Spencer Le Marchant

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Sir Spencer Le Marchant (15 January 1931 - 7 September 1986) was a British Conservative Party politician.

Le Marchant was educated at Eton College and was a member of the London Stock Exchange. He served as a councillor on Westminster City Council from 1956.

Le Marchant contested Vauxhall at the 1966 general election. He was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for High Peak at the 1970 general election, and held the seat until he retired from Parliament at the 1983 general election. He was appointed Comptroller of the Household when Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979.

Le Marchant received note in Thatcher's memoirs as "famous for his intake of champagne," 6 foot and 6 inches tall, and "could be heard booming out the result" when the then Labour government lost a motion of confidence by one vote, causing the 1979 general election.

In 1955 he married Lucinda Gaye Leveson-Gower, daughter of Brigadier General Hugh Nugent Leveson-Gower, RA and his first wife, Avril Joy Mullens (later Mrs. Ernest Aldrich Simpson).

Le Marchant retired from the House of Commons at the 1983 general election, and died at the age of 55 in 1986.

[edit] References

• Times Guide to the House of Commons, 1966 & 1979
• Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (1993)
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
• Who's Who 1987

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Peter Jackson	Member of Parliament for High Peak 1970–1983	Succeeded by Christopher Hawkins
Political offices
Preceded by James Hamilton	Comptroller of the Household 1979–1981	Succeeded by Anthony Berry