John Biggs-Davison
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (October 2009) |
Sir John Biggs-Davison | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Epping Forest (1974–1988) Chigwell (1955–1974) | |
In office 26 May 1955 – 17 September 1988 | |
Preceded by | Constituency established |
Succeeded by | Steven Norris |
Personal details | |
Born | John Alec Biggs-Davison 7 June 1918 Bournemouth, England |
Died | 17 September 1988 Taunton, England | (aged 70)
Political party | Conservative (after 1930s) |
Other political affiliations | Communist Party of Great Britain (c. 1930s) |
Spouse |
Pamela Holder-Williams
(m. 1948) |
Children | 6 |
Education | Magdalen College, Oxford |
Sir John Alec Biggs-Davison (7 June 1918 – 17 September 1988) was a
Early years
The son of Major John Norman Biggs-Davison,
Political career
As an Oxford undergraduate, he was seconder to
Despite wariness of the United States, he supported the setting up of an American-style broadcasting system in the UK; shortly before the
When some Labour Party members called for his old friend
In late January 1975, he gave a warning that the
He was the Conservative Party's
Monday Club
Biggs-Davison was an active member of the
In July 1972, he called for tough action in Northern Ireland to clean up the 'No-Go' areas, and was one of the main speakers at the Club's "Halt Immigration Now!" meeting in
In the
In May 1974, Biggs-Davison was re-elected unopposed as Chairman of the Monday Club. That month,
When Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's book The Gulag Archipelago was banned from United Nations bookstalls in Geneva, on the grounds that it was offensive to a member nation, John Biggs-Davison asked James Callaghan, then Foreign Secretary, if he was satisfied that nothing offensive to the United Kingdom was sold at UN headquarters.
In November 1974, he was elected Chairman of the Conservative Parliamentary Northern Ireland Committee. Biggs-Davison criticised an
He was one of a number of prominent speakers at the Monday Club two-day Conference in Birmingham in March 1975, the title of which was The Conservative Party and the Crisis in Britain. He was elected National Club Chairman the following May, for a two-year term.[citation needed]
Personal life and death
In 1948, he married Pamela, daughter of Ralph Hodder-Williams, MC. They had two sons and four daughters: Tom, Harry, Bella, Helena, Lisl and Sara.[8]
Biggs-Davison died at a hospital in Taunton, Somerset, on 17 September 1988, aged 70.[9][10] In the subsequent by-election, his seat was won by Conservative Steven Norris.
References
- .
- ^ Clifton College Register, J. A. O. Muirhead, Bristol, J. W. Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society, Apr. 1948, p. 427
- ^ The India Office and Burma Office List 1945, fifty-fifth edition, London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1945, p. 141
- ^ "The political passions of Iris Murdoch", Today, BBC, 25 January 2010
- ^ Dod's Parliamentary Companion, 1983, ed. Charles Roger Dod, Robert Phipps Dod, p. 352
- ^ The India Office and Burma Office List 1945, fifty-fifth edition, London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1945, p. 141
- ^ Allen, Sam (1985). "The Land From Whence They Came". To Ulster's Credit. p. 124.
- ^ Dod's Parliamentary Companion, 1983, ed. Charles Roger Dod, Robert Phipps Dod, p. 352
- ^ "Tory MP dies". The Observer. 18 September 1988. p. 1.
- ^ McKie, David (19 September 1988). "Sir John Biggs-Davison: Right and Wrong in House and Guardian". The Guardian. p. 39.
- See List of Conservative Monday Club publications.
- Copping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club - The First Decade, April 1972 (P/B), and The Monday Club - Crisis and After (Foreword by John Biggs-Davison, MP), May 1975, (P/B), both published by the Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex.
- Williamson, David, with Patricia Ellis, (editors), Debrett's Distinguished People of Today London, 1988, p. 92, ISBN 0-905649-99-0
- Messina, Anthony M., Race & Party Competition in Britain, Oxford, 1989, p. 138. ISBN 0-19-827534-X
- ISBN 0-297-84286-2
- Faber, David, Speaking for England, London, 2005, p. 325, ISBN 0-7432-5688-3
Publications
- Biggs-Davison, John, MP, The Uncertain Ally, London, 1957.
- Biggs-Davison, John, MP, with Jeremy Harwood and the Hon. Jonathan Guinness, Ireland - Our Cuba?, published by the Monday Club, 1970, (P/B).
- Biggs-Davison, John, MP, The Hand is Red, London, 1973.
- Biggs-Davison, John, MP, with Julian Amery, MP, Stephen Hastings, MC,MP, Harold Soref (former MP), and Patrick Wall, MC,MP, Rhodesia and the Threat to the West, published by the Monday Club, London, 1976, (P/B).
- Biggs-Davison, John, MP, The Catholic UnionistTradition in Ireland, London, 1985.
- Biggs-Davison, John, MP, Peace and Freedom, in the Primrose League Gazette, vol.89, no.3, Nov/Dec 1985, London.