Sir Thomas Dugdale, an unremarkable Conservative member of parliament, reached the pinnacle of his career as minister of agriculture in Winston Churchill’s last government. He resigned in 1954 when an inquiry revealed persistent maladministration by his department in the disposal of land at Crichel Down. The inquiry concluded that he personally knew nothing of the affair, although government papers published 30 years later suggested his hands were less clean, and his civil servants less culpable, than appeared at the time.
作為一位不甚出名的保守黨議員，托馬斯?達格代爾爵士(Sir Thomas Dugdale)受命在溫斯頓?丘吉爾(Winston Churchill)的最后一任政府中擔任農業大臣，由此登上了他職業生涯的頂峰。1954年，一項調查發現，達格代爾執掌的農業部在克里切爾高地(Crichel Down)土地處置問題上存在長時間的行政行為失當，在此情形下，達格代爾辭去了農業大臣職務。當時調查得出的結論是，達格代爾本人對該事件毫不知情——盡管該事件發生30年后，政府公布的文件顯示，達格代爾其實并不像當時人們認為的那樣“無辜”，過錯也不該都記在他的屬下頭上。