Kenneth Stowe

Sir Kenneth Ronald Stowe GCB CVO (17 July 1927 – 29 August 2015) was a senior British civil servant. He was Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister 1975 to 1979, and the Permanent Under-Secretary of State of the Northern Ireland Office 1979 to 1981. From 1981 to 1987 he was Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Security. He was made a CB in 1977, CVO in 1979, and KCB in 1980 and a GCB in 1986.

Biography

Stowe was born in London on 17 July 1927. His father Arthur Percy Stowe was maker of spectacles and his mother was Emmie Louise (Emma), née Webb.[1]

Stowe attended Dagenham County High School and studied history, under a scholarship, at Exeter College, Oxford.[2][3] On 20 August 1949, Stowe married Joan Frances Randall Cullen a teacher in Essex, the couple went on to have three children together.[1]

Stowe graduated in 1951, he joined the civil service's National Assistance Board (later to become the Ministry of Social Security), working directly with those people who were asking for help. In 1973, he began employment as under-secretary at the Cabinet Office in the Legislation Committee.[1][4] When Robert Armstrong retired in 1975, he was recommended to Harold Wilson as Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. He remained in the role for 4 years, serving under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and for a short period under Margaret Thatcher.[1]

Thatcher appointed Stowe as Permanent Under-Secretary of State of the Northern Ireland Office in 1979, where he brokered an agreement during the 1980 hunger strike at Maze prison, although it did not hold. He became permanent secretary for the Department of Health and Social Security in 1981, responsible for over a million individuals in the NHS and social services departments.[1]

After retirement in 1987, Stowe spent a period advising public service reform in Zimbabwe and South Africa, as well as reform programs in the UK. He received multiple honours during his time in the civil service, a CB in 1977, CVO in 1979, and KCB in 1980 and a GCB in 1986. He spent his later years with his partner Judith Mary Phillips and died at his home in Lingen, Herefordshire on 29 August 2015.[1][5]

References
  1. Partridge, Michael (10 January 2019). "Stowe, Sir Kenneth Ronald (Ken) (1927–2015)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  2. "Sir Kenneth Stowe - Whitehall mandarin who was at the centre of attempts to halt the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland". The Times. London, England. 11 September 2015. p. 40.
  3. "Sir Kenneth Stowe - Whitehall mandarin who handled a 'dirty protest' by IRA prisoners and the first HIV/Aids campaign". Daily Telegraph. London, England. 9 September 2015. p. 31.
  4. Kavanagh, Dennis (16 September 2015). "Sir Kenneth Stowe obituary - Senior civil servant and loyal PPS to three prime ministers: Wilson, Callaghan and Thatcher". The Guardian. London, England. p. 39.
  5. Keleny, Anne (24 September 2015). "Sir Kenneth Stowe: Assistant to three prime ministers noted for his work on the Lib-Lab pact and the Ulster peace process - Stowe was a master of disclosure and discretion, and had a talent for bringing people together to achieve progress". The Independent. London, England.
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