agriculture 1932–1936 |
Followed by: William Shepherd Morrison |
| Preceded by: Godfrey Collins |
Secretary of State for Scotland 1936–1938 |
Followed by: John Colville |
| Preceded by: Kingsley Wood |
Minister of Health 1938–1940 |
Followed by: Malcolm MacDonald |
Notes
1 His full name contained "Elliot" twice over.