Desmond Plummer

Who was Desmond Plummer?

Arthur Desmond Herne Plummer, Baron Plummer of St Marylebone was a Conservative Party politician in London and the longest serving Leader of the Greater London Council.

Plummer went to Hurstpierpoint College and the College of Estate Management. He qualified as a Surveyor but his career was curtailed by World War II where he served with the Royal Engineers leaving with the rank of Major. In 1950 he was awarded the Territorial Decoration for long service in the Territorial Army, and he was a member of the Territorial Army Sports Board from 1953 until 1979.

Plummer was elected to St. Marylebone Borough Council in May 1952 and served as Mayor of the Borough in 1958. He was selected as a Conservative candidate for a byelection to the London County Council in St. Marylebone in 1960, and returned unopposed for the safe seat. He was elected to its successor, the Greater London Council, in 1964 for the City of Westminster.

By 1966 Plummer was chosen as Leader of the Opposition in succession to Sir Percy Rugg, just a year before the GLC elections. With Harold Wilson's Labour Government growing ever more unpopular he won a landslide victory in 1967.