From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donald James Gelling
CBE
CP
, CInstSMM (born 5 July 1938
[1]
) is a
Manx
former politician, who is a former
Chief Minister of the Isle of Man
[2]
who served two terms as Head of the Government.
Early life and career
[
edit
]
Gelling was born on
Tynwald Day
(5 July) 1938 in
Santon
, a village to the south-west of
Douglas
. He was apprenticed in engineering from 1954 to 1959 and after National Service in the
Royal Air Force
he became a salesman of agricultural machinery and vehicles. He was a general manager of his company from 1969.
His political career began immediately as his National Service ended in 1961 when he was elected as a Santon Parish Commissioner; he served for 25 years and had five terms as Chairman of the Commissioners. In the
Tynwald
election of November 1986 Gelling was elected as Member of the
House of Keys
for
Malew
and Santon constituency. Like most political figures in the Isle of Man, Gelling does not belong to any political party and has fought elections as an
Independent
on his own personal record and policies.
Gelling served as
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
from 1988 to 1989 and was then appointed to the important role of Minister for Treasury. In this role he kept the Isle of Man's status as a '
tax haven
' and moved to build up the financial services sector as Chairman of the
Financial Supervision Commission
. After the 1996 general election, Gelling was elected
Chief Minister of the Isle of Man
.
In the November 2001
General Election
he was re-elected. He decided to retire from the Chief Ministership the following year and was elected by his Keys colleagues to be a Member of the
Legislative Council
(MLC). The Legislative Council is the
Upper House
of
Tynwald
, the
Isle of Man
's
parliament
. He retained his interest in the financial services industry as the head of Isle of Man Finance, a body set up by the Manx Treasury to promote the industry.
After the sudden resignation of
Richard Corkill
on 2 December 2004 in a financial scandal, Gelling was re-elected as Chief Minister on 14 December. He stayed in office then for exactly two years before stepping down as Chief Minister after the 2006 General Election. He then stood down as an MLC on 18 January 2007, retiring from politics.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Gelling has been married to Joan (nee Kelly) since 1960, they have 4 children together.
References
[
edit
]
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MHKs
|
- Edgar Quine
(
Ayre
, Ind)
- Tony Brown
(
Castletown
, Ind)
- Phil Braidwood
(
Douglas East
, Ind)
- Brenda Cannell
(
Douglas East
, Ind)
- Bill Henderson
(
Douglas North
, Ind)
- John Houghton
(
Douglas North
, Ind)
- David Cretney
(
Douglas South
, Labour)
- Adrian Duggan
(
Douglas South
, Ind)
- Alex Downie
(
Douglas West
, Ind)
- John Shimmin
(
Douglas West
, Ind)
- Steve Rodan
(
Garff
, Ind)
- David Anderson
(
Glenfaba
, Ind)
- Donald Gelling
(
Malew & Santon
, Ind)
- David Cannan
(
Michael
, Ind)
- Martyn Quayle
(
Middle
, Ind)
- Richard Corkill
(
Onchan
, Ind)
- Adrian Earnshaw
(
Onchan
, Ind)
- Peter Karran
(
Onchan
, Liberal)
- Hazel Hannan
(
Peel
, Ind)
- Allan Bell
(
Rasmey
, Ind)
- Leonard Singer
(
Rasmey
, Ind)
- John Rimington
(
Rushen
, Ind)
- Quintin Gill
(
Rushen
, Ind)
- Pamela Crowe
(
Rushen
, Ind)
|
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Preceded by
|
Chief Minister
1996?2001
|
Succeeded by
|
Preceded by
Richard Corkill
|
Chief Minister
2004?06
|
Succeeded by
|