Thomas Dugdale, 1st Baron Crathorne

Thomas Lionel Dugdale, 1st Baron Crathorne, born July 20, 1897, and died March 26, 1977, was a British Conservative politician remembered chiefly for his resignation as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, an episode that became a classic example of the convention of individual ministerial responsibility. He held the post from November 5, 1951, to July 28, 1954, under Winston Churchill, resigning after the Crichel Down affair, in which the Ministry initially resisted a Dorset landowner's attempt to repurchase farmland the government had compulsorily acquired for defence purposes and then surplused, and an inquiry criticized the department's methods. He represented Richmond, North Yorkshire in Parliament from 1929 to 1959 and had earlier chaired the Conservative Party.