The Right Honourable
The Lord Mawhinney
PC
Shadow Home Secretary
In office
11 June 1997 – 11 April 1998
LeaderWilliam Hague
Preceded byMichael Howard
Succeeded byNorman Fowler
Chairman of the Conservative Party
In office
5 July 1995 – 11 June 1997
LeaderJohn Major
Preceded byJeremy Hanley
Succeeded byCecil Parkinson
Ministerial offices 1992‍–‍1997
Minister without Portfolio
In office
5 July 1995 – 2 May 1997
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byJeremy Hanley
Succeeded byPeter Mandelson
Secretary of State for Transport
In office
20 July 1994 – 5 July 1995
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byJohn MacGregor
Succeeded byGeorge Young
Minister of State for Health
In office
14 April 1992 – 20 July 1994
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byVirginia Bottomley
Succeeded byGerry Malone
Parliamentary offices 1979‍–‍2019
Member of the House of Lords
Life peerage
24 June 2005 – 9 November 2019[nb]
Member of Parliament
for North West Cambridgeshire
In office
1 May 1997 – 11 April 2005
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byShailesh Vara
Member of Parliament
for Peterborough
In office
3 May 1979 – 8 April 1997
Preceded byMichael Ward
Succeeded byHelen Clark
Personal details
Born
Brian Stanley Mawhinney

(1940-07-26)26 July 1940
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Died9 November 2019(2019-11-09) (aged 79)
Polebrook, Northamptonshire, England
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouse
Betty Oja
​
(m. 1964)​
Children3
EducationRoyal Belfast Academical Institution
Alma mater
AwardsKnight Bachelor (1997)
n.b. ^ Leave of absence from 9 October 2017

Brian Stanley Mawhinney, Baron Mawhinney, PC (26 July 1940 – 9 November 2019) was a British Conservative politician. He was a member of the Cabinet from 1994 to 1997 and a member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 2005.

Early life

Mawhinney was born on 26 July 1940[1] in Belfast, son of Frederick Stanley Arnot Mawhinney and Coralie Anita Jean (née Wilkinson).[2][3] His family was heavily involved with an Open Brethren church.[4] He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution,[5] and studied physics at Queen's University Belfast,[5] gaining an upper second class degree in 1963.[4]

He then began studying for a doctorate from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London. In 1963, he briefly moved to the United States for his education, settling in Ann Arbor, Michigan but travelling throughout the country, engaging with politics and becoming more involved with Christian evangelism, participating in missions led by Billy Graham.[4] It was also during this time that he met his wife, Betty Oja, whom he married in 1964.[4] He obtained his PhD in 1969, with thesis title Studies on the effects of radiation on mammalian bone grown in vitro.[5] He worked as assistant professor of radiation research at the University of Iowa from 1968 to 1970 and then returned to the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine as a lecturer from 1970 to 1984.[5]

Political career

Mawhinney joined the Conservative Party shortly after his return to England.[4] He contested Stockton-on-Tees in October 1974 but lost to Labour incumbent, Bill Rodgers.[4] He was elected Member of Parliament for Peterborough in the 1979 election, serving until 1997.[4] He was then MP for North West Cambridgeshire from 1997 to 2005.[6]

Mawhinney was a social conservative who opposed abortion and Sunday trading.[7] He also campaigned prolifically against pornography: he introduced a private member's bill in 1979 to ban indecent images and posters outside cinemas, sex shops and strips clubs, and in early 1980, he called for Keith Joseph to launch an inquiry into a page on the Post Office's Prestel viewdata service, called "A Buyer's Guide to Dirty Books".[8]

In Government

He was PPS to John Wakeham from 1982 to 1983, and PPS to Tom King from 1984 to 1986.[5] He became a junior minister at the Northern Ireland Office in 1986,[1] and then became Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office in 1990.[5] In 1992, he became Minister of State at the Department of Health until 1994.[4]

Cabinet

Having been sworn of the Privy Council in the 1994 New Year Honours,[9] he entered the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Transport that year.[5] He served as Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio for two years from 1995 until the 1997 election.[1] He was knighted in the 1997 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours.[10]

