Terence Anthony Gordon Davis (born 5 January 1938), known as Terry Davis, is a British Labour Party politician, former

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 of ...

(MP) for the Birmingham Hodge Hill constituency, and former

Secretary General of the Council of Europe The Secretary General of the Council of Europe (french: Secrétaire général du Conseil de l'Europe, links=no) is appointed by the Parliamentary Assembly on the recommendation of the Committee of Ministers for a period of five years. The secreta ...

. He is a member of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

Early life

He went to the King Edward VI Grammar School (now the King Edward VI College) in

Stourbridge Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 20 ...

. Davis is a graduate of

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, where he gained an

LLB Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

degree in 1962, and

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Ross School of Business The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools i ...

, where he gained an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

degree in 1962. He was a company executive from 1962–71 for

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic p ...

Clarks shoes C. & J. Clark International Ltd, doing business as Clarks, is a British international shoe manufacturer and retailer. It was founded in 1825 by Cyrus Clark in the village of Street, Somerset, England, where the company's headquarters remain. ...

and Chrysler Parts. From 1974 to 1979, he was a manager in the motor industry, with Leyland Cars.

Parliamentary career

At the 1970 general election, Davis stood unsuccessfully in the

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 i ...

-held Bromsgrove constituency. The sitting MP, James Dance, died the following year, and Davis won the resulting

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

. The Bromsgrove constituency was abolished in boundary changes for the February 1974 general election, and in the new Bromsgrove and Redditch constituency, Davis lost to the Conservative

Hal Miller Sir Hilary Duppa Miller (6 March 1929 – 21 March 2015) was a British Conservative Party politician. Early life He was the son of Lieutenant-Commander Jack Duppa-Miller, GC, and Barbara Miller (née Barbara Buckmaster, daughter of the fir ...

. He stood again at the October 1974 general election and lost again. At the 1979 election, his wife Anne contested the seat for Labour and lost by a much larger margin. In 1977, Birmingham Stechford Labour MP,

Roy Jenkins Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead, (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lab ...

, was appointed

President of the European Commission The president of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU). The President of the Commission leads a Cabinet of Commissioners, referred to as the College, collectively account ...

, and Davis was selected as the Labour candidate in the

. He lost by 1,949 votes to the Conservative

Andrew MacKay Andrew James MacKay (born 27 August 1949) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Stechford from 1977 to 1979, East Berkshire from 1983 to 1997 and for Bracknell in Berkshire fro ...

, but at the 1979 general election, he won the seat with a majority of 1,649. The Stechford constituency was abolished in boundary changes for the 1983 general election, and Davis was re-elected in the successor constituency of

Birmingham Hodge Hill Birmingham Hodge Hill is a United Kingdom constituencies, constituency of part of the city of Birmingham represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons since 2004 by Liam Byrne, a member of the Labour Party (UK), Lab ...

. He held that seat until his retirement from 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. ...

21 years later. In 2004 he was elected Secretary General of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

, and announced his intention to stand down from the UK parliament by applying for the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds. The resulting by-election was held on 15 July and won by Labour's

Liam Byrne Liam Dominic Byrne (born 2 October 1970) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Hodge Hill since 2004. A member of the Labour Party, he served in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Cabinet from 2008 to 20 ...

. He left the Council of Europe on 31 August 2009. He was appointed

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

(CMG) in the 2010 New Year Honours. Wikileaks "cablegate" revelations disclosed that the US, unhappy about his criticisms of the US's rendition program, regarded him as an "unpopular lame duck".

Personal life

He married Anne Cooper in 1963. They have a son and daughter.

References

External links

Council of Europe: curriculum vitæ for Terry Davis
*
The Council of Europe and International Norms in Comparative Perspective
Podcast of speech by Terry Davis for the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, Oxford {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Terry 1938 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Alumni of University College London UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 Council of Europe Secretaries-General People from Stourbridge Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George People educated at King Edward VI College, Stourbridge Ross School of Business alumni