John Loveridge

Sir John Warren Loveridge (9 September 1925 – 13 November 2007) was a British Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) for 13 years, from 1970 to 1983. He was also the owner of a London secretarial college, a farmer in the West Country, and a published poet and an abstract sculptor.[1]

Sir John Loveridge
Member of the United Kingdom Parliament
for Hornchurch
In office
1970 – February 1974
Preceded byAlan Lee Williams
Succeeded byAlan Lee Williams
Majority5,830
Member of the United Kingdom Parliament
for Upminster
In office
February 1974 – 1983
Preceded byNew constituency
Succeeded byNicholas Bonsor
Personal details
Born(1925-09-09)9 September 1925
Bowdon, Cheshire, England
Died13 November 2007(2007-11-13) (aged 82)
London, England
Political partyConservative

Early life

Loveridge was born in Bowdon in Cheshire, the son of Claude W Loveridge and his wife, Emily (née Malone).[2] His father was a civil engineer and businessman who had been wounded at the Battle of the Somme, and his mother founded St Godric's College, a secretarial college in Hampstead, in 1921.[2][3] He was educated privately, and studied engineering at St John's College, Cambridge. After graduating, he worked in aviation, developing fighter aircraft from 1945 to 1947, but soon became the Vice-Principal of St Godric's College. He became Principal in 1954, retaining that position until the college closed in 1990.[4] Author John Fowles taught at the college for nearly 10 years.[5] Loveridge assisted a son, Michael, to founding Devonshire House Preparatory School,[6] Loveridge and his wife also ran Lyndhurst House Preparatory School,[7][8][9] both in Hampstead.[1]

Political career

Loveridge fought several elections for the Liberal Party, but joined the Conservative Party in 1949. He contested Aberavon in the 1951 general election, a Labour Party safe seat, and stood unsuccessfully for the London County Council in Brixton in 1952. He served as a Conservative member of Hampstead Borough Council from 1953 to 1959. He became a magistrate in London in 1963, but also acquired farming interests in the West Country. He bought the 1,800-acre (7.3 km2) Bindon Manor estate near Axmouth in Devon in 1962, and restored the house.[10]

He fought Hornchurch at the 1970 general election, winning back a seat that the Conservative Party had lost in 1966 with a majority of 5,830. After boundary changes in 1974, he fought the more marginal seat of Upminster, winning the two elections in February and October 1974 by 1,008 and then 694 votes respectively (meanwhile, Labour regained Hornchurch). He built a larger majority in later elections, and served on several influential backbench committees in the House of Commons. He retained the seat until he retired from parliament in 1983 to concentrate on his business interests.[6] He continued to work for local constituency and regional party committees, and was knighted in 1988. He was the founder of the Dinosaurs Club for former Conservative MPs, serving as its chairman and later president, and also a liveryman of the Girdlers' Company.[10]

After Parliament

He retired to his farm Devon, where his artistic side flourished in later years. He exhibited his contemporary sculptures and paintings in Devon, and held one-man exhibitions at the Royal British Society of Sculptors in 2000 and at Norwich Cathedral in 2001. He was also a published poet, with works including God Save the Queen: sonnets of Elizabeth I (1981), Hunter of the Moon (1983) and Hunter of the Sun (1984). He also published two books on sculpture, New Sculpture in Stone, Metal, Wood and Glass (2000) and To Seek Is To Find (2005),[10] and one on business matters.[6]

Family

He married Jean Chivers in 1954. They had three sons and two daughters. He died in London in 2007 aged 82.[6]

References
  1. Obituary in The Independent, 20 November 2007 Archived 21 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Obituary in The Guardian, 8 January 2008
  3. https://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/st-godrics-college-2
  4. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/01787326/officers
  5. https://books.google.com/books?id=HGVP1zjE1p4C&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=St.+Godric%27s+College,+Hampstead&hl=en
  6. Obituary in The Times, 21 November 2007
  7. https://books.google.com/books?id=eLVxPl9BeoYC&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=Lyndhurst+House&hl=en
  8. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol9/pp159-169
  9. https://www.lyndhursthouse.co.uk/
  10. Obituary in The Daily Telegraph, 29 November 2007
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Alan Lee Williams		 Member of Parliament for Hornchurch
1970–February 1974		 Succeeded by
Alan Lee Williams
New constituency Member of Parliament for Upminster
February 1974–1983		 Succeeded by
Sir Nicholas Bonsor
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