Alexander John Bruce-Lockhart, Baron Bruce-Lockhart, OBE (4 May 1942[1] – 14 August 2008), commonly known as Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, was a British Conservative politician and a senior figure in English local government. He was the leader of Kent County Council and then Chairman of the Local Government Association. He was succeeded by Simon Milton, ex-Leader of Westminster Council.
Bruce-Lockhart was born into a Scottish family with close ties to the diplomatic service. His father was deputy director of MI6. He was educated at the Dragon School, Sedbergh School and at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, and left the United Kingdom to work in the then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), managing a large farm for a South African owner. After a period in Australia, he returned to live in Kent in 1968, where he had a dairy farm, then a 300-acre (1.2 km2) fruit farm, in Headcorn.
He became a county councilor for Maidstone Rural East in 1989 almost by accident. At the time he was chairman of a rail committee in the Weald of Kent preservation society, which had been protesting about what he regarded, back then, as the destructive route of the Channel tunnel rail link. He became leader of the opposition Conservative group in 1993 and leader of the Council in 1997, retaining the post until 2005.[2] While leader of Kent County Council, Bruce-Lockhart became a controversial figure on the national political stage for his introduction of a local version of the recently repealed Section 28 legislation. In July 2004, having been vice-chair for two years, Lord Bruce-Lockhart succeeded Sir Jeremy Beecham to become Chairman of the Local Government Association, following the Conservatives becoming the largest grouping at the Association at that May's elections.
He was made a Knight Bachelor in the New Year's Honours List in December 2002, having previously been made an OBE. On 11 April 2006, it was announced that Sir Sandy was to be elevated to the peerage, and he was gazetted as Baron Bruce-Lockhart, of The Weald in the County of Kent on 9 June 2006. On 24 May 2007 it was announced that he had been appointed as Chair of English Heritage.[3]
On 17 June 2008, Lord Bruce-Lockhart was made an honorary Freeman of the City of Canterbury [3]. After a battle with cancer, he died in 2008, aged 66.[4]
From 1966 Lord Bruce-Lockhart was married to Tess Pressland (Lady Bruce-Lockhart); they have two sons and a daughter.
| Preceded by Sir Jeremy Beecham |
Chair of the Local Government Association 2004–2007 |
Succeeded by Sir Simon Milton |
| Preceded by John Ovenden |
Leader of Kent County Council 1997–2005 |
Succeeded by Paul Carter |
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