Sir Edward Birkbeck Wakefield, 1st Baronet, CIE (24 July 1903 – 14 January 1969) was a British civil servant and Conservative Party politician.
Wakefield was born 24 July 1903 in Kendal the son of Roger William Wakefield. He was educated at Haileybury and at Trinity College, Cambridge, he joined the Indian Civil Service in 1927 and served in Punjab, Rajputana, Kathiawar, Baluchistan, Central India, Tibet and the Persian Gulf. He was Chief Minister of Kalat State 1933–1936, of Nabha State 1939–1941 and of Rewa State 1943–1945, and was Joint Secretary, Political Department, Delhi, 1946–1947. He was awarded a bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society in 1936.[1]
He was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Derbyshire in 1950, holding the seat until 1962. He held a series of appointments as a whip, first as Assistant Whip, 1954–1956; then as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, 1956–1958; Comptroller of Her Majesty's Household, 1958–1959; Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, 1959–1960; and Treasurer of the Household, 1960–1962.[1]
He resigned from the House of Commons in 1962, when he was appointed as Commissioner for Malta, 1962–64, becoming High Commissioner 1964–1965.[1]
He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1945, and was created a baronet, of Kendal in the County of Westmorland, in 1962.[1] His brother, Wavell Wakefield, 1st Baron Wakefield of Kendal, was also a Conservative politician. Wakefield died in January 1969, aged 65, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son Humphry.
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