In Opposition

He served as Shadow Home Secretary and spokesman for home, constitutional and legal affairs for a year under William Hague before returning to the back benches in June 1998.[1] He stepped down from the House of Commons in April 2005.[11][12]

House of Lords

On 13 May 2005 it was announced that he would be created a life peer in the 2005 Dissolution Honours,[13][14] and on 24 June he was created Baron Mawhinney, of Peterborough, in the County of Cambridgeshire.[15]

Lord Mawhinney questioned the priority David Cameron had given to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, stating that it was a distraction.[16]

He took leave of absence from the House of Lords in October 2017 for health reasons.[4][17]

Outside politics

In 2003, he was appointed chairman of The Football League,[18] and in 2004 oversaw a re-organisation of the league structure, renaming the former Division One as the Football League Championship. Deeply religious, Mawhinney was a leading member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship as well as a member of the Church of England General Synod for five years.[1] He was also president of Christians in Sport.[19] Mawhinney was also a patron of Peterborough United until his death in November 2019.

Personal life and death

In 1964, Mawhinney married Betty Oja, an American citizen whom he met during his time in Michigan; the couple had three children.[4] He listed Anglo-American relations among his interests.[20] He wrote two autobiographies: In the Firing Line (1999) and Just a Simple Belfast Boy (2013).[7]

Mawhinney lived in Keyston, Cambridgeshire in his later years. He died at a nursing home in nearby Polebrook, Northamptonshire, on 9 November 2019, aged 79.[4]

Arms

Coat of arms of Brian Mawhinney
Crest
A wolverine rampant Azure supporting with the sinister forefoot a portcullis Or at the foot thereof a football Sable and Argent.
Escutcheon
Azure two keys in saltire wards downwards Or between three open books Argent each charged with an icthus Azure.[21]
Supporters
Dexter an American bald eagle Proper beaked and legged Or sinister a sea horse Argent the piscine parts Or.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Sir Brian Mawhinney". BBC News. 18 October 2002. Retrieved 23 April 2008.
  2. ↑ "Mawhinney". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ↑ Introducing Ireland: a serious visitor's guide with biographies of over 700 leaders, George Eaton, Mercier Press, 1992, p. 57
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Shiels, David C. (2023). "Mawhinney, Brian Stanley, Baron Mawhinney (1940–2019), politician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000380903. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Mawhinney, Brian". London, UK: Guardian Media Group. Archived from the original on 14 November 2005. Retrieved 23 April 2008.
  6. ↑ "…with 27 new working peers…". Telegraph Media Group. London, UK. 14 May 2005. Retrieved 23 April 2008.
  7. 1 2 Kavanagh, Dennis (10 November 2019). "Lord Mawhinney obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  8. ↑ InfoWorld, 28 April 1980.
  9. ↑ "No. 53527". The London Gazette. 30 December 1993. p. 1.
  10. ↑ "No. 55229". The London Gazette. 16 August 1998. p. 8994.
  11. ↑ "Mawhinney to leave Parliament". BBC News. 30 September 2003. Retrieved 21 December 2007.
  12. ↑ "End of Commons road for four MPs". BBC News. 10 April 2005. Retrieved 4 August 2007.
  13. ↑ "No. 57639". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 May 2005. p. 6346.
  14. ↑ "Full list of new life peers". BBC News. 13 May 2005. Retrieved 4 August 2007.
  15. ↑ "No. 57688". The London Gazette. 29 June 2005. p. 8439.
  16. ↑ David Cameron under renewed pressure from Tory grassroots over gay marriage, standard.co.uk, 2 June 2013.
  17. ↑ "Ineligible members of the House of Lords". UK Parliament. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  18. ↑ "Mawhinney handed top post". BBC Sport. 19 December 2002. Retrieved 4 August 2007.
  19. ↑ "PRESS RELEASE: Lord Mawhinney appointed as President of Christians in Sport". Archived from the original on 21 September 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  20. ↑ Castle, Stephen (31 July 1994). "Profile: No nonsense for the Cabinet's new boy: Brian Mawhinney: The transport boss may have a twinkle in his eye, writes Stephen Castle, but he won't take flannel from civil servants". The Independent. London, UK.
  21. ↑ Debrett's Peerage. 2015. p. 833.
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