George Harvie-Watt

Who was George Harvie-Watt?

George Steven Harvie-Watt was a British Conservative Party politician.

Harvie-Watt studied at George Watson's College in Edinburgh, then at the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh. In 1924, he was commissioned into the Territorial Army Royal Engineers. In 1930, he became a barrister at Inner Temple, while at the 1931 general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Keighley. He lost his seat in 1935, but re-entered Parliament by winning the Richmond by-election, 1937. He immediately became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Board of Trade, and was also promoted in the Territorial Army: to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1938, and Brigadier in 1941.

From 1941 to 1945, Harvie-Watt served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Winston Churchill. At the end of World War II, he became a Queen's Counsel and was created a baronet. In 1948 he became an aide-de-camp to George VI; on the king's death, he filled the same position for Elizabeth II, also acting as a member of the Queen's Body Guard for Scotland. He left Parliament at the 1959 UK general election, becoming the chairman of Consolidated Gold Fields.