Secretary of State for Transport

The Secretary of State for Transport is the member of the cabinet responsible for the British Department for Transport. The role has had a high turnover as new appointments are blamed for the failures of decades of their predecessors. The office used to be called the Minister of Transport, and has been merged with the Department for the Environment at various times.

Table of contents

1 Minister of Transport 2 Minister of Civil Aviation 3 Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation 4 Minister of Transport 5 Minister of State for Transport 6 Secretary of State for Transport 7 Minister of State for Transport 8 Secretary of State for Transport 9 Secretary of State for Environment Transport and the Regions 10 Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions 11 Secretary of State for Transport

Minister of Transport

• Harry Gosling (1924)
• ? (1924-1929)
• Herbert Stanley Morrison (1929-1931)
• ? (1931-1933)
• Leslie Hore-Belisha (1933-1937)
• ? (1937-1940)
• John Reith (1940)
• ? (1940-1945)
• ? (1945-1951)

Minister of Civil Aviation

The Ministry of Civil Aviation was created by Winston Churchill in 1944 to look at peaceful ways of using aircraft and to find something for the aircraft factories to do after the war.

• Philip Lloyd-Greame, Lord Swinton (1944-1945)
• 1st Lord Nathan of Churt (?1945-1949?) (H.L. Nathan?)
• Frank Longford (Seventh Lord Longford) - (1949?-1951)

Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation

After 1951, the Ministries of Transport and Civil Aviation were merged into one.

• John Maclay (1951-1952)
• Alan Lennox-Boyde (1952-1954)
• John Boyd-Carpenter (1954-?)
• Harold Watkinson (with Civil Aviation) (?-1959)

Minister of Transport

At some point it was renamed back to the Ministry of Transport.

• Ernest Marples (1959-1964)
• ? (1964-1965)
• Barbara Castle (1965-1968)
• ? (1968-1970)

Minister of State for Transport

Transport responsibilities were subsumed by the Department of the Environment for a while. This shows the junior minister responsible for transport within that department.

• John Peyton (1970-1974)
• Fred Mulley (1974-1975)
• John Gilbert (1975-1976)

Secretary of State for Transport

• Bill Rogers (1976-1979)

Minister of State for Transport

• Norman Fowler (1979-1981)

Secretary of State for Transport

• Norman Fowler (1981)
• David Howell (1981-1983)
• Tom King (1983)
• Nicholas Ridley (1983-1986)
• John Moore (1986-1987)
• Paul Channon (1987-1989)
• Cecil Parkinson (1989-1990)
• Malcolm Rifkind (1990-1992)
• George Young (1995-1997)

Secretary of State for Environment Transport and the Regions

• John Prescott (1997-2001) (Gavin Strang was Minister for Transport)

Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions

• Stephen Byers (2001-2002)

Secretary of State for Transport

• Alistair Darling (2002-)