Antony Head, 1st Viscount Head

Antony Henry Head, 1st Viscount Head GCMG CBE MC PC (19 December 1906 – 29 March 1983) was a British soldier, Conservative politician and diplomat.

Background and education

Head was the son of Geoffrey Head and Ethel Daisy, daughter of Arthur Flower, and was educated at Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

Military career

A career soldier, Head was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars on 30 August 1926. He later joined the Life Guards, serving through the Second World War and achieving the rank of brigadier. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) on 20 December 1940.

Political career

Head was elected Conservative MP for Carshalton in 1945. He served as Secretary of State for War from 1951 to 1956 and as Minister of Defence (with a seat in the cabinet) from 1956 to 1957, in the administrations of Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1951 and in 1960 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Head, of Throope in the County of Wiltshire. He was later High Commissioner to Nigeria from 1960 to 1963 and High Commissioner to Malaysia from 1963 to 1966.

Family

Lord Head married Lady Dorothea Louise (29 April 1907 – 1987) , daughter of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 9th Earl of Shaftesbury, on 23 July 1935. They had four children:

• Richard Antony Head, 2nd Viscount Head (b. 27 February 1937)
• Hon. Teresa Mary Head (b. 20 June 1938)
• Hon. Simon Andrew Head (b. 11 November 1944)
• Josephine Head (b. 24 May 1948–9 October 1949)

Lord Head died in March 1983, aged 76, and was succeeded in the viscountcy by his eldest son, Richard.