Robert Hudson, 1st Viscount Hudson

Robert Spear Hudson, 1st Viscount Hudson, born August 15, 1886, and died February 2, 1957, was a British Conservative politician and former diplomat who represented Whitehaven and then Southport in Parliament. He served as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries from May 1940 to 1945, his most significant wartime role, during which he expanded Britain's arable acreage from twelve to eighteen million acres, expanded the Women's Land Army, and raised domestic food production from about thirty percent to sixty percent of the country's consumption, reducing dependence on imports during wartime shortages. He had earlier served as Secretary for Overseas Trade, negotiating Anglo-German and Anglo-American trade agreements, and was created Viscount Hudson in 1952.