{{short description|British politician and banker (1931-2003)}} {{redirect|George Younger|the Unionist Party chairman|George Younger, 1st Viscount Younger of Leckie||George the Younger (disambiguation){{!}}George the Younger}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = The Viscount Younger of Leckie | image = George Younger.JPEG | caption = Younger in 1987 | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KT|KCVO|TD|PC|FRSGS}} | office = Secretary of State for Defence | prime_minister = Margaret Thatcher | term_start = 9 January 1986 | term_end = 24 July 1989 | predecessor = Michael Heseltine | successor = Tom King | office1 = Secretary of State for Scotland | prime_minister1 = Margaret Thatcher | term_start1 = 4 May 1979 | term_end1 = 9 January 1986 | predecessor1 = Bruce Millan | successor1 = Malcolm Rifkind | office2 = Shadow Secretary of State for Defence | leader2 = Margaret Thatcher | term_start2 = 18 February 1975 | term_end2 = 15 January 1976 | predecessor2 = Peter Walker | successor2 = Ian Gilmour | office3 = Minister of State for Defence | prime_minister3 = Edward Heath | term_start3 = 8 January 1974 | term_end3 = 4 March 1974 | predecessor3 = Ian Gilmour | successor3 = William Rodgers | office4 = Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland | prime_minister4 = Edward Heath | term_start4 = 24 June 1970 | term_end4 = 8 January 1974 | predecessor4 = Bruce Millan | successor4 = Teddy Taylor | office5 = Member of the House of Lords | status5 = Lord Temporal | term_label5 = Hereditary peerage | term_start5 = 25 June 1997 | term_end5 = 11 November 1999 | predecessor5 = The 3rd Viscount Younger of Leckie | successor5 = Seat abolished | term_label6 = Life peerage | term_start6 = 7 July 1992 | term_end6 = 26 January 2003 | office7 = Member of Parliament<br />for Ayr | term_start7 = 15 October 1964 | term_end7 = 16 March 1992 | predecessor7 = Thomas Moore | successor7 = Phil Gallie | birth_name = George Kenneth Hotson Younger | birth_date = {{birth date|1931|9|22|df=y}} | birth_place = Stirling, Scotland | death_date = {{death date and age|2003|1|26|1931|9|22|df=y}} | death_place = Gargunnock, Scotland | party = Conservative (1965–2003) | other_party = Unionist (until 1965) | spouse = {{Marriage |Diana Tuck |1954}} | children = 4, including James | alma_mater = New College, Oxford | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = British Army | unit = Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders | battles = Korean War }} thumb|200px|Shield of Arms of George Kenneth Hotson Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, KT, KCVO, TD, PC, FRSGS '''George Kenneth Hotson Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, Baron Younger of Prestwick''' (22 September 1931 – 26 January 2003), was a British Conservative Party politician and banker. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayr from 1964 to 1992. During the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, Younger served as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1979 to 1986, and as Secretary of State for Defence from 1986 to 1989.
==Early life and career== Younger's forebear, George Younger (baptised 1722), was the founder of George Younger and Son of Alloa, the family's brewing business (not to be confused with Younger's of Edinburgh). Younger's great-grandfather, George Younger, was created Viscount Younger of Leckie in 1923. Younger was the eldest of the three sons of Edward Younger, 3rd Viscount Younger of Leckie.<ref name = ODNB>{{cite ODNB|title = Younger, George Kenneth Hotson, Baron Younger of Prestwick and fourth Viscount Younger of Leckie (1931–2003), brewer, politician, and banker|last = Stuart|first = Mark|date = 2009|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/88768}}</ref>
He was born in Stirling in 1931 and educated at Cargilfield Preparatory School, Winchester College, and New College, Oxford, where he obtained a Master's degree.<ref name = ODNB/> Joining the British Army, he served in the Korean War with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. On 7 August 1954, he married Diana Tuck, daughter of a Royal Navy captain. They had four children, including James Younger, who succeeded his father to the Viscountcy.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wEFuRPsYHwwC&pg=PA1389&lpg=PA1389 "Entry for George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie"] ''Burke's Landed Gentry of Great Britain'', p. 1389, 9 April 2010.</ref>
==Political career== He first stood for Parliament, unsuccessfully, in North Lanarkshire in the 1959 general election. Subsequently, he was initially selected to stand for the Kinross and West Perthshire seat in a by-election in late 1963, but agreed to stand aside to allow the new Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home the chance to enter the House of Commons.<ref name = ODNB/> He was viewed as a one-nation conservative.<ref name = ODNB/>
Following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather the 1st Viscount, Younger became Member of Parliament for Ayr in 1964 and served as Margaret Thatcher's Secretary of State for Scotland for seven years.<ref name = ODNB/> He subsequently succeeded Michael Heseltine as Secretary of State for Defence in 1986 when Heseltine resigned from the cabinet over a dispute about helicopters known as the Westland affair.<ref name = ODNB/> In the 1987 general election, as part of a considerable swing away from the Conservatives in Scotland, he retained his seat after three recounts, by a majority of just 182 votes (having been almost 8,000 votes in 1983). Incidentally, it was held by his successor Phil Gallie by an even smaller majority of 85 votes in 1992.
