biography
| name: |
Hore-Belisha, Leslie Hore-Belisha, Baron
|
pronunciation:
[haw(r) beleesha]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1893–1957)
|
| biography:
| British statesman and barrister, born in Devonport, Devon, SW England, UK. He studied at Oxford, and was called to the bar in 1922. He entered parliament in 1923, and became first chairman of the National Liberal Party (1931). He was minister of transport (1934), drafted a new highway code, and inaugurated driving tests for motorists. As secretary of state for war (1937–40) he carried out several far-ranging and controversial reforms to modernize and democratize the army. He was minister of national insurance in the 1945 ‘caretaker’ government, but lost his seat at the July election. In 1954 he received a peerage. His name is preserved in the Belisha beacons he introduced in the UK to mark pedestrian road crossings. |
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