John Waddington Oakes (23 September 1932 – 23 May 2021) was a British military officer and public official who served as

High Sheriff of Warwickshire This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of the English county of Warwickshire. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most ...

in 1996. In the 1980s he bought

Whichford House Whichford House is a grade II* listed house in the village of Whichford, Warwickshire, England. Whichford House was built in the 17th century as St Michael's Rectory, and in the 18th century it was enhanced with an open stairwell, a stone chimne ...

, a

grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

house in the village of

Whichford Whichford is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England, about southeast of Shipston-on-Stour. The parish adjoins the county boundary with Oxfordshire and the village is about north of the Oxfordshire town of Chipping Norton. The pa ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

. His grandfather Beilby Porteus Oakes was a descendant of

Beilby Porteus Beilby Porteus (or Porteous; 8 May 1731 – 13 May 1809), successively Bishop of Chester and of London, was a Church of England reformer and a leading abolitionist in England. He was the first Anglican in a position of authority to seriously c ...

. He married Annette Christine Swire; they had three children, among them two sons, businessmen

Nigel Oakes Nigel John Oakes (born July 1962) is a British businessman, and the founder and CEO of Behavioural Dynamics Institute and SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories), the parent company of Cambridge Analytica and her sister Aggregat ...

and

Alexander Waddington Oakes Alexander Waddington Oakes (born November 1968) is a British businessman, and the co-founder and an executive of Behavioural Dynamics Institute and SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories), the parent company of Cambridge Analyt ...

, both of whom were involved with the controversial companies

SCL Group SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories) was a private British behavioural research and strategic communication company that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal involving its subsidiaries ...

and

Cambridge Analytica Cambridge Analytica Ltd (CA), previously known as SCL USA, was a British political consulting firm that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. It was started in 2013, as a subsidiary of the private intelli ...

.Growing evidence of JD(U), BJP links with Cambridge Analytica
/ref> He was also an

alpine skier Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel bindings, unlike other types of skiing ( cross-country, Telemark, or ski jumping), which use skis with free-heel bindings. Whether for ...

and competed in two events at the

1960 Winter Olympics The 1960 Winter Olympics (officially the VIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Squaw Valley 1960) were a winter multi-sport event held from February 18 to 28, 1960, at the Squaw Valley Resort (now known as Palisades Tahoe) in Squaw Vall ...

. Oakes died in May 2021, at the age of 88.

References

1932 births 2021 deaths Military personnel from Bury St Edmunds 20th-century British Army personnel Irish Guards officers High Sheriffs of Warwickshire British male alpine skiers Olympic alpine skiers for Great Britain Alpine skiers at the 1960 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Bury St Edmunds {{UK-army-bio-stub