Brief Biography:

Humphrey Atkins was educated at Wellington School before joining the Royal Navy in 1940. In 1943 won promotion to the rank of lieutenant. Resigned from the service in 1948 and first entered politics in 1950 when he was returned to the House of Commons as the MP for Merton and Morden (1950-70), and then the constituency of Spelthorne (1970-87). His early career was marked by promotions to a number of junior ministerial positions. Following the return of the Conservative Party to power at Westminster in May 1979 Atkins was then appointed as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1979-81).

His time in office was to be largely dominated by the Republican hunger strikes of 1980 and 1981 in which he followed the hard line approach adopted by the government led by Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister. As a result Atkins refused to consider granting any of the demands on which the protest was based and refused to countenance direct negotiations to try to solve the crisis. This was by no means however the only problem to be faced and from the outset he found himself having to deal with the ongoing Irish Republican Army (IRA) campaign. As well in line with his party's commitment to try to restore some form of devolved power to Northern Ireland he launched two new initiatives. The first began in 1980 with the publication of a government white paper, 'Proposals for Further Discussions', and Atkins organised a Constitutional Conference at Stormont to facilitate talks between the main political parties. Little progress was made however and the situation had not been helped by the decision of the largest Unionist party, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), to refuse to take part. A year later in 1981, he proposed the establishment of an advisory council consisting of MPs, MEPs along with other public representatives, to assist the Secretary of State to govern Northern Ireland. At the same time Atkins also participated in the other key political development of the early 1980s when he was involved in efforts to encourage progress by way of a series of meetings between the British and Irish governments. These had got underway in December 1980 in a fresh attempt to improve the strained relationship between the authorities in Dublin and London and to further assist with this process, a number of joint studies were set up in order to try come with agreed positions on matters. This included topics such as security, economic cooperation, and new governmental structures for Northern Ireland.

By means of a British cabinet reshuffle in September 1981 he became deputy Foreign Secretary but within a year had been forced to resign after criticism of this department's handling of affairs running up to the Falklands crisis of 1982. His long service to politics was recognised in 1983 with a knighthood and this was followed in 1987 when he was awarded a life peerage after announcing his intention to retire as an MP at the next general election. Later that year he took his seat in the House of Lords as Lord Colnbrook and from (1990-94) was chair of the Association of Conservative Peers.

Book References:

Arthur, Paul.(2000), Special relationships : Britain, Ireland and the Northern Ireland Problem. Belfast: Blackstaff.
Arthur, Paul. and Jeffrey Keith, (1996) Northern Ireland since 1968. Oxford: Blackwell.
Elliott, Sydney. and Flackes, W.D. (1999), Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-1999. Belfast: Blackstaff Press.

Web Sources:

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[Entry written by B.Lynn - 29 October 2002]