Gerard Folliott Vaughan

Who was Gerard Folliott Vaughan?

Sir Gerard Foliott Vaughan was a psychiatrist and UK politician, who reached ministerial rank during the Thatcher administration. He was perhaps most famous for losing a battle of wills with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's Joan Ruddock over the government's grant to the Citizens Advice Bureau, a battle that cost him his government post and permanently curtailed his political ambitions.

Gerard Vaughan was the son of a sugar planter, and was born and educated in what is now Mozambique. During the Second World War, his father joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot, and was killed. The young Vaughan studied medicine in London, attending the University of London, Guy's Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital. He eventually became the consultant in charge of the Bloomfield Clinic at Guy's Hospital, serving in that role from 1958 to 1979.

Vaughan became involved in Conservative Party politics in the mid-1950s, serving as an alderman on the then London County Council. He stood for the constituency of Poplar in East London in the general election of 1955 but was defeated. In the general election of 1970 he won the Reading constituency from Labour.