View source for Bill Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank

{{Short description|British politician (born 1928)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
|name             = The Lord Rodgers of Quarry&nbsp;Bank
|honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|PC}}
|image            = Official portrait of Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank crop 2.jpg
|caption          = Official portrait, 2019
|office           = [[Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords]]
|leader           = {{plainlist|
* [[Paddy Ashdown]]
* [[Charles Kennedy]]
}}
|term_start       = 19 December 1997
|term_end         = 7 June 2001
|predecessor      = [[Roy Jenkins|The Lord Jenkins of Hillhead]]
|successor        = [[Shirley Williams|The Baroness Williams of Crosby]]
|office3          = [[Secretary of State for Transport]]
|primeminister3   = [[James Callaghan]]
|term_start3      = 10 September 1976
|term_end3        = 4 May 1979
|predecessor3     = [[John Gilbert, Baron Gilbert|John Gilbert]]
|successor3       = [[Norman Fowler]]
{{collapsed infobox section begin|last=yes|Junior ministerial offices|titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}
{{Infobox officeholder|embed=yes
|office4          = [[Minister for Defence Procurement|Minister of State for Defence]]
|primeminister4   = {{plainlist|
*[[Harold Wilson]]
*[[James Callaghan]]
}}
|term_start4      = 4 March 1974
|term_end4        = 10 September 1976
|1blankname4      = [[Secretary of State for Defence|Sec. of State]]
|1namedata4       = {{plainlist|
*[[Roy Mason]]
*[[Fred Mulley]]
}}
|predecessor4     = [[George Younger]]
|successor4       = [[John Gilbert, Baron Gilbert|John Gilbert]]
|office5          = [[HM Treasury|Minister of State for the Treasury]]
|term_start5      = 13 October 1969
|term_end5        = 19 June 1970
|primeminister5   = [[Harold Wilson]]
|1blankname5      = [[Chancellor of the Exchequer|Chancellor]]
|1namedata5       = [[Roy Jenkins]]
|predecessor5     = [[Dick Taverne]]
|successor5       = [[Terence Higgins, Baron Higgins|Terence Higgins]]
|office6          = [[Board of Trade|Minister of State for the Board of Trade]]
|term_start6      = 1 July 1968
|term_end6        = 13 October 1969
|primeminister6   = [[Harold Wilson]]
|1blankname6      = [[President of the Board of Trade|President]]
|1namedata6       = {{plainlist|
*[[Anthony Crosland]]
*[[Roy Mason]]
}}
|predecessor6     = [[Edmund Dell]]
|successor6       = [[Goronwy Roberts]] 
|office7          = [[Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State]] [[Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office|for Foreign Affairs]]
|term_start7      = 7 January 1967
|term_end7        = 3 July 1968
|primeminister7   = [[Harold Wilson]]
|1blankname7      = [[Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs|Sec. of State]]
|1namedata7       = {{plainlist|
*[[George Brown, Baron George-Brown|George Brown]]
*[[Michael Stewart, Baron Stewart of Fulham|Michael Stewart]]
}}
|predecessor7     = [[Henry Walston, Baron Walston|The Lord Walston]]
|successor7       = [[Maurice Foley (politician)|Maurice Foley]] {{small|(Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs)}}
|office8          = [[Secretary of State for Economic Affairs|Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Economic Affairs]]
|term_start8      = 21 October 1964
|term_end8        = 7 January 1967
|primeminister8   = [[Harold Wilson]]
|alongside8       = {{nowrap|[[Maurice Foley (politician)|Maurice Foley]] (1964–1966)}}
|1blankname8      = [[Secretary of State for Economic Affairs|Sec. of State]]
|1namedata8       = {{plainlist|
*[[George Brown, Baron George-Brown|George Brown]]
*[[Michael Stewart, Baron Stewart of Fulham|Michael Stewart]]
}}
|predecessor8     = ''Office established''
|successor8       = {{plainlist|
*[[Harold Lever]]
*[[Peter Shore]]
}}
{{collapsed infobox section end}}
}}
{{collapsed infobox section begin|last=yes|[[Shadow cabinet]] offices|titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}
{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes
|office1          = [[Shadow Secretary of State for Defence]]
|1blankname1      = [[Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (United Kingdom)|Shadowing]]
|1namedata1       = [[Francis Pym]]
|leader1          = {{plainlist|
*[[James Callaghan]]
*[[Michael Foot]]
}}
|term_start1      = 14 June 1979
|term_end1        = 8 December 1980
|predecessor1     = [[Fred Mulley]]
|successor1       = [[Brynmor John]]
|office2          = [[Shadow Secretary of State for Transport]]
|leader2          = [[James Callaghan]]
|term_start2      = 4 May 1979
|term_end2        = 14 June 1979
|1blankname2      = Shadowing
|1namedata2       = [[Norman Fowler]]
|predecessor2     = Norman Fowler
|successor2       = [[Albert Booth]]
{{Collapsed infobox section end}}}}
{{collapsed infobox section begin|last=yes|Parliamentary offices
|cont=yes |titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder|embed=yes
|office12         = Member of the [[House of Lords]]
|status12         = [[Lord Temporal]]
|term_start12     = 12 February 1992
|term_end12       = 12 December 2023<br />[[Life peerage]]
|office13         = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br />for [[Stockton-on-Tees (UK Parliament constituency)|Stockton-on-Tees]]
|term_start13     = 6 April 1962
|term_end13       = 13 May 1983
|predecessor13    = [[George Chetwynd]]
|successor13      = ''Constituency abolished''
{{collapsed infobox section end}}
}}
|birth_date       = {{birth date and age|1928|10|28|df=y}}
|birth_place      = [[Liverpool]], England
|death_date       = 
|death_place      = 
|party            = [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] (1988–present)
|otherparty       = {{plainlist|
*[[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] (before 1981)
*[[Social Democratic Party (UK)|SDP]] (1981–1988)
}}
|spouse           = {{marriage|[[Silvia Rodgers|Silvia Szulman]]|1955|2006|end=d}}
|children         = 3
|alma_mater       = [[Magdalen College, Oxford]]
}}
'''William Thomas Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|sep=,|PC}} (born 28 October 1928)<ref>{{Who's Who|title=Rodgers of Quarry Bank|year=2023|id=U32981|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U32981}}</ref> is a British politician and [[life peer]]. As a [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] member of Parliament, he served as [[Secretary of State for Transport]] from 1976 to 1979, and was one of the "[[Gang of Four (SDP)|Gang of Four]]" of senior Labour politicians who defected to form the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|Social Democratic Party]] (SDP). He subsequently helped to lead the SDP into the merger that formed the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] in 1988, and later served as the party's leader in the [[House of Lords]] between 1997 and 2001.

