Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos
Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos KG PC DSO MC (
15 March 1893-
21 January 1972) was a British businessman who was brought into government during the
Second World War, holding a number of ministerial posts.
Lyttelton was the son of
Alfred Lyttelton, a
Conservative politician, and related to
William Gladstone. He was educated at
Eton College and
Trinity College, Cambridge and served in the
Grenadier Guards in
World War I. He married Moira Godolphin Osborne in 1920. They had four children:
Anthony Alfred, Rosemary, Julian and Nicholas Adrian Oliver.He was managing director of British Metal Corporation Ltd and later became Chairman of
Associated Electrical Industries.
Lyttelton entered Parliament as Conservative
MP for
Aldershot in a wartime by-election in 1940. He entered
Churchill's war cabinet as
President of the Board of Trade, Minister of State in the
Middle East and
Minister of Production. After the Conservatives'
1951 election victory, he became
Secretary of State for the Colonies. He continued in the House of Commons until 1954, when he was elevated to the
House of Lords as 1st
Viscount Chandos, returning to AEI and steering it to become a major British company.
The Lyttelton Theatre at the
Royal National Theatre,
London is named after Oliver Lyttelton; he was the first chairman of the NT (1962-71) and his parents had been active campaigners for its development.