Derek John Fatchett (22 August 1945 – 9 May 1999) was a British politician. He became

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Leeds Central Leeds Central is a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency recreated in 1983 represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since 1999 b ...

in 1983 and was a member of the Labour Party. He was Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Deputy Foreign Secretary) from 1997 to 1999.

Early life

Born in

Lincoln, Lincolnshire Lincoln () is a cathedral city, a non-metropolitan district, and the county town of Lincolnshire, England. In the 2021 Census, the Lincoln district had a population of 103,813. The 2011 census gave the urban area of Lincoln, including North H ...

, Fatchett was the son of a

painter and decorator A house painter and decorator is a tradesman responsible for the painting and decorating of buildings, and is also known as a decorator or house painter.''The Modern Painter and Decorator'' volume 1 1921 Caxton The purpose of painting is to imp ...

. His grandfather was a trade union official. He attended the all-male

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

, Lincoln School and then the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

where he studie
Law
graduating in 1966. Fatchett joined the Labour Party in 1964. At the

LSE LSE may refer to: Computing * LSE (programming language), a computer programming language * LSE, Latent sector error, a media assessment measure related to the hard disk drive storage technology * Language-Sensitive Editor, a text editor used ...

he took an MSc in 1968 where he joined in student demonstrations. He was more left-wing in his younger days in the 60s and 70s but moved towards the centre-left when an MP, leaving the

Campaign Group The Socialist Campaign Group, officially the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs and also known as the Campaign Group, is a left-wing, democratic socialist grouping of the Labour Party's Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the ...

in 1985. Fatchett was a councillor on Wakefield Metropolitan Council from 1980 to 1984. He became a lecturer in Industrial Relations (now known a
Work and Employment Relations
) at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

in 1971, staying there until he became an MP, which he was nominated for at the expense of Stanley Cohen, who wanted to join the SDP.

Parliamentary career

He contested the Bosworth seat in Leicestershire in 1979. After Labour's 1997 election victory, he was soon made a Minister of State at the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ministries of fore ...

with responsibility for the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Two years later, whilst still in office, Fatchett died suddenly on the night of 9 May 1999 (aged 53), from a massive

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

after collapsing whilst relaxing with his wife and close friend Colin Crane in a Wakefield pub. His death prevented him for reaching higher office which was predicted with rumours in political circles citing him as a future Defence or Northern Ireland Secretary. The

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

for his seat was won by

Hilary Benn Hilary James Wedgwood Benn (born 26 November 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds Central since a by-election in 1999. He served in the Cabinet from 2003 to 2010, under both Tony Bla ...

Personal life

He married Anita Oakes in Birmingham on 12 April 1969 and had two sons, Brendan and Gareth. He lived in

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

. His interest outside politics included cricket and football (he was a WBA supporter). He was very open to new technology, touring a number of computer facilities in the UK, beginning with an

Apple Lisa Lisa is a desktop computer developed by Apple, released on January 19, 1983. It is one of the first personal computers to present a graphical user interface (GUI) in a machine aimed at individual business users. Its development began in 1978. ...

, the computer that pre-dated the Apple Mac, iPhone and iPad revolutions.

External links

Article on his life, BBC 1999

''Guardian'' Obituary

By-election after his death
*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fatchett, Derek 1945 births 1999 deaths Academics of the University of Leeds Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of the University of Birmingham Councillors in Wakefield Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People from Lincoln, England UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 People educated at Lincoln Grammar School