Sir Eldon Wylie Griffiths (25 May 1925 – 3 June 2014) was a British

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politician and journalist.

Early life

Griffiths was born on 25 May 1925 in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington t ...

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. His

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father was a police sergeant. He attended Ashton Grammar School. Following the

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service in the

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he gained a double first class degree in history from Emmanuel College, Cambridge and an MA from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

.Eldon Griffiths Obituary in the Daily Telegraph
Retrieved 4 June 2014Eldon Griffith obituary in The Guardian
Retrieved 4 June 2014

Career

Journalism

After university Griffiths worked in the

Conservative Research Department The Conservative Research Department (CRD) is part of the central organisation of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. It operates alongside other departments of Conservative Campaign Headquarters in Westminster. The CRD has been descr ...

and became a journalist and farmer. He was managing editor of ''

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''.

Political career

He became the MP for Bury St Edmunds after a by-election in 1964, and represented the seat until he retired in 1992. His Telegraph obituary claimed he was "rangy, articulate, but dour, (Griffiths was) a political loner, and not over-popular on the Tory benches" However it listed many achievements as MP and in other spheres. He served as Minister for Sport during the

Edward Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...

government of 1970 to 1974. He also served as parliamentary spokesman for the Police Federation. In 1985, he was made a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are th ...

for "political service".

Academia

For a brief period while an MP, Griffiths worked as a professor at the University of California, a role in which

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

said led to him being called the member for Orange County.

Director appointments

Griffiths was a director of one of Gerald Carroll's

Carroll Group The Carroll Group was a family-owned group of businesses formed in the early twentieth century that expanded rapidly in the 1980s when it was taken over by Gerald Carroll, grandson of the founder. At that time it was one of the largest private bu ...

companies."SFO looks at 500m fall of Carroll empire", Dominic O'Connell, ''

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'', 1 October 2000, p. 1.

Personal life

In June 2013 he announced his third marriage, at the age of 88.
Bury Free Press He lived in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and Bury St Edmunds.

Honours

He was a Freeman of the borough of St Edmundsbury.

References

*''The Times Guide to the House of Commons'',

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, 1966 & 1987 *

External links

* 1925 births 2014 deaths People educated at Ashton-under-Lyne Grammar School Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Yale University alumni Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Government ministers of the United Kingdom Knights Bachelor UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Politicians awarded knighthoods {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1920s-stub