Sir Donald William Limon, KCB (29 October 1932 – 26 July 2012) was a British public servant who served as

Clerk of the House of Commons The Clerk of the House of Commons is the chief executive of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and before 1707 of the House of Commons of England. The formal name for the position held by the Clerk of the House of Com ...

from 1994 to 1997.

Early life

Limon was born on 29 October 1932 in Hartlepool to Arthur Limon, the borough treasurer of

West Hartlepool West Hartlepool was a predecessor of Hartlepool, County Durham, England. It developed in the Victorian era and took the name from its western position in the parish of what is now known as the Headland. The former town was originally formed ...

, and Dora Limon. He was educated at the

Chorister School, Durham The Chorister School was a co-educational independent school for the 3 to 13 age range. It consisted of a Pre-School (opened in September 2008), a pre-preparatory and preparatory day and boarding school in Durham, England. It was set in an envia ...

, an independent preparatory school adjacent to Durham Cathedral, and then from 1946 to 1950 at

Durham School Durham School is an independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition located in Durham, North East England and was an all-boys institution until 1985, when girls were admitted to the sixth form. The school takes pupils ...

, then an all-boys independent school in Durham. A keen cricketer, he played for the school first elevens and was captain of his house team. He was Head of House, the Caffinites, in his final year. On leaving school, Limon undertook

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

at the Royal Army Service Corps brigade headquarters in the

Republic of Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its ea ...

. On discharge, and following a term of school teaching, in 1953 he accepted a local authority award to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Lincoln College, Oxford. He graduated from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

with a second-class

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

(BA) degree in 1956.

Career

In the autumn of 1956, Limon was appointed an Assistant Clerk in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

, and served in the Clerk's Department until his retirement in 1998. He was Clerk of Financial Committees from 1981 to 1984, Principal Clerk of the Table Office from 1985 to 1989, and the Clerk of Committees from 1989 to 1990. On 1 November 1990, he was appointed Clerk Assistant of the

. On 1 November 1994, he was appointed

therefore becoming

chief executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the house.

Honours

Limon was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1993

New Year Honours The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

. He was promoted to

Knight Commander Commander ( it, Commendatore; french: Commandeur; german: Komtur; es, Comendador; pt, Comendador), or Knight Commander, is a title of honor prevalent in chivalric orders and fraternal orders. The title of Commander occurred in the medieval mili ...

of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Limon, Donald 1932 births 2012 deaths Clerks of the House of Commons British civil servants Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath People educated at Durham School People from Hartlepool Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford 20th-century British Army personnel Royal Army Service Corps soldiers