| relatives = Anna Keay (granddaughter)[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10892310/Anna-Keay-on-India-motherhood-and-the-Duke-of-Monmouth.html?msockid=38f173fb6e26676738cf66fe6f5566a1 The Telegraph website, Anna Keay on India, motherhood and the Duke of Monmouth, article by Hermione Lister Kaye dated June 13, 2014]

John Keay (son-in-law)

}}

Humphrey Edward Gregory Atkins, Baron Colnbrook, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|commas=on|KCMG|PC}} (12 August 1922 – 4 October 1996) was a British politician and a member of the Conservative Party. He served for 32 years as a Member of Parliament (MP), and served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from 1979 to 1982.{{cite news |last1=Cosgrave |first1=Patrick |title=Obituaries : Lord Colnbrook |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-lord-colnbrook-1357357.html |access-date=2 October 2021 |work=The Independent |date=7 October 1996}}

Early life

Atkins was born on 12 August 1922, in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, son of Captain Edward Davis Atkins and Violet Mary ({{nee|Preston}}).{{cite ODNB|title = Atkins, Humphrey Edward Gregory, Baron Colnbrook (1922–1996), politician|last = Roth|first = Andrew|date = 2004|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/63353}} His family spent his first few years in Kenya, returning to England after his father died from being attacked by a rhinoceros. Atkins was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, and served in the Royal Navy from 1940 to 1948.

In 1944, Atkins married Margaret Spencer-Nairn. They had four children, three daughters and one son.{{cite web|title=Humphrey Atkins (1922–1996): Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 1979–1981|url=http://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk/index.php/home/viewPerson/1791|work=Dictionary of Ulster Biography|accessdate=13 June 2022|publisher=Ulster History Circle|first=Richard|last=Froggatt}} He worked for Nairn's, his wife's family's linoleum business in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, then became a director of a financial advertising agency.

Political career

Atkins contested the constituency of West Lothian in 1951, and was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Merton and Morden in 1955.[https://members.parliament.uk/constituency/1940/overview UK Parliament website, Merton and Morden] He became MP for Spelthorne in 1970.[https://members.parliament.uk/constituency/2734/overview UK Parliament website, Spelthorne]

Atkins was the Conservative Chief Whip from 1973 to 1979, and served as a Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1979 to 1981. In September 1981, he was appointed as Lord Privy Seal, which was a role as the chief government spokesman in the House of Commons for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. This role was necessary because the Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, sat in the House of Lords. He resigned in April 1982, along with Lord Carrington, over the Falklands invasion.[https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/biography/Humphry_Atkins_1979.html CAIN website, Atkins, Humphrey Edward Gregory]

Atkins was appointed to the Order of St Michael and St George as a Knight Commander (KCMG) in the 1983 Dissolution Honours.{{London Gazette |issue=49424 |date=21 July 1983 |page=9700 |supp=y}} He left the House of Commons in 1987 and was created a life peer on 16 October as Baron Colnbrook, ''of Waltham St Lawrence in the Royal County of Berkshire.{{London Gazette |issue=51097 |date=21 October 1987 |page=12971}}