Philip Rea, 2nd Baron Rea

Philip Russell Rea, 2nd Baron Rea, PC (7 February 1900 – 22 April 1981) was a British hereditary peer, Liberal politician and merchant banker.


The Lord Rea

Philip Rea
Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords
In office
1955–1967
Preceded byThe Viscount Samuel
Succeeded byThe Lord Byers
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
26 May 1948  22 April 1981
Hereditary Peerage
Preceded byThe 1st Lord Rea
Succeeded byThe 3rd Lord Rea
Personal details
Born
Philip Russell Rea

7 February 1900
Died22 April 1981(1981-04-22) (aged 81)
Political partyLiberal
Spouse(s)
Lorna Smith
(m. 1922; died 1978)
Children2
EducationWestminster School
Alma mater

The eldest son of Walter Rea, a Liberal politician, and his first wife, Evelyn, Rea was educated at Westminster School, and then at Christ Church, Oxford University, where he graduated BA and later MA, and lastly at the University of Grenoble.

In 1918, during the closing stages of the First World War, he served as a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards. During the Second World War he returned to the British Army and served as personal staff officer to Brigadier Colin Gubbins, Head of the Special Operations Executive, a key British intelligence and guerrilla operations agency. He was an officer of the King's Royal Rifle Corps.

Lord Rea served as Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords from 1955 to 1967. In the Lords he had been Chief Liberal Whip from 1950 to 1955, a Deputy Speaker from 1954, and Deputy Chairman of Committees 1950 to 1955. He was president of the Liberal Party between 1955 and 1956, and a party vice-president from 1970. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1962.

Rea married Lorna Smith (died 11 December 1978) on 7 April 1922. They had a son and daughter, but as his son Piers Russell Rea (1925–1934) died young, he was succeeded by the son of his younger brother James Russell Rea (1902–1954).

His daughter, the Hon. Ann Felicity Rea (born 1923) served in the WRNS in the Second World War[1] and married SOE veteran Malcolm Munthe in 1945.

Coat of arms of Philip Rea, 2nd Baron Rea
Crest
A stag at gaze Gules resting the dexter fore-leg on an anchor Or.
Escutcheon
Or on a fess wavy Azure between three stags courant Gules a lymphad sails furled of the field.
Supporters
On either side a stag Gules each charged on the shoulder with a bezant thereon an anchor Azure.
Motto
In Omnia Promptus [2]

References

  • Burke's Peerage and Baronetage (105th edition, 1970)
  1. London Gazette dated 25 February 1944, p. 953
  2. Burke's Peerage. 1949.
Party political offices
Preceded by
The Lord Moynihan
Chairman of the Liberal Party
1950–1952
Succeeded by
Philip Fothergill
Preceded by
Graham White
President of the Liberal Party
1955
Succeeded by
Leonard Behrens
Preceded by
The Viscount Samuel
Leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords
1955–1967
Succeeded by
The Lord Byers
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Walter Rea
Baron Rea
1948–1981
Succeeded by
Nicolas Rea
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