Patrick Mayhew
Patrick Barnabas Burke Mayhew, Baron Mayhew of Twysden, PC, QC, DL (11 September 1929 – 25 June 2016) was a British barrister and politician.
Early life
[edit]Patrick’s father, George Mayhew, was a decorated army officer turned oil executive; his mother, Sheila Roche, descended from members of the Anglo-Irish Protestant ascendancy, was a relative of James Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy, an Irish National Federation MP for Kerry East. Through his father, Mayhew was descended from the Victorian social commentator Henry Mayhew. He was educated at Tonbridge School, an all boys public school in Tonbridge, Kent.[1][2]
He then served as an officer in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, studied law at Balliol College, Oxford, and was president of the Oxford University Conservative Association and of the Oxford Union.[3] He was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1955.[2]
Political career
[edit]Mayhew contested Dulwich in 1970,[2] but the incumbent Labour member, Sam Silkin, beat him by 895 votes.[citation needed] He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Tunbridge Wells constituency from its creation at the February 1974 general election, standing down at the 1997 election.[4]
He was Under Secretary of Employment from 1979 to 1981, then Minister of State at the Home Office from 1981 to 1983.[citation needed] After this, he served as Solicitor General for England and Wales from 1983 to 1987,[5] and then Attorney General for England and Wales[6] and simultaneously Attorney General for Northern Ireland[7] from 1987 to 1992.
He was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1992 to 1997, the longest anyone has served in this office.[citation needed]
He was one of only five Ministers (Tony Newton, Kenneth Clarke, Malcolm Rifkind and Lynda Chalker are the others) to serve throughout the whole 18 years of the Governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major.[citation needed] This represents the longest uninterrupted Ministerial service in Britain since Lord Palmerston in the early 19th century.[citation needed]
Honours and awards
[edit]Mayhew was knighted in 1983.[5] On 12 June 1997, he was given a life peerage as Baron Mayhew of Twysden, of Kilndown in the County of Kent.[8] He retired from the House of Lords on 1 June 2015.[9]
Personal life
[edit]In 1963, Mayhew married the Rev. Jean Gurney, and they had four sons.[3] Mayhew's son the Hon Henry Mayhew appeared in the fourth episode of the series The Secret History Of Our Streets, discussing life in Portland Road, Notting Hill, London.[citation needed] Another son, Tristram, co-founded the outdoor adventure company Go Ape.[10]
His son Jerome Mayhew is the Conservative MP for the constituency of Broadland and Fakenham (previously Broadland) in Norfolk since the 2019 general election.
Mayhew suffered from cancer and Parkinson's disease in his later years.[11] He died on 25 June 2016, aged 86, in his home in Kent.[11]
Arms
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References
[edit]- ^ (Bates 2016)
- ^ a b c Maume, Patrick (September 2023). "Mayhew, Patrick Barnabas Burke". Dictionary of Irish Biography.
- ^ a b "Profile: The grandee with the smoking gun: Sir Patrick Mayhew MP, attorney-in-question". The Independent. ESI Media. 29 May 1993. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- ^ "Sir Patrick Mayhew (Hansard)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
- ^ a b "No. 49397". The London Gazette. 24 June 1983. p. 8380.
- ^ "No. 50971". The London Gazette: 7931. 22 June 1987.
- ^ "Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973".
- ^ "No. 54809". The London Gazette. 17 June 1997. p. 7011.
- ^ "Lord Mayhew of Twysden". UK Parliament. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- ^ "BBC - Scotland Outdoors Articles - Go Ape". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 10 August 2024.
- ^ a b "Former NI Secretary Lord Mayhew dies, aged 86". BBC News. 25 June 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
- ^ Debrett's Peerage. 2003. p. 1235.
External links
[edit]- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Patrick Mayhew
- "Lawyer and huntsman who helped broker peace in Northern Ireland". Belfast Telegraph. Independent News & Media. 25 June 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- "Lord Mayhew of Twysden – obituary". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. 25 June 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- Bates, Stephen (26 June 2016). "Lord Mayhew of Twysden obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- "Patrick Mayhew: Northern Ireland secretary at a critical time in peace process". The Irish Times. 2 July 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- "Lord Mayhew of Twysden". The Times. Times Newspapers. 27 June 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- "Patrick Mayhew's funeral service". GK Church Goudhurst & Kilndown. Archived from the original on 4 March 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- 1929 births
- 2016 deaths
- Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
- Attorneys general for England and Wales
- Attorneys general for Northern Ireland
- British barristers
- British King's Counsel
- Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
- Conservative Party (UK) life peers
- Deputy lieutenants of Kent
- Knights Bachelor
- Members of the Middle Temple
- Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
- People educated at Tonbridge School
- People of The Troubles (Northern Ireland)
- Politics of the Borough of Tunbridge Wells
- 20th-century King's Counsel
- Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland
- Solicitors general for England and Wales
- UK MPs 1974
- UK MPs 1974–1979
- UK MPs 1979–1983
- UK MPs 1983–1987
- UK MPs 1987–1992
- UK MPs 1992–1997
- Presidents of the Oxford Union
- Presidents of the Oxford University Conservative Association
- Mayhew family
- Life peers created by Elizabeth II
- Peers retired under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014