Sir Kenneth Melville Carlisle (born 25 March 1941) is a politician in the

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. He was the

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for Lincoln from 1979 to 1997.

Early life

Born in Hiraethog,

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnew ...

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, he is the son of Kenneth Ralph Malcolm Peter Carlisle and Elizabeth Mary McLaren. His father was a Director then Chairman of Liebig Extract of Meat Company which owned the brands of Oxo and

Fray Bentos Fray Bentos () is the capital city of the Río Negro Department, in south-western Uruguay, at the Argentina-Uruguay border, near the Argentine city of Gualeguaychú. Its port on the Uruguay River is one of the nation's most important harbours. T ...

. The company was bought by

Brooke Bond Brooke Bond is a brand of tea owned by Ekaterra, formerly an independent tea-trading and manufacturing company in the United Kingdom, known for its PG Tips brand and its Brooke Bond tea cards. History Brooke Bond & Company was founded by ...

in 1970 and

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, ...

in 1984, and Kenneth Carlisle later worked at the company for eight years from 1966 to 1974. He was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent school Boarding school , religion = Church of ...

and

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 ...

, where he gained a BA in Law. He became a barrister at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wa ...

in 1965. In 1974, he took over running of an arable farm on his father's Wyken estate near Stanton in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowesto ...

Parliamentary career

Carlisle was elected as MP for Lincoln at the 1979 general election, becoming the first Conservative to win the seat in 50 years. ''The

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'' noted that his win was helped by the presence of a candidate for the Democratic Labour Party, which drew votes away from the incumbent Labour MP

Margaret Jackson Margaret Jackson, AC (born 17 March 1953) is an Australian corporate executive. Jackson was born in Warragul, Victoria, and studied at Warragul High School. She graduated with a Bachelor of Economics degree from Monash University and a Master o ...

. In the 1980s he substantially increased his majority, thanks in part to the addition of several middle-class suburbs to the north of Lincoln before the 1983 general election. He was a

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (or just Parliamentary Secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State) is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government, immediately junior to a Minister o ...

at the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

from October 1990 - March 1992 and the Minister for Roads and Traffic at the

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from May 1992 - May 1993. He is on the Council of the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (N ...

. He retired as an MP at the 1997 general election. His successor as Conservative candidate in Lincoln lost the seat to Labour's

Gillian Merron Gillian Joanna Merron, Baroness Merron (born 12 April 1959) is a British politician and life peer serving as Chief Executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews since 2014. A member of the Labour Party, she has been a shadow spokesperson ...

by over 11,000 votes. New boundaries introduced for the election contributed to this defeat, as it was projected that had Lincoln been fought on these boundaries in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, it would have had a Labour majority of about 1,000 (whereas Carlisle had won by just over 2,000 votes on the old boundaries).

Farming

His farm has a vineyard, shop and the Leaping Hare restaurant. The vineyard which has the

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...

grape produces about 14,000 bottles of wine a year. He is interested in conservation via the

Countryside Stewardship Scheme The Countryside Stewardship Scheme was originally an agri-environment scheme run by the United Kingdom Government set up in 1991. In its original form it expired in 2014. It was relaunched for the Rural Development Programme England (RDPE) 2014-202 ...

, notably that of the

grey partridge The grey partridge (''Perdix perdix''), also known as the gray-legged partridge, English partridge, Hungarian partridge, or hun, is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. The scientific name i ...

Personal life

He married Carla from

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Missis ...

in 1986. They have a son, Sam. From 1996 to 1998 and 2000–12, his wife wrote the weekly Spectator column for Country Life magazine.

Honours

* He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

in the 1994 Queen's Birthday Honours List "For political service". This allowed him to be called "

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

Kenneth Carlisle".

References

External links

Wyken Vineyards

Patron of Stanton Preschool
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carlisle, Kenneth 1941 births Living people People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 People from the Borough of St Edmundsbury Politics of Lincoln, England Knights Bachelor Politicians awarded knighthoods