Marcus Fox

The Right Honourable Sir Marcus Fox MBE
Member of Parliament for Shipley
In office 18 June 1970 – 8 April 1997
Preceded by	Geoffrey Hirst
Succeeded by	Chris Leslie
Personal details
Born	(1927-06-11)11 June 1927 Batley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK
Died	16 March 2002(2002-03-16) (aged 74) Shipley, West Yorkshire, England, UK
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservatives
Spouse(s)	Ann Tindall

Sir John Marcus Fox MBE (11 June 1927 – 16 March 2002) was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley from 1970 to 1997. He was chairman of the 1922 Committee directly overseeing candidate selection for the Conservative Party in the 1979 General Election.

Early life[]

Fox had a twin sister with whom he attended dancing lessons. At those lessons, he met Betty Boothroyd, later the Speaker of the House of Commons.^[1] He attended Wheelwright Grammar School for Boys (now a campus of Kirklees College) in Dewsbury.

Fox served in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment as a Lieutenant, a detail which he was sometimes known to mention in after-dinner speeches. Fox left the Army and began his political career with his election to Dewsbury Council in 1956, remaining until 1963. He then became a bank clerk, a sales manager for Woolworths and for Terry's in York, and then a company director.^[2] He unsuccessfully contested Dewsbury in 1959 and Huddersfield West in 1966, eventually being elected in 1970.

Parliamentary career[]

After Fox's election to parliament as the MP for Shipley, he served as a whip under Edward Heath, and then was a junior minister under Margaret Thatcher. He was moved back to the back-benches in 1981, and started ascending the pole to become chairman of the 1922 committee - becoming vice-chairman in 1983 and chairman in 1994. He received an MBE in 1963, was knighted in 1986, and became a member of the Privy Council in 1996.^[3]

Fox lost his seat in the general election in 1997 to Chris Leslie, the Labour candidate. He then retired from politics to his Yorkshire home, where he remained until his death, aged 74.

Personal life[]

He married Ann Tindall in 1954; they had a son and a daughter.^{[citation needed]}

References[]

External links[]

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Marcus Fox