==Early life==
Rodgers was born in [[Liverpool]], [[Lancashire]], and educated at [[Quarry Bank High School]] in Liverpool. After [[national service]] in the [[King's Regiment (Liverpool)]], he studied Modern History at [[Magdalen College, Oxford]] on an Open Exhibition.<ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/about-us/about-liverpool-john-moores-university/fellows/honorary-fellows-2008/william-rodgers | title= Lord William Rodgers | work=[[Liverpool John Moores University]] | access-date=19 February 2021}}</ref> He was general secretary of the [[Fabian Society]] from 1953 to 1960 and a councillor on [[St Marylebone Borough Council]] from 1958 to 1962. He was instrumental in lobbying the [[National Executive Committee of the Labour Party]] to reverse its vote in favour of [[unilateral nuclear disarmament]] in 1961.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thorpe |first=Andrew |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0 |title=A History of the British Labour Party |date=1997 |publisher=Macmillan Education UK |isbn=978-0-333-56081-5 |location=London |pages=151 |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0 |ref=None}}</ref> He also unsuccessfully fought a [[1957 Bristol West by-election|by-election]] at [[Bristol West]] in 1957.

==Political career==
Rodgers first entered the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] at [[1962 Stockton-on-Tees by-election|a by-election in 1962]], representing [[Stockton-on-Tees (UK Parliament constituency)|Stockton-on-Tees]], and served in Labour governments under [[Harold Wilson]] and [[James Callaghan]], becoming [[Secretary of State for Transport]] in [[Callaghan ministry|Callaghan's cabinet]] in 1976. Within the Labour Party, he was known for being a highly effective organiser around centrist causes such as multilateral nuclear disarmament and Britain's membership of the [[European Economic Community]]. He held the post until Labour's defeat in the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979 general election]]. From 1979 to 1981 he was Shadow Defence Secretary. With Labour drifting to the left, Rodgers joined [[Shirley Williams]], [[Roy Jenkins]] and [[David Owen]] in forming the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|Social Democratic Party]] (SDP) in 1981. In September 1982, Rodgers stood to become the president of the SDP, but took only 19.4 per cent of the vote, finishing in a distant second place behind Williams.<ref name="berrington">{{cite book|last1=Berrington|first1=Hugh|title=Change in British Politics|date=1984|publisher=Frank Cass and Company|location=London|isbn=0203013271|page=83}}</ref>

At the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 general election]] the [[SDP–Liberal Alliance]] won many votes but few seats, and Rodgers lost his seat of [[Stockton North]] (known as [[Stockton-on-Tees (UK Parliament constituency)|Stockton-on-Tees]] before the boundary changes of 1983). He remained outside Parliament, unsuccessfully contesting [[Milton Keynes (UK Parliament constituency)|Milton Keynes]] for the SDP in the [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987 general election]], until he was created a [[life peer]] as ''Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank, of [[Kentish Town]] in the [[London Borough of Camden]]'', on 12 February 1992.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=52836 |date=17 February 1992 |page=2711}}</ref> During that interval he was Director-General of the [[Royal Institute of British Architects]] and also became Chairman of the [[Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)|Advertising Standards Authority]].

