Graham Page

{{about||the Australian rules footballer|Graham Page (footballer)|the American automobile company|Graham-Paige}}

{{infobox officeholder

|honorific_prefix = Sir

|name = Graham Page

|honorific_suffix = MBE PC

|office = Minister of State for Housing and Local Government

|term_start = October 1970

|term_end = 28 February 1974

|primeminister = Edward Heath

|successor = John Silkin (Minister of State for Local Government and Planning)

|office1 = Minister of State for Local Government and Development

|primeminister1 = Edward Heath

|term_start1 = June 1970

|term_end1 = October 1970

|successor1 = Self (as Minister of State for Housing and Local Government)

|parliament2 = United Kingdom

|constituency_MP2 = Crosby

|term_start2 = 12 November 1953

|term_end2 = 1 October 1981

|predecessor2 = Malcolm Bullock

|successor2 = Shirley Williams

|birth_name = Rodney Graham Page

|birth_date = {{birth date|1911|6|30|df=yes}}

|birth_place = Hertford, England

|death_date = {{death date and age|1981|10|1|1911|6|30|df=yes}}

|death_place = London, England

|party = Conservative

|spouse = {{marriage|Hilda|1934}}

|children = 2

|profession = {{hlist|Solicitor|business director}}

|alma_mater = {{ubl|Magdalen College, Oxford|University of London (LL.B.)}}

|allegiance = United Kingdom

|unit = Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

|battles = World War II

}}

Sir Rodney Graham Page {{post-nominals|commas=on|country=GBR|size=small|PC|MBE}} (30 June 1911 – 1 October 1981) was a British solicitor, businessman and Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Crosby from 1953 until his death.

Background

Page was born in Hertford to Frank Page, a lieutenant colonel, and Margaret Page (née Farley).{{cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=Pyu6DkzTpXwXGMzzoUpbNw&scan=1|title=Index entry|accessdate=30 January 2023|work=FreeBMD|publisher=ONS}}{{cite news|title = Sir Graham Page|page = 18|date = 3 October 1981|newspaper = The Times}} He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and the University of London, where he received a bachelor of laws degree, and then became a solicitor. During World War II, he was a flight lieutenant within the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He was named an MBE in 1944. Page was a Privy Council appeal agent and a company and building society director.

Political career

Page was the unsuccessful Conservative candidate for Islington North in 1950 and 1951. He was elected an MP at a by-election in 1953, for Crosby.

As an MP, he chaired the Select committee on Statutory Instruments from 1964 to 1966. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1972. Page was the Minister of State for Local Government and Development from June to October 1970, and then became the Minister of State for Housing and Local Government in the Department of the Environment from then until the Conservative Government lost the February 1974 general election. He took a particular interest in government administration and played a significant part in the reorganisation of local government and water authorities in the early 1970s.{{citation needed|date = January 2023}} When he was re-elected for the second time in 1974, he had a majority of over 19,000 votes.

Page won his last general election victory at the 1979 general election, and was knighted the following year.{{cite news|title = Knights Bachelor|issue = 48059|page = 288|newspaper = The London Gazette|date = 7 January 1980}} He intended to stand down in the following general election, but he died in office before then.

With W. J. Leaper, Page wrote a book called Rent Act 1965 in 1966. He corresponded with Winston Churchill and Enoch Powell. He was a governor of St. Thomas's Hospital, London, and a treasurer of the Pedestrians' Association.

Personal life and death

Page married his wife, Hilda, in 1934, and they had two children. He died from a heart attack in London on 1 October 1981, at the age of 70. In the subsequent by-election for Crosby, the seat was won by former Labour minister Shirley Williams, who became the first person elected to Parliament as a member of the Social Democratic Party.{{cite book|title = SDP: The Birth, Life and Death of the Social Democratic Party|last1 = Crewe|first1 = Ivor|last2 = King|first2 = Anthony|authorlink1 = Ivor Crewe|authorlink2 = Anthony King (political scientist)|publisher = Oxford University Press|page = 144|isbn = 9780198293132|year = 1995}}