Sir Peter Fry | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament forWellingborough | |
| In office 4 December 1969 – 8 April 1997 | |
| Preceded by | Harry Howarth |
| Succeeded by | Paul Stinchcombe |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Peter Derek Fry (1931-05-26)26 May 1931 High Wycombe, England |
| Died | 12 May 2015(2015-05-12) (aged 83) |
| Party | Conservative (after 1953) |
| Other political affiliations | Labour (until 1951)[1] Liberal (1951–1953)[1] |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | Worcester College, Oxford |
Sir Peter Derek Fry (26 May 1931 – 12 May 2015) was a BritishConservative politician who was theMember of Parliament forWellingborough from a1969 by-election until1997.
Born inHigh Wycombe, Fry was educated at theRoyal Grammar School, High Wycombe, andWorcester College, Oxford.[2] He became an insurance broker and a director of the family retail clothing business.[2]
Fry was elected to theBuckinghamshireCounty Council in 1961.[2] He contested the safeLabour seatsNottingham North in 1964 andWillesden East in 1966.[2] He was elected aMember of Parliament at the 1969Wellingborough by-election, and held the seat for nearly three decades.[2] He was knighted in 1994.[3]
Associated with the right wing of the Conservative Party, Fry was aEurosceptic, who repeatedly voted against the government in 1992-1993 over its attempts to enshrine theMaastricht Treaty into UK law.[3][4]
Fry owned a public relations firm during his time as an MP. During his stint on theTransport Select Committee from 1979 to 1992, his company's clientele included bus manufacturers, leading to concerns of a conflict of interest.[2] He said that he always complied with the relevant rules in declaring his interests, and defended his PR work as a way to supplement his income.[3]
Fry represented the seat until 1997, when he lost toLabour'sPaul Stinchcombe by a margin of 187 votes.[2] He subsequently became the Chairman ofthe Bingo Association, Chairman of theFederation of European Bingo Associations, and a trustee of the Responsibility in Gambling Trust.[3] He lived inCranford, Northamptonshire in his later years, and chaired the parish council from 2007 to 2011.[2]
In 2012, Fry was interviewed as part ofThe History of Parliament's oral history project.[5][6]
In 1958, Fry married Edna Roberts; the couple had two children and were married until divorcing in 1982.[3] Later that year, he married Helen Mitchell, and they were married until his death on 12 May 2015, at the age of 83.[3][7]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forWellingborough 1969–1997 | Succeeded by |
