Austin Uvedale Morgan Hudson
Sir Austin Uvedale Morgan Hudson (6 February 1897 – 29 November 1956) of Morgan Brothers (Publishers) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.
He was elected at the 1922 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington East, but lost the seat at the 1923 election. He returned to Parliament at the 1924 general election when he won the Hackney North seat from the Liberal Party MP John Harris. He held that seat until the Labour landslide at the 1945 general election, when he lost by a large margin to Labour's Henry Goodrich.
Hudson was returned to the House of Commons at the 1950 general election for the new Lewisham North, which he represented until his death in 1956, aged 59.
In Ramsay MacDonald's National Government 1931-1935 he was a Lord of the Treasury (government whip, and in the second National Government he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport from 1935 to 1939, and then Civil Lord of the Admiralty from 1939 to 1940. He was reappointed to the Admiralty in Winston Churchill's war-time Coalition Government, and left the government in March 1942. He returned to office briefly in 1945, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fuel, Light and Power in the Caretaker Government 1945 which held office from May to July that year.
He was made a baronet in July 1942, of North Hackney, in the County of Middlesex.
1956 Obituary [1]
We deeply regret the death of Sir Austin Hudson, Bt., which occurred in hospital in London, in the early hours of Thursday, November 29, after several weeks' illness.
Sir Austin, who was fifty-nine, was Conservative Member of Parliament for Lewisham North, and was also the chairman of Morgan Brothers (Publishers), Ltd., proprietors of THE ENGINEER.
Austin Uvedale Morgan Hudson was the son of the late Leopold Hudson, F.R.C.S., and the grandson of Septimus Vaughan Morgan, who, in 1859, was one of the founders of THE IRONMONGER and THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST.
Sir Austin was educated at Eton and Sandhurst, and in the first world war was con1missioncd in the Royal Berkshire Regiment, transferring subsequently to the Guards Machine Gun Regiment. He was placed on the reserve in 1920, in which year he became a director of Morgan Brothers (Publishers), Ltd.
Two years afterwards, Sir Austin began a distinguished political career by being elected to the House of Commons as Conservative member for East Islington. In the general election of 1924, Sir Austin was returned for North Hackney, a seat which he held continuously until 1945. During that twenty-one year period Sir Austin was appointed to various Government offices. From 1931 to 1935, he was a Government Whip and a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, from 1935 to 1939, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, and in 1939 he was appointed Civil Lord of the Admiralty.
Upon relinquishing that office when the Government was reconstructed in 1942, Sir Austin was created a Baronet. He was then able to resume his directorship of Morgan Brothers (Publishers), Ltd., though a short break in it had to be made in 1945, when in the "caretake " Government of that year he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Fuel and Power.
In the 1950 election, Sir Austin went back again to the House of Commons as member for Lewisham North, a seat which he continued to hold until his death. In the last six years his parliamentary duties have included those of a temporary Chairman of the House and a Chairman of Standing Committees. Although he was, for so many years, a keen and able House of Commons man, Sir Austin's interests were not restricted to the political sphere. He was greatly interested in all matters concerned with health, housing and the special problems of elderly people.
He was honorary treasurer of the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis and was a Governor of Westminster Hospital. In addition, Sir Austin at all times gave close attention to the affairs of the industries represented by this and the other technical and trade journals published by his company. In 1943, he was elected Senior Warden ot the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, and became Master of the Company in the following year. Sir Austin was appointed chairman of Morgan Brothers (Publishers), Ltd., in April last, having been vice-chairman of the company since April, 1948.
A memorial service for Sir Austin is to be held at 12 noon on Friday, December 14, at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, W.C.2.