Marcus Fox

Sir John Marcus Fox MBE (11 June 1927 – 16 March 2002) was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley from 1970 to 1997. He was chairman of the 1922 Committee directly overseeing candidate selection for the Conservative Party in the 1979 General Election.

Early life

Fox had a twin sister with whom he attended dancing lessons. At these lessons, he met Betty Boothroyd, later the House of Commons Speaker.^[1] He attended Wheelwright Grammar School for Boys (now a campus of Kirklees College) in Dewsbury.

Fox served in the Green Howards (Duke of Wellington's Regiment) as a Lieutenant, a detail which he was sometimes known to mention in after-dinner speeches. Fox left the Green Howards and began his political career with his election to Dewsbury Council in 1956, remaining until 1963. He then became a bank clerk, then sales manager for Woolworths and Terry's in York, and then a company director.^[2] He unsuccessfully contested Dewsbury in 1959 and Huddersfield West in 1966, then was elected in 1970.

Parliamentary career

After Fox's election to parliament as the MP for Shipley, he served as a whip under Edward Heath, and then was a junior minister under Margaret Thatcher. He was moved back to the back-benches in 1981, and started ascending the pole to become chairman of the 1922 committee - becoming vice-chairman in 1983 and chairman in 1994. He received an MBE in 1963, was knighted in 1986, and became a member of the Privy Council in 1996.^[3]

Fox lost his seat in the general election in 1997 to Chris Leslie, the Labour candidate. He then retired from politics to his Yorkshire home, where he remained until his death, aged 74.

Personal life

He married Ann Tindall in 1954; they had a son and a daughter.

References

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Marcus Fox