Daniel Alan Byles (born 24 June 1974) is a former British politician, who was the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for

North Warwickshire North Warwickshire is a local government district with borough status in the ceremonial county of Warwickshire, West Midlands, England. Outlying settlements in the borough include the two towns of Atherstone (where the council is based) and ...

from 2010 to 2015.

Background

Byles was born in

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

, East Sussex, but spent his early childhood as an

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

and

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

before returning to England at age nine to the Cotswold market town of

Chipping Norton Chipping Norton is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold Hills in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about south-west of Banbury and north-west of Oxford. The 2011 Census recorded the civil parish population as ...

. Helped by a government funded scholarship, the

Assisted Places Scheme The Assisted Places Scheme was established in the UK by the Conservative government in 1980. Children who were eligible were provided with free or subsidised places to fee-charging independent schools - based on the child's results in the school ...

, Byles attended

Warwick School Warwick School is a selective, independent day and boarding school in Warwick, England in the public school tradition. Known until about 1900 as King's School, Warwick, it is believed to have been founded by Æthelflæd of Mercia in 914 AD ...

. He attended the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

from 1993 to 1996, where he earned a 2.1 BA Joint Honours in Economics and Management Studies, becoming the first member of his family to attend university. In 2007 he was awarded an MA in creative writing from Nottingham Trent University.

Military career

Following university, Byles attended Commissioning Course 963 at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Initially commissioned into

The Light Infantry The Light Infantry was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Light Division. The regiment was one of four 'large' regiments formed after the 1966 Defence White Paper through the amalgamation of units of the Light Infantry Brig ...

Byles later accepted a Regular Commission with the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Medical Support Officer.

Adventures and expeditions

Atlantic rowing race 1997

In 1995 Byles and his mother

Janice Meek Janice "Jan" Meek FRGS (formerly Cooper and Byles, born 1944) is a British adventurer and ocean rower. In 1997 she took part in the first ever Atlantic Rowing Race, the Port St Charles Barbados Atlantic Rowing Race. Meek successfully crossed the ...

rowed from Tenerife to Barbados; it took 100 days, 18 hours and 57 minutes. In rowing across the Atlantic, the pair became the first mother and son team to row any ocean.

Charities and organisations

In October 2008, Byles became the main sponsor of the Bedworth United F.C. Youth Team, in order to support community youth projects involving sport. In December 2013, Byles was made a President of The

Young People's Trust for the Environment Young People's Trust for the Environment (YPTE) is a British charity founded in 1982, to encourage young people's understanding of the environment. The charity's main goal is to give young people a real awareness of environmental issues such as cli ...

. for his work in Parliament on environmental and energy issues.

Political career

In 2007, Byles stood as the Conservative Party candidate for Leicester City Council in Stoneygate ward. On 8 March 2007, Byles was selected as the Conservative Party's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the

constituency at the 2010 general election. He was selected at an

open primary Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...

. Byles was elected by 54 votes at the election on 6 May 2010 after defeating the incumbent MP Mike O'Brien, and served as

in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

until May 2015. He had the smallest majority of all Conservative Members of Parliament during the 2010–2015 Parliament. He gave his

maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...

in the Commons on Thursday 3 June 2010 when he spoke about

Nicholas Chamberlaine Nicholas Chamberlaine (1632 – 14 July 1715) was a priest in the Church of England who was known for his charitable donations. Biography Nicholas Chamberlaine was born in 1632 in Whitnash, south of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England. His fa ...

, the

Atherstone Ball Game The Atherstone Ball Game is a " medieval football" game played annually on Shrove Tuesday in the English town of Atherstone, Warwickshire. The game honours a match played between Leicestershire and Warwickshire in 1199, when teams used a bag of g ...

, and his intention to campaign for better rehabilitation and mental health care for military veterans and reservists. In July 2014 Byles announced that he would not stand at the next election as "it was time to pursue new challenges."

Guinness world records

In 2006 Byles and his mother

were belatedly awarded a Guinness World Record certificate for being the first mother and son team to row any ocean in 1997/8.

References

External links

Daniel Byles’ website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Byles, Daniel 1974 births Living people English explorers English male rowers Ocean rowers People educated at Warwick School Royal Army Medical Corps officers English mountain climbers Alumni of the University of Leeds Alumni of Nottingham Trent University UK MPs 2010–2015 Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst