Matthew Evans, Baron Evans of Temple Guiting, (7 August 1941 – 6 July 2016) was a British Labour Party politician. Evans' father was the writer

George Ewart Evans George Ewart Evans (1 April 1909 – 11 January 1988) was a Welsh-born schoolteacher, writer and folklorist who became a dedicated collector of oral history and oral tradition in the East Anglian countryside from the 1940s to 1970s, and prod ...

Background and career

The son of George Ewart Evans and Florence Ellen Knappett, Matthew Evans was educated at

Friends' School, Saffron Walden Friends' School (known as Walden School from 2016–17) was a Quaker independent school located in Saffron Walden, Essex, situated approximately 12 miles south of the city of Cambridge, England. The school was co-educational and accommodated chil ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, and graduated from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics (B.Sc.Econ.)."Matthew Evans, Baron Evans of Temple Guiting"
''The Peerage'', p. 19124. He initially worked as a bookseller before at the age of 23 joining the publisher

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...

, where by the age of 30 he had risen to become the company's managing director (1971–73) and subsequently chairman. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in 1990. Evans also served as a governor of the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

and in 1999 was appointed the first chairman of the

Museums, Libraries and Archives Council The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) was until May 2012 a non-departmental public body and registered charity in England with a remit to promote improvement and innovation in the area of museums, libraries and archives. Its function ...

. In the

1998 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in suppleme ...

he was appointed as a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(CBE), and on 11 May 2000 was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

as Baron Evans of Temple Guiting, of

Temple Guiting Temple Guiting is a village and civil parish in the Cotswolds, in Gloucestershire, England. The civil parish includes the smaller settlements of Barton, Farmcote, Ford and Kineton. In 2011 the parish had a population of 463. The place was r ...

in the County of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. In the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

, he was a government whip from 2002 to 2007, and a spokesman for the Department for Constitutional Affairs from 2003. He has also served as a spokesman for the

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific duti ...

, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...

. He left the Government in October 2007 to join Swiss Bank EFG International.

Personal life

He married Elizabeth Mead in 1966 and after their divorce in 1991 was married to literary agent Caroline Michel, until 2010. He had two sons by his first wife, and two sons and a daughter by his second wife. Evans died on the morning of 6 July 2016 after a long illness.Mark Brown
"Publisher Matthew Evans, former Faber and Faber boss, dies aged 74 "
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 6 July 2016.

References

ThePeerage.com

External links

* Mary Riddell
"The New Statesman Interview - Matthew Evans"
''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'', 13 March 2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Matthew 1941 births 2016 deaths British book publishers (people) Evans of Temple Guiting, Matthew Evans, Baron Evans of Temple Guiting, Matthew Evans, Baron Evans of Temple Guiting, Matthew Evans, Baron Alumni of the London School of Economics Life peers created by Elizabeth II