Hamilton Kerr

{{Short description|British Conservative Party politician and journalist}}

{{infobox officeholder

| name = Sir Hamilton Kerr, Bt

| office = Member of Parliament for Cambridge

| term_start = 1950

| term_end = 1966

| predecessor = Arthur Symonds

| successor = Robert Davies

| office1 = Member of Parliament for Oldham

| alongside1 = Anthony Crossley (1931–1935)
John Dodd (1935–1945)

| term_start1 = 1931

| term_end1 = 1945

| predecessor1 = James Wilson
Gordon Lang

| successor1 = Leslie Hale
Frank Fairhurst

| birth_name = Hamilton William Kerr

| birth_date = {{birth date|1903|08|01|df=yes}}

| birth_place =

| death_date = {{dda|1974|12|24|1903|08|01|df=yes}}

| death_place =

| education = Eton College

| alma_mater = Balliol College, Oxford

| party = Conservative

| parents = Henry S. Kerr
Olive Grace Kerr

| relations = Charles Greville, 3rd Baron Greville (stepfather)

}}

Sir Hamilton William Kerr, 1st Baronet (1 August 1903 – 26 December 1974) was a British Conservative Party politician and journalist.

Early life

Kerr was born on 1 August 1903. He was second son born to Americans Olive (née Grace) Kerr and banker Henry Scanlan Kerr of Long Island.{{cite news |title=Henry S. Kerr Left Over $1,000,000. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/11/26/106769499.pdf |accessdate=15 November 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=26 November 1907}} After his father's death, his mother remarried to Charles Greville, shortly thereafter the 3rd Baron Greville. His older brother was Henry Grace Kerr, who was killed in France during World War I.{{cite news |title=Lieut. H.G. Kerr Killed in Action. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/07/07/96253652.pdf |accessdate=15 November 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=7 July 1917}} His paternal grandparents were William Henry Kerr and Harriet Ellen (née Scanlan) Kerr. His mother was a niece of Michael P. Grace and Mayor William Russell Grace, founder of W. R. Grace and Company.{{cite news |last1=TIMES |first1=Special Cable to THE NEW YORK |title=MRS. HENRY S. KERR TO WED.; To Become the Bride of the Hon. Charles Greville on Nov. 24. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/10/27/101902373.pdf |accessdate=15 November 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=27 October 1909}}

He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford.{{cite book|title=Dod's Parliamentary Companion for 1936|date=1936|publisher=P. S. King & Son Ltd|location=London|page=386}}

Career

After his graduation from Oxford, he then took up a career in journalism and worked on the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph.

At the 1931 general election, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Oldham constituency in Lancashire. He held the seat until losing it to Labour at the 1945 general election. In the 1930s, Kerr served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Alfred Duff Cooper, starting in 1933 when Cooper was Financial Secretary to the War Office. During the Second World War, he served in a balloon squadron in the Royal Air Force and briefly held office as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health in the 1945 caretaker government.{{cite book|title=The Times House of Commons 1955|date=1955|publisher=The Times Office|location=London|page=70}}

At the 1950 general election, he was returned to the House of Commons as the MP for Cambridge, holding that seat until his retirement at the 1966 general election. In 1954, Kerr was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the future Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

Kerr was made a Baronet, of Cambridge in the County of Cambridge, in 1957. The title became extinct upon his death in 1974.

Legacy

The Hamilton Kerr Institute was established in 1976 in the riverside property given to Cambridge University for the Fitzwilliam Museum and endowed by Sir Hamilton Kerr.[http://www-hki.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/introduction.html Hamilton Kerr Institute: History]{{Archive url|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021004111711/http://www-hki.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/introduction.html|date=2002-10-04}} The HKI provides art conservation services and training.