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Secretaries of the Cabinet

© National Portrait Gallery, London. Image credit: National Portrait Gallery, London

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The three holders of the post of Secretary to the Cabinet, the most influential post in the Civil Service during the Wilson/Thatcher years, are seen here in the Secretary's Office in Whitehall. All three were made Life Peers at the end of their careers in public service. Burke Frederick St John Trend became Rector of Lincoln College Oxford (1973–1983), and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford (1975–1983). John Joseph Benedict Hunt went on to chair the Inquiry into Cable Expansion and Broadcasting Policy (The Hunt Report on the Future of Cable Television, 1982) and Robert Armstrong, having famously admitted to being 'economical with the truth' in the Spycatcher Trial (1986), became Chairman of the Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

National Portrait Gallery, London

London

Title

Secretaries of the Cabinet

Date

1984

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 137.4 x W 91.5 cm

Accession number

5794

Acquisition method

Commissioned, 1985

Work type

Painting

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National Portrait Gallery, London

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