==After parliament== Younger quit the cabinet in 1989, and joined the Royal Bank of Scotland, becoming its chairman in 1992. He was created a life peer as '''Baron Younger of Prestwick''', of Ayr in the District of Kyle and Carrick, on 7 July 1992, five years before succeeding to the viscountcy. As such, he continued to sit in the House of Lords after the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999 which expelled most of the hereditary peers. In 1995, the Queen appointed him a knight of the Order of the Thistle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.royal.uk/appointments-order-thistle |title=Appointments to the Order of the Thistle |date=30 November 2002 |publisher=royal.uk |access-date=31 January 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203234135/https://www.royal.uk/appointments-order-thistle |archive-date=3 December 2021}}</ref> Younger became Chancellor of Edinburgh's Napier University in 1993, and was Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for 2001 and 2002.
Younger died from cancer at his home in Gargunnock on 26 January 2003, at the age of 71.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090304133457/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/viscount-younger-of-leckie-729988.html "Obituary: Viscount Younger of Leckie"] ''The Independent'', 9 April 2010.</ref>
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== * Torrance, David, ''The Scottish Secretaries'' (Birlinn 2006) *''Burke's Peerage & Baronetage'' (106th edition, 1999). Editor-in-chief: Charles Mosley; publisher: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd.
==External links== * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-george-younger-1|George Younger}} * [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2696373.stm Lord Younger dies after cancer battle] – BBC News article, dated Sunday, 26 January 2003. * [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2696457.stm Lord Younger: A career in politics] – BBC News article, dated Sunday, 26 January 2003. * [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2696569.stm Tribute paid to 'Gentleman George'] – BBC News article, dated Sunday, 26 January 2003. * [http://www.iesis.org/marlow.html Marlow (Scotland) Lectures] – IESIS website, retrieved 27 May 2012.
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef|before=Thomas Moore}} {{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament<br />for Ayr|years=1964–1992}} {{s-aft|after=Phil Gallie}} |- {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=Peter Walker}} {{s-ttl|title=Shadow Secretary of State for Defence|years=1975–1976}} {{s-aft|after=Ian Gilmour}} |- {{s-bef|before=Bruce Millan}} {{s-ttl|title=Secretary of State for Scotland|years=1979–1986}} {{s-aft|after=Malcolm Rifkind}} |- {{s-bef|before=Michael Heseltine}} {{s-ttl|title=Secretary of State for Defence|years=1986–1989}} {{s-aft|after=Tom King}} |- {{s-reg|uk}} {{s-bef|before=Edward Younger}} {{s-ttl|title=Viscount Younger of Leckie|years=1997–2003}} {{s-aft|after=James Younger}} {{s-end}}
{{Shadow Defence Secretaries}} {{Secretary of State for Defence}} {{Secretaries of State for Scotland}} {{Thatcher Ministry}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Younger of Leckie, George Younger, 4th Viscount}} Category:1931 births Category:2003 deaths Category:Nobility from Stirling (council area) Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford Category:Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders officers Category:British Army personnel of the Korean War Category:Deaths from cancer in Scotland Category:Scottish Conservative MPs Category:Deputy lieutenants of Stirlingshire Category:Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Category:Knights of the Thistle Category:Lords High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Category:People educated at Cargilfield School Category:People educated at Winchester College Category:People associated with Edinburgh Napier University Category:Secretaries of state for defence (UK) Category:Secretaries of state for Scotland Category:Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Category:UK MPs 1964–1966 Category:UK MPs 1966–1970 Category:UK MPs 1970–1974 Category:UK MPs 1974 Category:UK MPs 1974–1979 Category:UK MPs 1979–1983 Category:UK MPs 1983–1987 Category:UK MPs 1987–1992 Category:UK MPs who inherited peerages Category:Conservative Party (UK) hereditary peers Category:Conservative Party (UK) life peers Category:NatWest Group people Category:Fellows of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society Category:Presidents of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society Category:Unionist Party (Scotland) MPs Younger Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II Younger of Leckie Category:20th-century Scottish businesspeople Category:Scottish bankers Category:Military personnel from Stirling