Derick Heathcoat Amory

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Derick Heathcoat Amory, 1st Viscount Amory, PC (26 December 1899–20 January 1981) was a British Conservative politician.

Heathcoat Amory was the son of Sir Ian Heathcote, 2nd Baronet. He was educated at Eton College and at Christ Church, Oxford. He became a Devon County Councillor in 1932 and worked in textile manufacturing and banking.

After service in the British Army (including being wounded and captured during Operation Market-Garden )Heathcoat Amory was elected Member of Parliament for Tiverton in 1945. He entered the cabinet under Sir Winston Churchill in July 1954 succeeding Sir Thomas Dugdale as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. In October 1954 the Ministry merged with the Ministry of Food still in command of Heathcoat-Amory. Gwilym Lloyd George had previously been in charge of Food. He remained in the post until he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1958, under Harold Macmillan.

Heathcoat Amory retired from the House of Commons in 1960, when he was created Viscount Amory, of Tiverton in the County of Devon, on 1 September 1960, one of the last new hereditary peerages created for senior politicians before life peerages became the norm. In his later years, he was Chancellor of the University of Exeter. On his death, the Viscountcy became extinct.

He was an uncle of David Heathcoat-Amory.

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