Sir James Theodore Lester (23 May 1932 – 31 October 2021) was a British Conservative Party politician.

Parliamentary career

Born in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

in May 1932, Lester first stood for Parliament in a by-election at Bassetlaw in 1968, when he almost overturned a Labour majority of 10,428 votes, failing to beat Joe Ashton by just 740 votes. He contested the seat again at the 1970 general election, but Ashton stretched his advantage to 8,261 votes. He was member of parliament (MP) for Beeston between February 1974 and

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

, then for Broxtowe until the 1997 election, when he lost his seat to Labour. During his time in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

, he served as a party whip and a junior employment minister. Lester died on 31 October 2021, at the age of 89.

References

1932 births 2021 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Knights Bachelor Politicians from Nottingham UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1930s-stub