Simon Coombs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Simon Christopher Coombs (born 21 February 1947), was a British Conservative politician.

Coombs was MP for Swindon from 1983 until 1997 when the seat was divided by boundary changes. Coombs stood in the new Swindon South seat but lost to Labour's Julia Drown.

Coombs' Parliamentary term coincided with Swindon being the center of a technology boom. Sir Tim Berners Lee developed the idea of the World Wide Web while at the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) in Swindon. Coombs served as Treasurer of PITCOM, the Parliamentary Information Technology Committee and as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Rt. Hon Kenneth Baker , MP, Minister of Information Technology in the Department of Trade and Industry, and as PPS to Baker during his 1984-85 term as Minister for the Environment. He later served as PPS to Rt. Hon Ian Lang , MP during his terms as Secretary of State for Scotland (1992-1995)and President of the Board of Trade (1995-1997). Coombs also served as Parliamentary spokeman for the UK Cable Television Association, representing at the time the constituency with the highest cable penetration in the country. He was also an officer in the Conservative Backbench Tourism Committee and in the British Recording Industry Association's All-Party Parliamentary Group. Since leaving Parliament, he has kept active in the music sphere as a trustee of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society and organizer of the Vaughan Williams exhibition at the composers home at Down Ampney. Coombs was married in 1983 to the former Kathryn Coe Royce (1953- ), daughter of Jo-Anne L. Coe, chief of staff to former Senator Bob Dole and the first woman to serve as the Secretary of the United States Senate. The couple separated in 1996 and were divorced in 2002.