Oliver Frederick George Stanley (4 May 1896 – 10 December 1950) was a prominent British Conservative politician who held many ministerial posts before his early death.

[1][2] During the First World War, Stanley was commissioned into the Lancashire Hussars, before transferring to the Royal Field Artillery in 1915.

As Minister of Transport he was responsible for the introduction of a 30 miles per hour speed limit and driving tests for new drivers.

In January 1940 Stanley was appointed Secretary of State for War after the previous incumbent, Leslie Hore-Belisha, had been sacked after falling out with the leading officers.

[1] Instead, Churchill made him a personal link with intelligence agencies, notably as founder of the London Controlling Section.

Two years later Stanley's political fortunes revived when Churchill appointed him Secretary of State for the Colonies, a post which he held until the end of the war.

[6] Butler later wrote in his 1971 memoirs that Oliver Stanley was “the acutest brain on the Conservative front bench, the keenest lance I have ever known in politics, and a flowing pen which could [write] several pages of immaculate foolscap in the same time that lesser men would take to wrote a decent paragraph”.