Victor Goodhew

Sir
Victor Goodhew
Sir Victor Goodhew
Member of Parliament; for St Albans
	In office; 8 October 1959 – 13 May 1983
Preceded by	John Grimston
Succeeded by	Peter Lilley
Personal details
Born	Victor Henry Goodhew; 30 November 1919; Ascot, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouses	; Sylvia Johnson (m. 1940, divorced) ; Suzanne Gordon-Burge (m. 1951; div. 1972) ; Eva Rittinghausen (m. 1972; div. 1981)
Children	2 (by Johnson)
Awards	Knight Bachelor (1982)
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	Royal Air Force
Years of service	1939–1946
Rank	Squadron leader
Unit	6th Airborne Division
Commands	Airborne Radar Unit

Sir Victor Henry Goodhew (30 November 1919 – 11 October 2006) was a British

right-wing views—he supported hanging, supported Enoch Powell's views on immigration, and supported closer links with the white regimes in Rhodesia and South Africa—he served as a government whip under Edward Heath

in the early 1970s. His later career was blighted by ill health.

Early life

Born in

Squadron Leader

in 1945. He was demobilised in 1946, and became a director of the family company.

In politics

Goodhew served as a councillor on the Westminster City Council from 1953 to 1959, and for Cities of London and Westminster on the London County Council from 1958 to 1961. He contested the parliamentary seat of Paddington North for the Conservative Party in the 1955 general election, but was unable to unseat the Labour incumbent, Ben Parkin. He was shortlisted in 1957 as a prospective candidate for Warwick and Leamington, the seat vacated by the retirement of Prime Minister Anthony Eden, but Sir John Hobson was selected ahead of him. He finally beat William Rees-Mogg to secure selection for the safer seat in St Albans in Hertfordshire, where he was elected Member of Parliament at the general election in October 1959.

In Parliament, Goodhew served as

Lord of the Admiralty, from 1962 to 1963, and then as PPS to Tam Galbraith, Joint Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Transport, from 1963 to 1964. The Conservatives were in opposition from 1964 to 1970. Edward Heath

became leader of the Conservatives in 1965. Heath and Goodhew held opposite views on Africa, and it seemed that Goodhew's career had little prospect of advancement.

Goodhew was an early member (1962) of the

all-white South African

cricket tour. Several of the club's MPs spoke, including Victor Goodhew.

When the Conservatives returned to power in

Private Member's Bill to the statute book, to allow "death-bed" marriages to take place outside licensed premises. After another heart attack and further coronary bypass surgery in 1981, he stood down at the 1983 general election

.

Family

He was the son of

Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau

, but was divorced a third time in 1981. He was survived by his son, from his first marriage; his daughter, also from his first marriage, pre-deceased him.

He died in Ascot.

References

Goodhew, Victor, MP, Self Help Reborn, Monday Club, 1968 (P/B).
Copping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club - The First Decade, Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, April 1972, (P/B).
Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1984, 165th edition, London.
Black, A & C, Who's Who, London. (Various editions).
Monday Club Press Releases.
Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 21 October 2006
Obituary, The Independent, 19 October 2006
Obituary, The Guardian, 27 October 2006
Obituary, The Times, 6 November 2006

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Victor Goodhew

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Grimston	Member of Parliament for St Albans 1959–1983	Succeeded by Peter Lilley