How many children do Education Secretaries have?

After the recent post “Where did the Education Secretaries go to school?” several people asked whether it really mattered. One answer that came up several times was that it might be relevant if a Minister never used the service in their care.

But if an Ed Sec who doesn’t use service will inevitably do a less good job, then it matters whether or not the Ed Sec has children themselves. I therefore decided to work out which Ed Secs had children and which did not.

It was easier to find out this information for dead Ed Secs than live ones. Obituaries always have a section telling you about people’s partners and children. However, I managed to find information for all but two. I couldn’t find definite information on Geoffrey Lloyd or John MacGregor. Also, while I could find out that Richard Law had at least one child, I don’t know if he only had one.

There’s also the issue of stepchildren. Anthony Crosland, Gillian Shephard and Shirley Williams each have two stepchildren by marriage. For the purposes of this chart I haven’t included them because I wasn’t able to distinguish how much contact they had with the children.

As it stands the average number of children among Ed Secs is 1.79. If stepchildren are added it is 2.

The most common number is actually 0. Although this is largely down to the high number of childless secretaries pre-1965. Since 1967 there have only been two childless education secretaries, and none at all between 1967 and 1994.

0	Ellen Wilkinson	1945
	George Tomlinson	1947
	Florence Horsbrugh	1951
	Edward Boyle	1962
	Michael Stewart	1964
	Anthony Crosland	1965
	Gillian Shephard	1994
	Estelle Morris	2001
1	Richard Law	1945
	Reg Prentice	1974
	Shirley Williams	1976
	Mark Carlisle	1979
	Kenneth Baker	1986
	John Patten	1992
2	Edward Short	1968
	Margaret Thatcher	1970
	Fred Mulley	1975
	Kenneth Clarke	1990
	Charles Clarke	2002
	Michael Gove	2010
3	Rab Butler	1944
	David Eccles	1954
	David Blunkett	1997
	Edward Balls	2007
4	Keith Joseph	1981
	Ruth Kelly	2004
	Alan Johnson	2006
5	Quintin Hogg	1957
	Patrick Gordon Walker	1967

What is perhaps most surprising is that there appears to be no pattern for women. Though several women had no children of their own, Ruth Kelly had four, Margaret Thatcher two, and Shirley Williams had one of her own plus two stepchildren.