Daniel Dixon, 2nd Baron Glentoran

Who was Daniel Dixon, 2nd Baron Glentoran?

Daniel Stewart Thomas Bingham Dixon, 2nd Baron Glentoran, KBE was a Northern Ireland soldier and politician.

Glentoran was the son of Herbert Dixon, 1st Baron Glentoran. After being educated at Eton and Sandhurst he was appointed aide-de-camp to the GOC in Northern Ireland in 1935. He served with the Grenadier Guards in World War II, for which he was mentioned in dispatches, and in 1950 succeeded his father as second Baron Glentoran as well as Ulster Unionist member for Belfast Bloomfield in the Northern Ireland House of Commons.

Appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Finance in 1952, Lord Glentoran was the following year made Minister of Commerce, a post he held until elected to the Northern Ireland Senate in 1961. He was the Minister responsible for the destruction of much of the Great Northern Railway in Northern Ireland, when he unilaterally closed the Portadown - Armagh - Monaghan, Clones - Enniskillen -Belleek and Enniskillen - Omagh railway lines in 1957. Consequently the privately owned Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway linking Enniskillen to Sligo was forced to close.