In 1987, Rodgers was chairman of the successful "Yes to Unity" campaign within the SDP in favour of merger with the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]]. He became the Liberal Democrats' Lords spokesman on home affairs in 1994 and was the party's leader in the Lords between 1997 and 2001. Rodgers's autobiography was titled ''Fourth Among Equals'', reflecting his position as the least prominent of the SDP's founders. He was interviewed in 2012 as part of [[The History of Parliament]]'s oral history project.<ref name='HoPRodgers'>{{cite web|title=Oral history: Rodgers, William (b.1928)|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/oral-history/member/rodgers-william-1928|publisher=[[The History of Parliament]]|access-date=14 July 2016}}</ref><ref name='BLRodgers'>{{cite web|title=Lord Rodgers of Quarrybank interviewed by Mike Greenwood|url=http://cadensa.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=e0Le6tqov1/WORKS-FILE/190390041/9|publisher=[[British Library Sound Archive]]|access-date=14 July 2016}}{{Dead link|date=January 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Rodgers retired from the House of Lords on 12 December 2023.<ref>{{Cite Hansard|title=Retirement of a Member: Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank|jurisdiction=UK|house=House of Lords|url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2023-12-13/debates/54AFA2F1-E711-423C-8C87-322576E60228/RetirementOfAMemberLordRodgersOfQuarryBank|volume=834|date=2023-12-13|column=1883}}</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1955, Rodgers married [[Silvia Rodgers|Silvia Szulman]] (1928–2006), a Berlin-born artist and writer, who became a political hostess.<ref>{{cite news |title=Lady Rodgers of Quarry Bank |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/lady-rodgers-of-quarry-bank-9tpxrgqhxfm |date=10 October 2006 |work=[[The Times]]}}</ref> The couple had three daughters: Rachel, Lucy, and Juliet.<ref>{{cite news |title=Silvia Rodgers |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/oct/09/guardianobituaries.obituaries |date=9 October 2006|work=The Guardian}}</ref>

On 8 May 2001, Rodgers suffered a [[stroke]] at his home and was treated at the [[Royal Free Hospital]] and attended [[speech therapy]] sessions at [[North Middlesex Hospital]] for two and a half years. He said he was "very, very lucky not to have suffered any physical damage" as a result.<ref>{{cite web |title=House of Lords - Stroke Victims: Treatment on 23 May 2006 |url=https://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2006-05-23b.797.2&s=Stroke+speaker%3A13327#g797.3}}</ref> He has since been a keen advocate for better treatment and care for stroke victims.<ref>{{cite web |title=House of Lords - NHS debate - 25 June 2009 Hansard.|url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2009-06-25/debates/09062549000699/NHS#contribution-09062549000309}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
Rodgers was a main character in [[Steve Waters]]'s 2017 play ''[[Limehouse (play)|Limehouse]]'', which premiered at the [[Donmar Warehouse]]; he was portrayed by [[Paul Chahidi]].<ref>{{cite web |title=David Tennant, Roger Allam and more at Limehouse opening night |url=https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/photos-limehouse-opening-david-tennant-roger-allam_43079.html |website=[[WhatsOnStage.com]] |access-date=23 February 2023 |date=9 March 2017}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|title=Roy Jenkins, a Well-Rounded Life|author=John Campbell | author-link = John Campbell (biographer) |publisher=[[Jonathan Cape]]|year=2014|isbn=978-0-224-08750-6}}

==External links==
*[http://www.libdems.org.uk/people/lord-rodgers-of-quarry-bank Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank] profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
*[https://www.theyworkforyou.com/peer/lord_rodgers_of_quarry_bank Recent Speeches in the Lords]
*{{Hansard-contribs | mr-william-rodgers | William Rodgers }}
*[https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1798 The Papers of Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank] held at [[Churchill Archives Centre]]

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{{s-end}}

{{Minister of State for Transport}}
{{Shadow Defence Secretaries}}
{{Second Wilson Ministry}}
{{Callaghan cabinet}}
{{UK Liberal Democrats}}
{{Fabian Society}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodgers of Quarry Bank, Bill Rodgers, Baron}}
[[Category:1928 births]]
[[Category:20th-century British Army personnel]]
[[Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford]]
[[Category:British autobiographers]]
[[Category:Chairs of the Fabian Society]]
[[Category:Councillors in Greater London]]
[[Category:GMB (trade union)-sponsored MPs]]
[[Category:General secretaries of the Fabian Society]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Liberal Democrats (UK) life peers]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Members of St Marylebone Metropolitan Borough Council]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970]]
[[Category:People educated at Quarry Bank High School]]
[[Category:British political party founders]]
[[Category:Politicians from Liverpool]]
[[Category:Secretaries of state for transport (UK)]]
[[Category:Social Democratic Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1959–1964]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1964–1966]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1966–1970]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1970–1974]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1974]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1974–1979]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1979–1983]]
[[Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II]]
[[Category:Peers retired under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014]]