Rodney Leach, Baron Leach of Fairford
The Lord Leach of Fairford | |
---|---|
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
In office 6 June 2006 – 12 June 2016 Life Peerage | |
Personal details | |
Born | 1 June 1934 |
Died | 12 June 2016 (aged 82) |
Political party | Conservative |
Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
(Charles Guy) Rodney Leach, Baron Leach of Fairford (1 June 1934 – 12 June 2016) was a British businessman and a Conservative member of the House of Lords.
Early life[]
The son of Charles Harold Leach and Nora Eunice Ashworth, Leach was educated at Harrow School and Balliol College, Oxford.[1]
Business and political career[]
Leach was Deputy Chairman of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Plc,[2] a director of Rothschild Continuation AG and of various listed Jardine Matheson Group companies.[1]
He was created a life peer on 6 June 2006 taking the title Baron Leach of Fairford, of Fairford in the County of Gloucestershire.[3]
In 1998, at a time when the prime minister Tony Blair was positioning the United Kingdom to join the Eurozone, with the full-hearted support of the CBI and many members of the business establishment, Leach founded Business for Sterling to co-ordinate the case against this. The lobby group gradually recruited a thousand chairmen and chief executives to its cause and gathered momentum around the country until the pro-euro side largely faded away.[1] But when asked whether he had personally saved Britain from a dangerous fate, Leach was self-effacing: “If there was credit it should be spread very, very broadly. I was just the chairman.”
From 2005, Leach served as chairman of Open Europe,[4] an influential think-tank [5][6] based in London and Brussels and with a partner organisation in Berlin.[7] calling for fundamental reform of the European Union.[8] He spoke in the House of Lords against what he called 'alarmism' over climate change.[9]
Leach was the chairman of the No2AV campaign, which opposed a change in the British electoral system away from first-past-the-post voting during the 2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum.[1][10]
Personal life[]
Leach was married twice. His first marriage was to Felicity Ballantyne in 1963, with the couple divorcing in 1989. His second marriage was to Jessica Violet Gwynne in 1993.[1]
Leach had two sons and three daughters from his first marriage.[1]
Styles[]
- Mr Rodney Leach (1934–2006)
- The Rt. Hon. The Lord Leach of Fairford (2006–2016)
References[]
- ^ a b c d e f "Lord Leach of Fairford – obituary". The Telegraph. 13 June 2016.
- ^ "Person Page - 19834". Darryl Lundy. ThePeerage.com. 24 June 2008. Retrieved 24 June 2008.
- ^ "No. 58006". The London Gazette. 9 June 2006. p. 7933.
- ^ Open Europe, About us, Board Open Europe
- ^ "Open Europe - Forex Trading Guides, Tips and Reviews".
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Open Europe - Forex Trading Guides, Tips and Reviews".
- ^ The Lords Hansard, 13 May 2009 : Column 1056 and following - The Climate Change Act 2008 (2020 Target, Credit Limit and Definitions) Order 2009 - Hansard
- ^ "Lord Leach mounts the case for No2AV".
External links[]
- 1934 births
- 2016 deaths
- Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
- People educated at Harrow School
- Conservative Party (UK) life peers
- People from Fairford
- N M Rothschild & Sons people