Peter Fry

For the English amateur photographer, see Peter Wickens Fry. For the British historian and author, see Plantagenet Somerset Fry.

Sir Peter Fry
Member of Parliament
for Wellingborough
In office
4 December 1969 – 8 April 1997
Preceded byHarry Howarth
Succeeded byPaul Stinchcombe
Personal details
Born
Peter Derek Fry

(1931-05-26)26 May 1931
High Wycombe, England
Died12 May 2015(2015-05-12) (aged 83)
Political partyConservative (after 1953)
Other political
affiliations		Labour (until 1951)[1]
Liberal (1951–1953)[1]
Spouses
  • Edna Roberts
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1958; div. 1982)​
  • Helen Mitchell
    ​
    (m. 1982)​
Children2
Alma materWorcester College, Oxford

Sir Peter Derek Fry (26 May 1931 – 12 May 2015) was a British Conservative politician who was the Member of Parliament for Wellingborough from 1969 to 1997.

Background

Born in High Wycombe, Fry was educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, and Worcester College, Oxford.[2] He became an insurance broker and a director of the family retail clothing business.[2]

Political career

Fry was elected to the Buckinghamshire County Council in 1961.[2] He contested the safe Labour seats Nottingham North in 1964 and Willesden East in 1966.[2] He was elected a Member of Parliament at the 1969 Wellingborough by-election, and held the seat for nearly three decades.[2] He was knighted in 1994.[3]

Associated with the right wing of the Conservative Party, Fry was a Eurosceptic, who repeatedly voted against the government in 1992-1993 over its attempts to enshrine the Maastricht Treaty into UK law.[3][4]

Fry owned a public relations firm during his time as an MP. During his stint on the Transport Select Committee from 1979 to 1992, his company's clientele included bus manufacturers, leading to concerns of a conflict of interest.[2] He said that he always complied with the relevant rules in declaring his interests, and defended his PR work as a way to supplement his income.[3]

Fry represented the seat until 1997, when he lost to Labour's Paul Stinchcombe by a margin of 187 votes.[2] He subsequently became the Chairman of the Bingo Association, Chairman of the Federation of European Bingo Associations, and a trustee of the Responsibility in Gambling Trust.[3] He lived in Cranford, Northamptonshire in his later years, and chaired the parish council from 2007 to 2011.[2]

In 2012, Fry was interviewed as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.[5][6]

Personal life

In 1958, Fry married Edna Roberts; the couple had two children and were married until divorcing in 1982.[3] Later that year, he married Helen Mitchell, and they were married until his death on 12 May 2015, at the age of 83.[3][7]

References

  1. ^ a b Peter Fry MP on race, discrimination and Wellingborough / interviewed by Paul Crofts.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Roth, Andrew (17 May 2015). "Sir Peter Fry obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Sir Peter Fry, MP - obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 15 May 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
  4. ^ "Tory Maastricht rebels 'could muster 45 MPS'". www.independent.co.uk. 11 March 1993. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  5. ^ "Oral history: FRY, Peter (1931-2015)". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  6. ^ "Sir Peter Fry interviewed by Jessica Wilkins". British Library Sound Archive. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  7. ^ "Notice of death: Sir Peter Derek FRY". The Daily Telegraph. 15 May 2015. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.

Sources

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Wellingborough
1969–1997 		Succeeded by