Peter Fry
{{Short description|British politician}}
{{About||the English amateur photographer|Peter Wickens Fry|the British historian and author|Plantagenet Somerset Fry}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Sir Peter Fry
|image =
|office = Member of Parliament
for Wellingborough
|parliament =
|majority =
|term_start = 4 December 1969
|term_end = 8 April 1997
|predecessor = Harry Howarth
|successor = Paul Stinchcombe
|birthname = Peter Derek Fry
|birth_date = {{birth date|1931|05|26|df=yes}}
|birth_place = High Wycombe, England
|death_date = {{death date and age|2015|05|12|1931|5|26|df=y}}
|party = Conservative (after 1953)
|otherparty = Labour (until 1951)Peter Fry MP on race, discrimination and Wellingborough / interviewed by Paul Crofts.
Liberal (1951–1953)
|spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|Edna Roberts|1958|1982|end = divorced}}|{{marriage|Helen Mitchell|1982}}}}
|children = 2
|alma_mater = Worcester 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.{{cite news|url = https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/17/sir-peter-fry|title = Sir Peter Fry obituary|last = Roth|first = Andrew|date = 17 May 2015|accessdate = 17 November 2023|newspaper = The Guardian}} He became an insurance broker and a director of the family retail clothing business.
Political career
Fry was elected to the Buckinghamshire County Council in 1961. He contested the safe Labour seats Nottingham North in 1964 and Willesden East in 1966. He was elected a Member of Parliament at the 1969 Wellingborough by-election, and held the seat for nearly three decades. He was knighted in 1994.
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.{{cite news|url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11607984/Sir-Peter-Fry-MP-obituary.html|title = Sir Peter Fry, MP - obituary|newspaper = The Daily Telegraph|date = 15 May 2015|accessdate = 17 November 2023|url-access = subscription}}{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-maastricht-rebels-could-muster-45-mps-1496950.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-maastricht-rebels-could-muster-45-mps-1496950.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Tory Maastricht rebels 'could muster 45 MPS' |website=www.independent.co.uk |date= 11 March 1993|access-date=14 December 2021}}
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. 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.
Fry represented the seat until 1997, when he lost to Labour's Paul Stinchcombe by a margin of 187 votes. 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. He lived in Cranford, Northamptonshire in his later years, and chaired the parish council from 2007 to 2011.
In 2012, Fry was interviewed as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.{{cite web|title=Oral history: FRY, Peter (1931-2015)|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/oral-history/member/fry-peter-1931-2015|publisher=The History of Parliament|accessdate=14 July 2016}}{{cite web|title=Sir Peter Fry interviewed by Jessica Wilkins|url=http://cadensa.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=PLu8Q4iELa/WORKS-FILE/102590010/9|publisher=British Library Sound Archive|accessdate=14 July 2016}}
Personal life
In 1958, Fry married Edna Roberts; the couple had two children and were married until divorcing in 1982. Later that year, he married Helen Mitchell, and they were married until his death on 12 May 2015, at the age of 83.{{cite web|url = http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/190772/fry-sir-peter-derek|title = Notice of death: Sir Peter Derek FRY|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150518095320/http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/190772/fry-sir-peter-derek|date = 15 May 2015|archive-date = 18 May 2015|accessdate = 15 May 2015|website = The Daily Telegraph}}
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- Times Guide to the House of Commons, Times Newspapers Limited, 1997
External links
- {{Hansard-contribs | mr-peter-fry | Peter Fry }}
- [http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/oral-history/member/fry-peter-1931-2015 Peter Fry interview at History of Parliament Online]
{{S-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{Succession box
| title = Member of Parliament for Wellingborough
| before = Harry Howarth
| after = Paul Stinchcombe
}}
{{S-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fry, Peter}}
Category:Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford
Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Category:Councillors in Buckinghamshire
Category:English public relations people
Category:People educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe
Category:People from North Northamptonshire