| Biography | Samuel John Gurney Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood GCSI, GBE, CMG, PC, OWL (24 February 1880 7 May 1959), more commonly known as Sir Samuel Hoare, was a senior British Conservative politician who served in various Cabinet posts in the Conservative and National governments of the 1920s and 1930s. He was Secretary of State for Air during most of the 1920s and briefly again in 1940. He is perhaps most famous for serving as Foreign Secretary in 1935, when he authored the HoareLaval Pact with French Prime Minister Pierre Laval. He also served as Home Secretary from 1937 to 1939 and as British ambassador to Spain from 1940 to 1944 |