Department overview | |
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Formed | 1 May 1941 |
Preceding agencies | |
Dissolved | April 1946 |
Superseding Department | |
Jurisdiction | Government of the United Kingdom |
Ministers responsible |
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Department executive |
The Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) was a department of the British Government formed early in the Second World War to control transportation policy and resources. It was formed by merging the Ministry of Shipping and the Ministry of Transport, bringing responsibility for both shipping and land transport to a single department, and easing problems of co-ordination of transport in wartime.
The MoWT was founded on 1 May 1941, when Lord Leathers was appointed Minister of War Transport. Following the general election of July 1945, Alfred Barnes was appointed Minister of War Transport,[1] remaining in the post after the department was renamed the Ministry of Transport in April 1946.