The Right Honourable
The Lord Mason of Barnsley
PC DL
Mason in 1978
Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
In office
14 July 1979 – 24 November 1981
LeaderJames Callaghan
Michael Foot
Preceded byJohn Silkin
Succeeded byNorman Buchan
Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
In office
4 May 1979 – 14 July 1979
LeaderJames Callaghan
Preceded byHumphrey Atkins
Succeeded byBrynmor John
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
In office
10 September 1976 – 4 May 1979
Prime MinisterJames Callaghan
Preceded byMerlyn Rees
Succeeded byHumphrey Atkins
Secretary of State for Defence
In office
4 March 1974 – 10 September 1976
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
James Callaghan
Preceded byIan Gilmour
Succeeded byFred Mulley
President of the Board of Trade
In office
6 October 1969 – 19 June 1970
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
Preceded byAnthony Crosland
Succeeded byMichael Noble
Minister of Power
In office
1 July 1968 – 6 October 1969
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
Preceded byRay Gunter
Succeeded byOffice Abolished
Postmaster General
In office
6 April 1968 – 1 July 1968
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
Preceded byEdward Short
Succeeded byJohn Stonehouse
Minister of Defence for Equipment
In office
7 January 1967 – 6 April 1968
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
Preceded byOffice Created
Succeeded byJohn Morris
Minister of State for Trade
In office
20 October 1964 – 7 January 1967
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
Succeeded byJoseph Mallalieu
Member of Parliament
for Barnsley Central
Barnsley (1953–1983)
In office
31 March 1953 – 18 May 1987
Preceded bySidney Schofield
Succeeded byEric Illsley
Personal details
Born(1924-04-18)18 April 1924
Royston, England
Died19 April 2015(2015-04-19) (aged 91)
Barnsley, England
Political partyLabour
Alma materLondon School of Economics

Roy Mason, Baron Mason of Barnsley, PC, DL (18 April 1924 – 19 April 2015), was a British Labour Party politician and Cabinet minister who was Secretary of State for Defence and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

Early life

Mason was born in Royston, West Riding of Yorkshire, on 18 April 1924,[1] and grew up in Carlton, Barnsley, also in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Mason became a miner at the age of 14. He became a branch official of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in his early twenties. Aged 26, he studied at the London School of Economics as a mature student on a Trades Union Congress (TUC) scholarship.[2] He remained in the coal industry until he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Barnsley constituency at a by-election in 1953.[3]

Posts

Mason was Labour Party spokesman on Home Affairs, Defence and the Post Office, 1960–1964. Minister of State at the Board of Trade, 1964–1967. Minister of Defence (Equipment), 1967–1968. Minister of Power, 1968–1969. President of the Board of Trade, 1969–1970. Secretary of State for Defence, 1974–1976. Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 1976–1979

Northern Ireland

A high-profile politician, Mason's appointment to Northern Ireland was unexpected and seemed to indicate a tougher response from the British Government than had been pursued by his predecessor, Merlyn Rees. In late 1976, he told the Labour Party conference that "Ulster had had enough of initiatives, White Papers and legislation for the time being, and now needed to be governed firmly and fairly". He rejected both military and political solutions in favour of "justice for all; with equality before the law; and, crucially, with republican terrorism treated as a security problem, and nothing else".[4]

While Secretary of State for Defence, Mason had been responsible for the introduction of SAS units into the 'bandit country' of South Armagh. At Stormont Mason was responsible for the tougher role taken by the security forces and authorised an increase in British Army covert tactics with the SAS allowed to operate throughout Northern Ireland. Mason's time in Northern Ireland was characterised by a reduction in violence; "in 1976 there were 297 deaths in Northern Ireland; in the next three years the figures were 111, 80, 120.[5] In 1977, he stood up to militant loyalists attempting to repeat their successful Ulster Workers Council strike tactic of 1974. The same year, he twice attempted to get some movement towards a political settlement from the local political parties. In March 1979, the Irish National Liberation Army planned to assassinate Mason, but the plan was aborted.[6]

Mason's policies in Northern Ireland earned the ire of Irish nationalist MPs.[7] That played a part in the March 1979 vote of no confidence, which the Labour government lost by one vote, precipitating the 1979 general election.[7] The Nationalist MP Gerry Fitt abstained in the vote of no confidence and stated that he could not support a government with Mason as its Northern Ireland secretary.[7]

After Labour's election defeat in 1979, Mason came under increasing pressure from some on the left in his constituency party and from Arthur Scargill but did not countenance joining the Social Democratic Party. Mason received full police protection over 30 years after leaving office. In 1982, Energy Secretary Nigel Lawson suggested to Margaret Thatcher that she should make Mason the next Coal Board chairman, but she refused by saying that Mason was "Not one of us". Instead, Ian MacGregor was appointed.[8]

Later life

After his retirement from the House of Commons at the 1987 general election, Mason was created a life peer on 20 October 1987 taking the title Baron Mason of Barnsley, of Barnsley in South Yorkshire.[9] He lived in the same semi-detached house with his wife Marjorie from their marriage until he was aged 84.

Mason died at Highgrove Nursing Home, Stanley Road, Barnsley one day after his 91st birthday, on 19 April 2015. He had suffered from cerebrovascular disease. He was survived by his wife and his two daughters.[10][11][3]

References

  1. ↑ "Birthdays today". The Telegraph. 18 April 2012. Archived from the original on 20 April 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2014. Lord Mason of Barnsley, former Labour Government Minister, 88
  2. ↑ Yorkshire Post Obituary – 'Roy Mason a Man Forever Linked with Barnsley' Retrieved 20 April 2015
  3. 1 2 "Former Labour MP Lord Mason of Barnsley dies". BBC News. 20 April 2015. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  4. ↑ Archived 28 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ Johnston, Wesley. "Deaths in each year of the 'Troubles' 1969 – 1998". Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  6. ↑ Holland, Jack; McDonald, Henry (1994). INLA Deadly Divisions.
  7. 1 2 3 "Lord Fitt". Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. 27 August 2005. Retrieved 25 December 2012. His influence on the British government sharply diminished in 1976 with the advent that year of Mason as Secretary of State. "He's an anti-Irish wee git", Fitt told journalists; but perhaps Mason's worst sin was that he ignored the MP for West Belfast. Fitt took his revenge in the crucial vote on the Labour government's bill for Scottish devolution. He could not bring himself, he explained, to vote for a government with Mason as Ulster Secretary, against a background of alleged police brutality in the province. The government, defeated by one vote, resigned; the radical Gerry Fitt had helped to usher in the rule of Mrs Thatcher.
  8. ↑ Nigel Lawson -The View from No.11: Memoirs of a Tory Radical
  9. ↑ "No. 51099". The London Gazette. 23 October 1987. p. 13091.
  10. ↑ "Death of Lord Mason of Barnsley at 91". Yorkshire Post. 20 April 2015. Archived from the original on 12 September 2019. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  11. ↑ List of Deceased members of the House of Lords
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