John Emerson Harding Harding-Davies, (8 January 1916 – 4 July 1979) was a British businessman who served as director-general of the Confederation of British Industry during the 1960s. He later went into politics and served in the Cabinet of Edward Heath as the first Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, a position which he held from October 1970 to 4 November 1972. Davies was President of the Board of Trade, and from July to October 1970 was Minister of Technology. He became a Privy Councillor and, in 1972, was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with special responsibilities for the co-ordination of British policy towards the European Communities. In 1979 Davies was to be made a life peer as Baron Harding-Davies, but died before the creation of the peerage passed the Great Seal. Peerage history was made when, by Royal Warrant bearing the date 27 February 1980, Queen Elizabeth II granted his widow Vera Georgina the title of Lady Harding-Davies; his children Frank Davies and Rosamond Ann Metherell were given the rank of children of a life peer. Family and early life Davies was born in Blackheath, London, on 8 January 1916, the second son of Arnold Thomas Davies (1882–1966) a Chartered accountant from Folkestone, by his wife Edith Minnie Harding (1880–1962) only child of Captain Francis Dallas Harding (1839–1902) - see Harding of Baraset - and Minnie Mary Malchus of Calcutta. Davies went to Windlesham House School in Sussex and St Edward's School, Oxford. He followed his father into accountancy as an articled clerk from 1934; he had just obtained professional qualifications as the youngest Chartered accountant in the country in 1939, when the outbreak of World War II led him to enlist in the Royal Army Service Corps. Davies was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and spent most of the war in the Combined Operations headquarters. From 1945 he worked for Combined Operations Experimental Establishment (COXE), and received the MBE on demobilization in 1946. On 8 January 1943, he married Vera Georgina Bates, only child of George William Bates, Managing Director of Barratts Shoes, by his wife Elvina Rosa Taylor. The marriage produced two children; a daughter - Rosamond Ann, and a son - Francis William Harding Davies (Frank Davies). Business career He joined the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company as an accountant in the marketing division. He qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants