Patrick Barnabas Burke Mayhew, Baron Mayhew of Twysden, {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|PC|QC|DL|size=100%|sep=,}} (11 September 1929 – 25 June 2016) was a British barrister and politician.

Early life

Mayhew was born in Cookham, Berkshire, on 11 September 1929.{{cite ODNB|title = Mayhew, Patrick Barnabas Burke, Baron Mayhew of Twysden (1929–2016), politician|last = Shiels|first = David C.|date = 2020|doi = 10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.111353}} His father, George Mayhew, was a decorated army officer turned oil executive; his mother, Sheila Roche, descended from members of the Anglo-Irish Protestant ascendancy, was a relative of James Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy, an Irish National Federation MP for Kerry East. Through his father, Mayhew was descended from the Victorian social commentator Henry Mayhew. He was educated at Tonbridge School, an all boys public school in Tonbridge, Kent.{{harv |Bates|2016}}

He then served as an officer in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, studied law at Balliol College, Oxford, and was president of the Oxford University Conservative Association and of the Oxford Union.{{Cite news |date=29 May 1993 |title=Profile: The grandee with the smoking gun: Sir Patrick Mayhew MP, attorney-in-question |work=The Independent |publisher=ESI Media |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/profile-the-grandee-with-the-smoking-gun-sir-patrick-mayhew-mp-attorney-in-question-2316609.html |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |access-date=7 April 2020 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/profile-the-grandee-with-the-smoking-gun-sir-patrick-mayhew-mp-attorney-in-question-2316609.html |archive-date=25 May 2022}} He was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1955.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Mayhew, Patrick Barnabas Burke |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Irish Biography |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/mayhew-patrick-barnabas-burke-a10318 |last=Maume |first=Patrick |date=September 2023}}

Political career

Mayhew contested Dulwich in 1970, but the incumbent Labour member, Sam Silkin, beat him by 895 votes.{{fact|date=April 2020}} He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Tunbridge Wells constituency from its creation at the February 1974 general election, standing down at the 1997 election.{{Cite web |title=Sir Patrick Mayhew (Hansard) |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/sir-patrick-mayhew/index.html |access-date=2020-11-27 |website=api.parliament.uk}}

He was Under Secretary of Employment from 1979 to 1981, then Minister of State at the Home Office from 1981 to 1983.{{fact|date=April 2020}} After this, he served as Solicitor General for England and Wales from 1983 to 1987, and then Attorney General for England and Wales{{Cite journal |date=22 June 1987 |title=No. 50971 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/50971/page/7931 |journal=The London Gazette |pages=7931}} and simultaneously Attorney General for Northern Ireland{{Cite web |title=Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1973/36/section/10/1991-02-01}} from 1987 to 1992.

He was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1992 to 1997.

He was one of only five Ministers (Tony Newton, Kenneth Clarke, Malcolm Rifkind and Lynda Chalker are the others) to serve throughout the whole 18 years of the Governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major.{{fact|date=April 2020}} This represents the longest uninterrupted Ministerial service in Britain since Lord Palmerston in the early 19th century.{{fact|date=April 2020}}

Honours and awards

Mayhew was knighted in 1983.{{London Gazette|issue=49397|date=24 June 1983|page=8380}} On 12 June 1997, he was given a life peerage as Baron Mayhew of Twysden, of Kilndown in the County of Kent.{{London Gazette|issue=54809|date=17 June 1997|page=7011}} He retired from the House of Lords on 1 June 2015.{{Cite web |title=Lord Mayhew of Twysden |url=https://members.parliament.uk/member/914/career |access-date=7 April 2020 |publisher=UK Parliament}}

Personal life

In 1963, Mayhew married the Rev. Jean Gurney, and they had four sons. His son Jerome Mayhew is the Conservative MP for the constituency of Broadland and Fakenham (previously Broadland) in Norfolk since the 2019 general election.

Mayhew, a devout Anglican, was a churchwarden at Christ Church, Kilndown.

Mayhew suffered from cancer and Parkinson's disease in his later years.{{Cite news |date=25 June 2016 |title=Former NI Secretary Lord Mayhew dies, aged 86 |publisher=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36631449 |access-date=25 June 2016}} He died from cancer at his home on 25 June 2016, aged 86.

Arms

{{Infobox COA wide

|image = File:Coronet of a British Baron.svg File:Mayhew of Twysden Escutcheon.png

|escutcheon = Or an orle fracted and there conjoined to two chevronels couped Azure between three trefoils slipped Vert each enfiling a coronet Azure.

|crest = An eagle winds elevated and addorsed Argent beaked and legged Or the dexter foot plucking a harp also Or.

|supporters = Dexter a roach urinant argent finned Or sinister a gurnard urinant Argent finned Or.

|motto = Mon Dieu Est Ma Roche{{Cite book |title=Debrett's Peerage |date=2003 |page=1235}}}}

References

External links

{{Hansard-contribs|sir-patrick-mayhew|Patrick Mayhew}}
{{Cite news |date=25 June 2016 |title=Lawyer and huntsman who helped broker peace in Northern Ireland |work=Belfast Telegraph |publisher=Independent News & Media |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/lawyer-and-huntsman-who-helped-broker-peace-in-northern-ireland-34833503.html |access-date=7 April 2020}}
{{Cite news |date=25 June 2016 |title=Lord Mayhew of Twysden – obituary |work=The Telegraph |publisher=Telegraph Media Group |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/0/lord-mayhew-of-twysden--obituary/ |access-date=7 April 2020}}
{{Cite news |last=Bates |first=Stephen|date=26 June 2016 |title=Lord Mayhew of Twysden obituary |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/26/lord-mayhew-of-twysden-obituary |access-date=7 April 2020}}
{{Cite news |date=2 July 2016 |title=Patrick Mayhew: Northern Ireland secretary at a critical time in peace process |work=The Irish Times |url=http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/patrick-mayhew-northern-ireland-secretary-at-a-critical-time-in-peace-process-1.2707350 |access-date=7 April 2020}}
{{Cite news |date=27 June 2016 |title=Lord Mayhew of Twysden |work=The Times |publisher=Times Newspapers |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/lord-mayhew-of-twysden-df9lhfkd2 |access-date=7 April 2020}}
{{Cite web |title=Patrick Mayhew's funeral service |url=http://www.gkchurch.org.uk/?c=patrick-mayhews-funeral-service-433 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170304193045/http://www.gkchurch.org.uk/?c=patrick-mayhews-funeral-service-433 |archive-date=4 March 2017 |access-date=3 March 2017 |publisher=GK Church Goudhurst & Kilndown}}