Francis Pym

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Francis Leslie Pym, Baron Pym MC PC (born February 13, 1922 in Pengram Lodge near Abergavenny , Monmouthshire , † March 7, 2008 in Sandy , Bedfordshire ) was a British Conservative Party politician who held several cabinet positions in his career .

Early years

After training at Eton and Magdalene College , Cambridge , Pym served as Captain of the 9th Lancers during World War II in North Africa and Italy and received the Military Cross . After the war he worked as a management director and landowner and became chairman of Herefordshire County Council .

Political career

In the British general election in 1959 , he ran unsuccessfully in the constituency of Rhonda West . In a by-election, in 1961, he was first as a deputy for the constituency of Cambridgeshire to the House of Commons voted. He represented this constituency until 1983, from 1983 to 1987 he was an MP for the newly created constituency of Cambridgeshire South East .

Since 1964 as an opposition whip and 1970 to 1973 under Edward Heath Government Chief Whip , Pym took over the office of Minister of State for Northern Ireland from 1973 to 1974 . Margaret Thatcher appointed him Secretary of Defense in 1979, in 1981 he was Paymaster General and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and in the same year he was appointed Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council . During the Falklands War of 1982, Pym was Secretary of State following the resignation of Lord Carrington . In 1983 Margaret Thatcher removed him from this post after being reelected.

Pym was a major member of the Wets in the Thatcher administration, but joined the Conservative Center Forward association in 1983 , which represented a centralized policy. However, Pym did not have any success against Thatcher.

In addition, Pym was President of the Atlantic Treaty Association from 1985 to 1988 .

He did not run for the 1987 general election and was made a Life Peer as Baron Pym , of Sandy in the County of Bedfordshire, and was thereby a member of the House of Lords . In 1998 he suffered a stroke, the effects of which severely restricted his political activities. In the following years he wrote a family chronicle. In 2008 he died after a long illness. He left behind his wife Valerie, with whom he had been married since 1949, and their four children.

family

Francis Pym was a descendant of parliamentarian John Pym . His father, Leslie Pym , was also a member of Parliament; his father, Rt. Rev. Walter Pym , was Bishop of Bombay .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Obituary, The Independent , March 8, 2008 , accessed May 14, 2011 (English)
  2. ^ Francis Pym: Obituary . In: iAnnounce . Northcliffe Media . March 7, 2008. Accessed May 14, 2011. (English)
  3. ↑ Former Foreign Secretary Pym Dies , BBC News, March 7, 2008 (English)
  4. ↑ Obituary, The Guardian , March 7, 2008 , accessed May 14, 2011 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Pym, Francis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pym, Francis Leslie, Baron Pym (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Conservative Party politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Pengram Lodge at Abergavenny , Monmouthshire
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 2008
Place of death Sandy , Bedfordshire