He later held the role of Lord Privy Seal and in 1963, was made President of the Board of Trade by Alec Douglas-Home. He was promoted to become Chief Whip by Anthony Eden in 1955, and in 1959 was appointed to the Cabinet by Harold Macmillan as Minister of Labour. He worked briefly in the Civil Service, but resigned in order to stand for Parliament, and was elected for Bexley at the 1950 election. He served as an officer in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War. Outside politics, Heath was a yachtsman, a musician, and an author.īorn to a lady's maid and a carpenter, Heath was educated at a grammar school in Ramsgate, Kent ( Chatham House Grammar School for boys) and became a leader within student politics while studying at the University of Oxford.
Heath also served for 51 years as a Member of Parliament from 1950 to 2001. Sir Edward Richard George Heath KG MBE (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005), commonly known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975.
