Peter Lewis Rost (born Otto Ludwig Peter Rosenstiel,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
,
19 September 1930 - 8 September 2022)
was a retired
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
who served as a
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 o ...
(MP) from 1970 to 1992, and was a member of the Energy Select Committee. He was one of the founders of the Anglo German Parliamentary Group, which promoted good relations with the
German Parliament
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...
. He instigated the annual conferences with German Parliamentarians, the first conference being held at his
Hertfordshire home.
Early life
Rost's parents, Friedrich Rosenstiel and Elisabeth Merz, were a
mixed marriage German Jew
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
and
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
living in Berlin during the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
era. Their marriage was annulled and they escaped to the United Kingdom in 1937 before the international border was closed to Jews.
Fred Rosenstiel was the economics editor of the ''
Frankfurter Zeitung'' in Berlin. He later left for
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, but the family was unable to follow him.
Rost was educated at various schools finishing in the VIth form at
Aylesbury Grammar School
Aylesbury Grammar School is a grammar school in Aylesbury situated in the English county of Buckinghamshire, which educates approximately 1300 students.
Founded in 1598 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire by Sir Henry Lee, Champion of Queen Elizabet ...
and at
Birmingham University
, 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 read geography.
Career
Before entering
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
, Rost was a
stockbroker, lecturer and financial journalist. He unsuccessfully contested the
safe Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
constituency of
Sunderland North at the
1966 general election, and at the
1970 general election he was elected as MP for the previously Labour-held seat of
South East Derbyshire. He held that seat until the constituency was abolished for the
1983 general election, when he was returned to 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 ...
for the new
Erewash.
Rost's main interest in Parliament was in energy. He was the longest-serving Member of the Energy Select Committee, where he was ahead of his time in his promotion of
renewable energy. He was an active member of the
Combined Heat and Power Association (CHPA), of which he became Vice-President. He constantly bemoaned the loss of heat up the cooling towers of the UK power stations, and actively promoted district heating schemes. In the 1970s, he warned of the use of gas for power production, as it was wasting the precious
North Sea assets. He retired from Parliament at the
1992 election.
Rost was a member of the
Conservative Monday Club
The Conservative Monday Club (usually known as the Monday Club) is a British political pressure group, aligned with the Conservative Party, though no longer endorsed by it. It also has links to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Unioni ...
and the
Bow Group
The Bow Group is a UK-based think tank promoting conservative opinion. Founded in 1951, it is the oldest group of its kind, counting many senior Conservative Party MPs and peers among its members. It represents a forum for political debate with i ...
; on the latter, he chaired the energy group. His autobiography, ''Weimar to Westminster'', was published in November 2010.
Personal life and death
In 1961, Rost married Hilary Mayo. He had two sons and two daughters.
Rost listed his recreations as tennis, ski-ing, gardening and antique map collecting. He lived in
Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...
, Hertfordshire, and also had a residence in
Montauroux in the French
Côte d'Azur. He died on 8 September 2022, aged 91.
In popular culture
Rost was portrayed by
Julian Firth
Julian Firth (born 8 January 1961) is an English actor, best known for his roles as troubled inmate Davis in the cinematic version of the film '' Scum'' and as Brother Jerome in the long-running television series '' Cadfael''.
Firth has enjoye ...
in the
2004 BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...