Rhodes Boyson

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Minister of State for Social Security
In office
13 June 1983 – 11 September 1984
Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher
Preceded byHugh Rossi
Succeeded byTony Newton
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science
In office
7 May 1979 – 12 June 1983
Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher
Preceded byMargaret Jackson
Succeeded byBob Dunn
Member of Parliament
for Brent North
In office
28 February 1974 – 8 April 1997
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byBarry Gardiner
Personal details
Born
Rhodes Boyson

(1925-05-11)11 May 1925
Haslingden, Lancashire, England
Died28 August 2012(2012-08-28) (aged 87)
Harefield, Middlesex, England
Political partyConservative
Other political
affiliations		Labour (before 1964)
Spouses
Violet Burleston
​
​
(m. 1946; div. 1971)​
Florette MacFarlane
​
(m. 1971)​
Children2 (by Burleston)
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom
Branch/service Royal Navy

Sir Rhodes Boyson (11 May 1925 – 28 August 2012) was an English educator, author and

Privy Council
in 1987.

Early life

Born in

JP, and his wife Bertha,[1] Rhodes Boyson was educated at Haslingden Grammar School, University College Cardiff, the University of Manchester, the London School of Economics, and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
.

He was awarded a PhD in 1967 by

London University, his thesis being on Henry Ashworth, a Victorian Lancashire cotton manufacturer, brother-in-law of Richard Cobden, and a Radical campaigner who also had a reputation as a model employer. It was published in 1970 by Oxford University Press as The Ashworth Cotton Enterprise. The Rise and Fall of a Factory Firm. 1818–1880.[2]

Early career

Called up towards the end of the

Independence
, and from his late 20s, he was a Methodist lay preacher.

He became a teacher in 1950, and later a

comprehensive in Islington, North London, of which he was the founding head teacher; in this capacity, and subsequently as an MP, he was outspoken in support of the retention of corporal punishment in British schools. He opposed what he perceived to be lax discipline, both in modern education and in the wider society, and at Highbury Grove he introduced an unfashionably traditional regime, with strictly enforced uniforms, caning for misbehaviour, and a house system. He said that this proved so popular with local parents that the school was consistently oversubscribed.[4]

From 1957 to 1961, Boyson was a

First World War
.

Boyson left the Labour Party in 1964, joining the Conservative Party three years later.[5] He later wrote:

My own move to Conservative party membership arose from the effect of my research into the cotton industry and the

Manchester school of liberal economic philosophy. Here was a body of men who believed that a free enterprise economy was not only efficient but brought moral growth to all men. The employer risked his capital on his judgement and must care for his workers as part of his stock in trade, and the workers would be enabled to become prosperous and through their own industry, thrift and moral courage could establish their own business enterprises and their personal independence to the advantage of themselves, their families and society. Cobden had a moral view of society and believed that free enterprise would not only bring prosperity but social harmony at home and peace abroad within a system of universal free trade.[6]

In 1977, he was co-author (with Brian Cox) of one of the series of Black Papers on education,[7] criticising many aspects of the comprehensive schools system.

Boyson was a severe critic of what he regarded as the influence of "mindless sociologists" who produced "mush which has corrupted the national character", noting in 1978 that; "it has not gone unnoticed that crime has increased parallel with the number of social workers". The Daily Mirror responded with an editorial comment "that crime has also increased parallel with speeches from Dr. Boyson".[8]

He served as chairman of the National Council for Educational Standards.

Parliamentary career

Appearing with Margaret Simey on the Channel 4 programme After Dark in 1989

Having stood unsuccessfully at

STOPP.[citation needed] He was Minister of State for Social Security 1983–1984, for Northern Ireland
1984–1986 and for Local Government 1986–1987.

Boyson was a strong opponent of

AIDS is part of the fruits of the permissive society. The regular one-man, one-woman marriage would not put us at risk in this way. If we could wipe out homosexual practices, then Aids would die out.[10]

Boyson was a supporter of the

Conservative Monday Club and frequently addressed them.[11] At the Conservative Party Annual Conference at Blackpool
on 10 October 1991 he was the principal speaker at a Club fringe meeting on the subject of A Conservative Revolution in Education.

In 1994, he appeared on the BBC topical panel TV show Have I Got News for You. He also appeared on Brass Eye[12] and was an early interviewee of Ali G.[13]

Boyson lost his Brent North seat in the Labour landslide of 1997, his 24% majority turning to a 10% majority for the opposition, partly because of his perceived lack of commitment to the campaign to retain Edgware General Hospital;[citation needed] in 2001, the seat, no longer contested by Boyson, swung a further 9% to Labour.

Personal life

Distinctive personal features were his

mutton chop whiskers and strong Lancashire accent. The whiskers dated from an occasion when he rebuked pupils for having long hair at the school where he was headmaster: the students retorted jokingly, "Why don't you grow your hair, Sir, if we cut ours."[14]

In 2007, he received an honorary degree from the University of Buckingham.[15]

Boyson married Violet Burletson in 1946, and they had two daughters. The couple divorced in 1971, after which he married Florette MacFarlane,[16] a teacher.[17] He and his second wife lived in Pinner, northwest London,[citation needed] until he moved into Cedar House nursing home in Harefield, where he died aged 87.[16] He left more than £2,000,000 in his will, the majority of it going to his widow.[18] She died in 2018.[19]

References

  1. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/aug/30/rhodes-boyson
  2. ^ Robert Eccleshall, English Conservatism Since The Restoration. An Introduction and Anthology (London: Unwin Hyman, 1990), p. 229.
  3. ^ "BOYSON, Rt Hon. Sir Rhodes," Who's Who 2009, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2008.
  4. ISBN 0-7062-3385-9
  5. ^ Eccleshall, p. 229.
  6. ^ Eccleshall, pp. 230–231.
  7. ^ Cox, C.B.; Boyson, Rhodes. "Black Paper 1977: Fight for Education", Critical Quarterly, 1234.
  8. ^ Pearson, Geoffrey, Hooligan: A history of respectable fears, Macmillan Education, 1983.
  9. ^ "Prohibition On Promoting Homosexuality By Teaching Or By Publishing Material - Tuesday 15 December 1987 - Hansard - UK Parliament". hansard.parliament.uk.
  10. ISBN 1134101759
    (p. 99).
  11. ISBN 978-1-134-89008-8
    .
  12. ^ "Rhodes Boyson". IMDb.
  13. ^ "Early Ali G Interview Sir Rhodes Boyson". YouTube. 3 December 2006. Archived from the original on 30 August 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  14. ^ "Last Word, BBC Radio 4". BBC. 7 September 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2012.[permanent dead link]
  15. ^ Honorary Degree for Sir Rhodes Boyson, The Independent, University of Buckingham, Winter 2007
  16. ^ a b "Sir Rhodes Boyson". The Telegraph. 29 August 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  17. ^ Obituary, The Guardian, 31 August 2012.
  18. ^ "Ex-MP Rhodes Boyson's £2m". 3 February 2013.
  19. ^ "Florette BOYSON Obituary (2018) - London Bridge, City of London - The Times". www.legacy.com.

Further reading

External links
Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency Member of Parliament for Brent North
1974–1997 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of State for Social Security (Minister for the Disabled)
1983–1984 		Succeeded by
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