Francis Pearson

Sir
Francis Fenwick Pearson
Bt
Sir Francis Fenwick Pearson Bt
	Sir Francis Fenwick Pearson, 1st Bt in 1969
Member of Parliament ; for Clitheroe
	In office; 1959–1970
Preceded by	Richard Fort
Succeeded by	David Walder
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
	In office; 1963–1964
Prime Minister	Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded by	Knox Cunningham
Succeeded by	Ernest Fernyhough
Personal details
Born	Francis Fenwick Pearson; 13 June 1911
Died	17 February 1991 (aged 79)
Political party	Conservative
Education	Uppingham School, Rutland
Alma mater	Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Occupation	British colonial administrator ; Chief Minister of Manipur State ; Farmer
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	British Indian Army
Unit	1st King George's Own Gurkha Rifles

Sir Francis Fenwick Pearson, 1st Baronet, MBE, JP, DL (13 June 1911 – 17 February 1991) was a British colonial administrator, farmer and politician.

Colonial service

Pearson attended Uppingham School in Rutland, and then Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant onto the Unattached List for the Indian Army from being a Second Lieutenant, T.A. (University Candidate) in September 1932, with seniority from 29 January 1931. After a year attached to a British regiment in India, he was appointed to the Indian Army and posted to the 1st King George's Own Gurkha Rifles as of 3 November 1933. He served as Aide-de-camp to the Viceroy of India from June 1935 to April 1936.[1]

He transferred to the Indian Political Service in October 1935. In June 1945 he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire as captain, Indian Political Service.[2] He finished as Chief Minister of Manipur State from 1945 to 1947,[3] and the village of Pearson in the Churachandpur district was named in his honour.

With the independence of India imminent, Pearson returned to Britain and settled in Lancashire where he became a farmer, and also involved himself in local government. He was a Justice of the Peace for Lancashire from 1952.

Parliamentary career

At the 1959 general election, Pearson replaced Richard Fort (who had died earlier in the year) as Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Clitheroe, a rural constituency in the Lancashire foothills of the Pennines. He was swiftly named as an Assistant Government Whip (1960) and became a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury (Government Whip) in March 1962.

Parliamentary Private Secretary

Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who became Prime Minister in October 1963, choose Pearson to be his Parliamentary Private Secretary, an unpaid but pivotal role where Pearson had to maintain relations between the Prime Minister and his own backbenchers. When Douglas-Home lost the 1964 general election and resigned as Prime Minister, he gave Pearson a Baronetcy in his resignation honours list.

Lancashire contribution

Pearson retired from Parliament at the 1970 general election, but not from politics. He was Chairman of the Central Lancashire New Town Development Corporation from 1971 (the new town covered Preston, Chorley, Leyland and several other areas).

References

War services of British and Indian Officers of the Indian Army 1941
London Gazette 14 June 1945, p2957
"Manipur State Constitution Act, 1947". Retrieved 2 November 2020.

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
M. Stenton and S. Lees, "Who's Who of British MPs" (Harvester Press, 1981)

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Francis Pearson

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[1] War services of British and Indian Officers of the Indian Army 1941

[2] London Gazette 14 June 1945, p2957

[3] "Manipur State Constitution Act, 1947". Retrieved 2 November 2020.

Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
Prime Minister's Office
to Henry Campbell-Bannerman	Carr-Gomm 1906–1908
to H. H. Asquith	Howard 1908–1909 Lyell 1908–1915
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to Clement Attlee	de Freitas 1945–1946 Moyle 1946–1951
to Anthony Eden	Carr 1955 Allan 1955–1956
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to Alec Douglas-Home	Pearson 1963–1964
to Harold Wilson	Fernyhough 1964–1967 Shore 1965–1966 H. Davies 1967–1970 Varley 1968–1969 Hamling 1974–1975 Marks 1975 Tomlinson 1975–1976
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