Patrick George Thomas Buchan-Hepburn, Baron Hailes (April 2, 1901-November 5, 1974) was the first and only Governor-General of the short-lived West Indies Federation, from January 3, 1958, to May 31, 1962, when the country was disbanded.
Born in the United Kingdom, he was a personal secretary to Winston Churchill before being elected to Parliament in 1929. In 1939 he was appointed a Parliamentary Whip for the Conservative Party and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury. During World War II he served in the military, but returned to politics in 1945, serving as Deputy Whip to 1948 and then Chief Whip. He was Government Chief Whip and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from 1951 to 1955. In 1957 he was made a peer with the title of Baron Hailes.
With the formation of the West Indies Federation in response to complaints against British colonialism in the Caribbean, Baron Hailes was appointed the country's first Governor-General and relocated to Port-of-Spain on the island of Trinidad. Four years later, the new state was dissolved and he returned to England, where he served as Chairman of the Historic Buildings Council . He died in 1974.
