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Secretary of State for Defence
Incumbent: Bob Ainsworth
Style:	The Right Honourable
Appointed by:	Elizabeth II as Queen of the United Kingdom
First:	Peter Thorneycroft
Formation:	1 April 1964

United Kingdom

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The Secretary of State for Defence, popularly known as the Defence Secretary, is the senior United Kingdom government minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence, chairing the Defence Council. It is a Cabinet position. The position was created in 1964 as successor to the posts of Minister for Coordination of Defence (1936–1940) and Minister of Defence (1940–1964).

Minister for Coordination of Defence (1936–1940)

Lord Chatfield served as the second and final Minister for Coordination of Defence.

The position of Minister for Coordination of Defence was a British Cabinet-level position established in 1936 to oversee and co-ordinate the rearmament of Britain's defences.

The position was established by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in response to criticism that Britain's armed forces were understrength compared to those of Nazi Germany. This campaign had been led by Winston Churchill and many expected him to be appointed as the new minister, though nearly every other senior figure in the National Government was also speculated upon by politicians and commentators. Despite this, Baldwin's choice of the Attorney General Sir Thomas Inskip provoked widespread astonishment. A famous remark was "This is the most cynical appointment since Caligula made his horse a consul".^[1] The appointment is now regarded as a sign of caution by Baldwin who did not wish to appoint someone like Churchill who would have been interpreted by foreign powers as a sign of the United Kingdom preparing for war, as well as a desire to avoid taking onboard a controversial and radical minister.

In 1939 Inskip was succeeded by First Sea Lord Lord Chatfield. When the Second World War broke out, the new Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain formed a small War Cabinet and it was expected that Chatfield would serve as a spokesperson for the three service ministers, the Secretary of State for War, the First Lord of the Admiralty and the Secretary of State for Air; however political considerations resulted in all three posts being included in the Cabinet and Chatfield's role proved increasingly redundant. In April 1940 the position was formally wound up and the functions transferred to other Ministers.

Ministers of Defence (1940–1964)

The post of Minister of Defence was responsible for co-ordination of defence and security from its creation in 1940 until its abolition in 1964. The post was a Cabinet level post and generally ranked above the three service ministers, some of whom, however, continued to also serve in Cabinet.

On his appointment as Prime Minister in May 1940, Winston Churchill created for himself the new post of Minister of Defence. The post was created in response to previous criticism that there had been no clear single minister in charge of the prosecution of World War II. In 1946, the post became the only cabinet level post representing the military, with the three service ministers - the Secretary of State for War, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and the Secretary of State for Air, now formally subordinated to the Minister of Defence.

Name		Portrait	Took office	Left office	Political party	Prime Minister
	Winston Churchill		10 May 1940	27 July 1945	Conservative (Coalition)	Winston Churchill
	Clement Attlee		27 July 1945	20 December 1946	Labour	Clement Attlee
	A. V. Alexander		20 December 1946	28 February 1950	Labour Co-op
	Manny Shinwell		28 February 1950	26 October 1951	Labour
	Winston Churchill		28 October 1951	1 March 1952	Conservative	Sir Winston Churchill
	Harold Alexander Earl Alexander of Tunis		1 March 1952	18 October 1954	none
	Harold Macmillan		18 October 1954	7 April 1955	Conservative
	Selwyn Lloyd		7 April 1955	20 December 1955	Conservative	Sir Anthony Eden
	Walter Monckton		20 December 1955	18 October 1956	Conservative
	Antony Head		18 October 1956	9 January 1957	Conservative
	Duncan Sandys		13 January 1957	14 October 1959	Conservative	Harold Macmillan
	Harold Watkinson		14 October 1959	13 July 1962	Conservative
	Peter Thorneycroft		13 July 1962	1 April 1964	Conservative
						Sir Alec Douglas-Home

Secretaries of State for Defence (1964– )

The post of Secretary of State for Defence was created on 1 April 1964. The former Cabinet positions of First Lord of the Admiralty, Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air (responsible for the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force respectively) were incorporated into it and the offices of the Admiralty, War Office and the Air Ministry were abolished and their functions transferred to an expanded Ministry of Defence.

Name		Portrait	Took office	Left office	Political party	Prime Minister
	Peter Thorneycroft		1 April 1964	16 October 1964	Conservative	Sir Alec Douglas-Home
	Denis Healey		16 October 1964	19 June 1970	Labour	Harold Wilson
	Peter Carington Lord Carrington		20 June 1970	8 January 1974	Conservative	Edward Heath
	Ian Gilmour		8 January 1974	4 March 1974	Conservative
	Roy Mason		5 March 1974	10 September 1976	Labour	Harold Wilson
	Frederick Mulley		10 September 1976	4 May 1979	Labour	James Callaghan
	Francis Pym		5 May 1979	5 January 1981	Conservative	Margaret Thatcher
	John Nott		5 January 1981	6 January 1983	Conservative
	Michael Heseltine		6 January 1983	7 January 1986	Conservative
	George Younger		9 January 1986	24 July 1989	Conservative
	Tom King		24 July 1989	10 April 1992	Conservative
						John Major
	Malcolm Rifkind		10 April 1992	5 July 1995	Conservative
	Michael Portillo		5 July 1995	2 May 1997	Conservative
	George Robertson		3 May 1997	11 October 1999	Labour	Tony Blair
	Geoff Hoon		11 October 1999	6 May 2005	Labour
	John Reid		6 May 2005	5 May 2006	Labour
	Des Browne		5 May 2006	3 October 2008	Labour
						Gordon Brown
	John Hutton		3 October 2008	5 June 2009	Labour
	Bob Ainsworth		5 June 2009		Labour

References

Secretaries of State for Defence of the United Kingdom Ministers for Defence Churchill · Attlee · A. V. Alexander · Shinwell · Churchill · H. Alexander · Macmillan · Lloyd · Monckton · Head · Sandys · Watkinson · Thorneycroft Secretaries of State for Defence Thorneycroft · Healey · Carrington · Gilmour · Mason · Mulley · Pym · Nott · Heseltine · Younger · King · Rifkind · Portillo · Robertson · Hoon · Reid · Browne · Hutton · Ainsworth