Patrick Mayhew

Patrick Barnabas Burke Mayhew, Baron Mayhew of Twysden, Template:Post-nominals (11 September 1929 – 25 June 2016) was a British barrister and politician.

Early life

Mayhew was born in Cookham, Berkshire, on 11 September 1929.<ref name = ODNB>Template:Cite ODNB</ref> His father, George Mayhew, was a decorated army officer turned oil executive; his mother, Sheila Roche, descended from members of the Anglo-Irish Protestant ascendancy, was a relative of James Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy, an Irish National Federation MP for Kerry East. Through his father, Mayhew was descended from the Victorian social commentator Henry Mayhew. He was educated at Tonbridge School, an all boys public school in Tonbridge, Kent.<ref>Template:Harv</ref><ref name="Dictionary of Irish Biography" />

He then served as an officer in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, studied law at Balliol College, Oxford, and was president of the Oxford University Conservative Association and of the Oxford Union.<ref name="Independent">Template:Cite news</ref> He was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1955.<ref name="Dictionary of Irish Biography">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

Political career

Mayhew contested Dulwich in 1970,<ref name="Dictionary of Irish Biography" /> but the incumbent Labour member, Sam Silkin, beat him by 895 votes.Template:Fact He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Tunbridge Wells constituency from its creation at the February 1974 general election, standing down at the 1997 election.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He was Under Secretary of Employment from 1979 to 1981, then Minister of State at the Home Office from 1981 to 1983.Template:Fact After this, he served as Solicitor General for England and Wales from 1983 to 1987,<ref name=":0" /> and then Attorney General for England and Wales<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and simultaneously Attorney General for Northern Ireland<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> from 1987 to 1992.

He was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1992 to 1997.<ref name = ODNB/>

He was one of only five Ministers (Tony Newton, Kenneth Clarke, Malcolm Rifkind and Lynda Chalker are the others) to serve throughout the whole 18 years of the Governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major.Template:Fact This represents the longest uninterrupted Ministerial service in Britain since Lord Palmerston in the early 19th century.Template:Fact

Honours and awards

Mayhew was knighted in 1983.<ref name=":0">Template:London Gazette</ref> On 12 June 1997, he was given a life peerage as Baron Mayhew of Twysden, of Kilndown in the County of Kent.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He retired from the House of Lords on 1 June 2015.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

In 1963, Mayhew married the Rev. Jean Gurney, and they had four sons.<ref name="Independent" /> His son Jerome Mayhew is the Conservative MP for the constituency of Broadland and Fakenham (previously Broadland) in Norfolk since the 2019 general election.

Mayhew, a devout Anglican, was a churchwarden at Christ Church, Kilndown.<ref name = ODNB/>

Mayhew suffered from cancer and Parkinson's disease in his later years.<ref name="death BBC">Template:Cite news</ref> He died from cancer at his home on 25 June 2016, aged 86.<ref name = ODNB/><ref name="death BBC" />

External links

• Template:Hansard-contribs
• Template:Cite news
• Template:Cite news
• Template:Cite news
• Template:Cite news
• Template:Cite news
• Template:Cite web

Template:S-start Template:S-par Template:S-new Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft |- Template:S-off Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft |- Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl |- Template:S-ttl |- Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-end