{{Short description|British politician}} {{Redirect|Eric Fletcher|the rugby player|Eric Fletcher (rugby)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Use British English|date=March 2018}} {{More citations needed|date=April 2017}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = The Lord Fletcher | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|Kt|PC|FSA|FRHistS}} | image = Sir Eric Fletcher 1965.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Fletcher, {{circa|1965}} | office = Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons<br>Chairman of Ways and Means | term_start = 22 April 1966 | term_end = 26 October 1968 | 1blankname = Speaker | 1namedata = Horace King | predecessor = Samuel Storey | successor = Sydney Irving | office1 = Minister without portfolio | term_start1 = 19 October 1964 | term_end1 = 6 April 1966 | prime_minister1 = Harold Wilson | predecessor1 = Bill Deedes | successor1 = Douglas Houghton | office2 = Member of Parliament<br />for Islington East | term_start2 = 29 July 1945 | term_end2 = 29 May 1970 | predecessor2 = Thelma Cazalet-Keir | successor2 = John Grant | birth_name = Eric George Molyneux Fletcher | birth_date = {{Birth date|1903|03|26|df=yes}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{Death date and age|1990|06|09|1903|03|26|df=yes}} | death_place = | party = Labour | other_party = | height = | spouse = | relations = | children = | parents = | relatives = | education = Radley College | alma_mater = University of London | occupation = | profession = }} '''Eric George Molyneux Fletcher, Baron Fletcher''', {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|Kt|PC|FSA|FRHistS}} (26 March 1903 – 9 June 1990) was a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom.
==Early life and career== Fletcher was the eldest of three children of Clarence George Eugene Fletcher (1875-1929), CBE,<ref>https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/31840/supplement/3765/data.pdf; per his obituary in The Law Journal, this was awarded "for his work during the war in raising an Islington battalion, in connection with food rationing, and on the military tribunal"- The Law Journal, vol. 67, 1929, p. 172</ref> of Oak Lodge, Bycullah Road, Enfield, London, a barrister and town clerk of Islington, formerly town clerk of Bethnal Green, and, as a recognized authority on the subject, a member of the Advisory Committee set up by the Home Office on registration of electors and conduct of elections,<ref>The Law Journal, vol. 67, 1929, p. 172</ref><ref>The Solicitors' Journal, vol. 73, part 1, 1929, p. 141</ref> and Nellie Molyneux, formerly of Tooting.<ref>Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage, Debrett's Ltd, 1973, p. 454</ref><ref>Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, Privy Council, and Order of Preference, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1963, p. 113</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/c-g-e-fletcher|title = C. G. E. Fletcher}}</ref> He had a brother, Dr (Clarence) John Molyneux Fletcher (father of the historian Anthony Fletcher), and sister, Ena. His paternal grandfather, George Fletcher, was a member of the Metropolitan Police Force attached to the Fulham Division.<ref>Random Reminiscences of Lord Fletcher of Islington, Eric Fletcher, 1986, pp. 1, 6, 12</ref><ref>Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, vol. 1, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1999, p. 126</ref> He studied at Radley College and the University of London and became a solicitor, specialising in international law. He was deputy chairman of the Associated British Picture Corporation.
==Political life== Fletcher was elected onto the London County Council for Islington South, serving 1934–49. At the 1945 general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington East, defeating the Conservative Party feminist MP Thelma Cazalet-Keir. In Harold Wilson's first government, he served from 1964 to 1966 as Minister without Portfolio, House of Commons spokesman for the Lord Chancellor's Department and then Deputy Speaker.
Fletcher was knighted in 1964,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=43501 |date=27 November 1964 |page=10115}}</ref> and appointed to the Privy Council in 1967. On 9 July 1970, he was created a life peer as '''Baron Fletcher''', of Islington in Greater London.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=45147 |date=10 July 1970 |page=7673}}</ref>
==Other work== Fletcher served as a member of the Church Assembly of the Church of England in 1962. He was a member of the Senate of the University of London, and a governor of Birkbeck College and the London School of Economics.
Fletcher was a member of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts from 1966, a trustee of the British Museum between 1968 and 1977, and president of the British Archaeological Association from 1960 to 1963.<ref name="WWW">{{cite web |title=Fletcher, Baron, (Eric George Molyneux Fletcher) |url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-164205 |website=Who Was Who |access-date=15 May 2020 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U164205 |date=1 December 2007|isbn=978-0-19-954089-1 }}</ref>
Fletcher was a keen amateur historian of legal matter and archaeology. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) in 1954, and was also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS).<ref name="WWW" />
==Arms== {{Infobox COA wide |image = Fletcher Escutcheon.png |escutcheon = Azure two arrows barbs upwards Or between four crosses moline Or. |crest = (On a cap of maintenance Gules doubled Ermine) a cubit arm vested Sable the shirt cuff of bleached linen Proper linked Or the hand Proper grasping a rolled document in bend sinister Proper and an arrow in bend barb upward Or. |supporters = Dexter a representation of a Saxon Archer of the mid-eleventh century sinister a representation of a Norman archer each supporting with the exterior hand a bow all Proper. |motto = Labor Ipse Voluptas (Which can be translated to "Work itself is a pleasure" or "Labor itself is a joy) but has also been cited as (Not Following Meaner Things)<ref>{{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage |date=1985 |page=460}}</ref> }}
==References== {{Reflist}} {{reflist|group=n}} * {{cite book | title=The Times House of Commons 1955 | work=The Times | year=1955 }}
==Archives== * [http://archives.lse.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=FLETCHER Catalogue of the Fletcher papers] at the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070618035533/http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/Default.htm Archives Division] of the London School of Economics.
== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs | sir-eric-fletcher | Eric Fletcher }}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Islington East | years = 1945–1970 | before = Thelma Cazalet-Keir | after = John Grant }} {{s-end}} {{Chairmen of Ways and Means}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Eric}} Category:1903 births Category:1990 deaths Category:20th-century British lawyers Category:Alumni of the University of London Category:Deputy speakers of the British House of Commons Category:English Anglicans Category:English solicitors Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Fletcher, Eric Fletcher, Baron Category:Members of London County Council Category:Members of the Fabian Society Category:Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970 Category:People associated with Birkbeck, University of London Category:Governors of the London School of Economics Category:People educated at Radley College Category:Politics of the London Borough of Islington Category:Trustees of the British Museum Category:UK MPs 1945–1950 Category:UK MPs 1950–1951 Category:UK MPs 1951–1955 Category:UK MPs 1955–1959 Category:UK MPs 1959–1964 Category:UK MPs 1964–1966 Category:UK MPs 1966–1970 Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages Category:20th-century English lawyers Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II