John Parker | |
|---|---|
 Parker in 1978 | |
| Father of the House of Commons | |
| In office 3 May 1979 – 9 June 1983 | |
| Preceded by | George Strauss |
| Succeeded by | James Callaghan |
| Member of Parliament forDagenham | |
| In office 5 July 1945 – 13 May 1983 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Bryan Gould |
| Member of Parliament forRomford | |
| In office 14 November 1935 – 5 July 1945 | |
| Preceded by | William Hutchison |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Macpherson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Herbert John Harvey Parker (1906-07-15)15 July 1906 Bristol, England |
| Died | 24 November 1987(1987-11-24) (aged 81) London, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Oxford |
Herbert John Harvey Parker (15 July 1906 – 24 November 1987) was a BritishLabour Party politician. He was first elected as theMember of Parliament forRomford in November 1935. After boundary changes, he continued as MP forDagenham from 1945, remaining in the House of Commons until he retired in June 1983.[1][2] As the longest-serving MP, he was theFather of the House of Commons from 1979 to 1983. When he left parliament in 1983, he was the last serving Member of Parliament to have served in the Commons before theSecond World War.
With over 47 years in office, he was the longest-serving Labour MP in the party's history until 15 December 2017, when his record was overtaken byDennis Skinner.
Parker was born inBristol[3] and raised in Liverpool. He was educated atMarlborough College andSt John's College,Oxford, where he was Chair of theOxford University Labour Club.[1]
He married Zena Mimardiere in 1943; the couple had one son.[4]
He contested the seat ofHolland with Boston in Lincolnshire in the1931 general election, but the sittingNational Liberal MPJames Blindell was reelected.
In the1935 general election, Parker was elected as MP forRomford in Essex, which he represented until1945.[5] He was elected as MP forDagenham at the1945 general election, a new seat carved out of the Romford constituency.[5] (His Labour colleagueThomas Macpherson was elected in Romford in 1945, but lost the seat to the ConservativeJohn Lockwood in 1950).
Parker was briefly a junior minister from 1945 to 1946, serving asParliamentary Under-Secretary of State in theDominions Office, with futureprime ministerJames Callaghan as hisParliamentary Private Secretary (PPS). He lost this position as a result of the strong views he held regarding South Africa. He remained a backbencher afterwards, serving on several Parliamentary committees, including the Procedure Committee from 1966 to 1973.[4]
Hisprivate member's bill introduced in 1952 to repeal theSunday Observance Act 1780 was rejected; however, another private member's bill of his became theLegitimacy Act 1959, dealing with the legitimacy of children fromvoid marriages and that of children whose parents married after their birth.[5] He also shepherded aten-minute rule bill into law, the British Nationality (No 2) Act 1964, which implemented into British law the United NationsConvention on the Reduction of Statelessness.[4]
He remained MP for Dagenham until he retired at the1983 general election. He was the last serving MP to have been elected before theSecond World War, and he was theFather of the House of Commons from 1979 to 1983. His former PPS,James Callaghan, was the next MP to hold this honorary title.
Parker was associated with theFabian Society throughout his political career. He became General Secretary of the New Fabian Research Bureau in 1933 and was General Secretary of the Fabian Society from 1939 to 1945.[4] He was subsequently its Vice-Chairman and Chairman. He became President of the Fabian Society in 1980.[1]
He wrote several books, including42 Days in the Soviet Union (1946) andLabour Marches On (1947), and his memoirs,Father of the House (1982). His archive of papers, spanning nearly 40 years of public office from 1943 to 1982, are held by theLondon School of Economics as part of theBritish Library of Political and Economic Science.[4]
Parker died in London on 24 November 1987, at the age of 81.[5][6]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forRomford 1935–1945 | Succeeded by |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forDagenham 1945–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Father of the House 1979–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | General Secretary of theFabian Society 1939 – 1945 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of theFabian Society 1950 – 1953 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of theFabian Society 1980 – 1987 | Succeeded by |
