The Secretary of State for Transport is the member of the cabinet responsible for the British Department for Transport. The role has had a high turnover as new appointments are blamed for the failures of decades of their predecessors. The office used to be called the Minister of Transport, and has been merged with the Department for the Environment at various times.
Minister of Transport
Minister of Civil Aviation
The Ministry of Civil Aviation was created by Winston Churchill in 1944 to look at peaceful ways of using aircraft and to find something for the aircraft factories to do after the war.
- Philip Lloyd-Greame, Lord Swinton (1944-1945)
- 1st Lord Nathan of Churt (?1945-1949?) (H.L. Nathan?)
- Frank Longford (Seventh Lord Longford) - (1949?-1951)
Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation
After 1951, the Ministries of Transport and Civil Aviation were merged into one.
- John Maclay (1951-1952)
- Alan Lennox-Boyde (1952-1954)
- John Boyd-Carpenter (1954-?)
- Harold Watkinson (with Civil Aviation) (?-1959)
Minister of Transport
At some point it was renamed back to the Ministry of Transport.
- Ernest Marples (1959-1964)
- ? (1964-1965)
- Barbara Castle (1965-1968)
- ? (1968-1970)
Minister of State for Transport
Transport responsibilities were subsumed by the Department of the Environment for a while. This shows the junior minister responsible for transport within that department.
- John Peyton (1970-1974)
- Fred Mulley (1974-1975)
- John Gilbert (1975-1976)
Secretary of State for Transport
- Bill Rogers (1976-1979)
Minister of State for Transport
- Norman Fowler (1979-1981)
Secretary of State for Transport
- Norman Fowler (1981)
- David Howell (1981-1983)
- Tom King (1983)
- Nicholas Ridley (1983-1986)
- John Moore (1986-1987)
- Paul Channon (1987-1989)
- Cecil Parkinson (1989-1990)
- Malcolm Rifkind (1990-1992)
- George Young (1995-1997)
Secretary of State for Environment Transport and the Regions
- John Prescott (1997-2001) (Gavin Strang was Minister for Transport)
Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions
- Stephen Byers (2001-2002)
Secretary of State for Transport
- Alistair Darling (2002-)