Peter Emery

Sir Peter Frank Hannibal Emery (27 February 1926 – 9 December 2004) was a British Conservative Party politician.

The Right Honourable Sir Peter Emery
Member of Parliament for East Devon Honiton (1967–1997)
In office 16 March 1967 – 14 May 2001
Preceded by	Robert Mathew
Succeeded by	Hugo Swire
Member of Parliament for Reading
In office 8 October 1959 – 10 March 1966
Preceded by	Ian Mikardo
Succeeded by	John Lee
Personal details
Born	Peter Frank Hannibal Emery (1926-02-27)27 February 1926 London, England
Died	9 December 2004(2004-12-09) (aged 78)
Political party	Conservative
Education	Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School
Alma mater	Oriel College, Oxford
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	Royal Air Force

Early life

Emery was born in London, but was evacuated to the United States during World War II. He was educated at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in New Jersey, graduating in 1943,^[1][2] before serving with the Royal Air Force. He attended Oriel College, Oxford. While at Oriel he founded the political group United Europe with Edward Boyle, Peter Kirk, and Dick Taverne. He was librarian of the Oxford Union.^{[citation needed]}

Emery was a councillor on Hornsey Borough Council, chairing the housing committee. He was a school governor and a member of the executive committee of the London Municipal Society.

Parliamentary career

He stood for Parliament without success in Poplar at the 1951 general election and Lincoln. He first gained a seat in parliament at the 1959 general election, when he famously ousted trade unionist Ian Mikardo—of whose union Emery was a member^[3]—from his Reading seat. He became a founding member of the Bow Group. In the 1964 general election, his majority was just 10 votes.

After being defeated in Reading in the 1966 general election, Emery returned the following year by winning a by-election in Honiton. He represented that seat and its successor East Devon until stepping down at the 2001 general election, having served 40 years in Parliament. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1993.

Emery spent most of his long political career as a backbencher, although he did serve as a junior Energy minister under Edward Heath, which included oversight of the notorious three day week and, during his final term, served as treasurer of the powerful 1922 Committee. Emery was a freemason.^[4]

References

1. Roth, Andrew. "Sir Peter Emery A loyal partisan Tory who was among the last surviving 1959 Commons' entrants from Harold Macmillan's 'you never had it so good' era" Archived 12 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 10 December 2004. Accessed 12 August 2019. "The second world war caused his evacuation to the United States, where he was educated at the Scotch Plains High School, New Jersey, but he returned for his degree at Oriel College, Oxford, where he was librarian of the Union."
2. Conklin, Sean. "Scotch Plains-Fanwood HS Hall of Fame Inducts Eight New Members" Archived 12 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine, TAP into Scotch Plains / Fanwood, 19 November 2015. Accessed 12 August 2019. "Sir Peter Emery, Class of 1943, member of the British Parliament for more than four decades and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth. Emery served as a junior minister and as spokesman for the Treasury, Economics and Trade under Sir Edward Heath, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970–74."
3. BBC 1959 General Election Coverage Part 3 on YouTube
4. "Conservatives at the heart of Freemasonry". The Independent. 31 October 1995. Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2017.

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Peter Emery

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Ian Mikardo	Member of Parliament for Reading 1959–1966	Succeeded by John Lee
Preceded by Robert Mathew	Member of Parliament for Honiton 1967–1997	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for East Devon 1997–2001	Succeeded by Hugo Swire