Fergus Montgomery

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Sir William Fergus Montgomery (born 25 November 1927) was a Conservative member of Parliament in the United Kingdom.

He was educated at Jarrow Grammar School and the University of Durham, and became a teacher in 1950. From 1950 until 1958 he was a councillor serving on Hebburn urban district council. From 1957 to 1958, he was National Chairman of the Young Conservatives, having served as vice-chairman from 1954-57.

He was first elected to Parliament for Newcastle-upon-Tyne East at the 1959 general election, but lost his seat in 1964. He returned to Parliament in a by-election in Brierley Hill, in 1967.

Boundary changes which took effect from the February 1974 general election abolished the Brierley Hill constituency, and Montgomery was selected for the new Dudley West constituency which partially replaced it. However, he was unsuccessful, losing the election to Colin Phipps of the Labour Party.

His absence from Parliament was shortlived. Later in 1974, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Anthony Barber was made a life peer, and Montgomery was selected to contest Barber's Altrincham and Sale constituency in the general election of October 1974. He won the election, and then held the seat until he retired at the 1997 election.

He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Margaret Thatcher, during her tenure as Secretary of State for Education, and then as Leader of the Opposition. He was convicted of shoplifting in 1976.