Boyle, Edward

Edward Boyle, in full Edward Charles Gurney Boyle, Baron Boyle of Handsworth, (born August 31, 1923, Kent, England—died September 28, 1981, Leeds, England), British politician who served as Britain’s minister of education (1962–64) and was a leading representative of the liberal wing of the British Conservative Party.

Educated at Eton College and the University of Oxford, Boyle worked in journalism while attempting to enter Parliament. He was elected in 1950 as the member for Handsworth and in 1955 became economic secretary to the Treasury. He was later parliamentary secretary (1957–59) to the minister of education and then financial secretary to the Treasury. As minister of education (1962–64), Boyle steered a middle course between those who favoured retention of the system of grammar schools (secondary schools that prepared students for university entrance and for the professions) and supporters of comprehensive schools (which combined the curricula of grammar schools and the more practical secondary-modern and technical schools). Boyle set up the Plowden inquiry into primary education in 1963. In the following year he was made minister of state with special responsibility for higher education.

Following the Conservative defeat in the 1964 election, Boyle became opposition spokesman on home affairs and then on education. He fell out with the right wing of the party over his support for a government incomes (wage) policy and his liberal attitude toward immigration. Boyle became director of Penguin Books (now Penguin Random House) in 1965. He was made a life peer in 1970.