Sir Rupert Malise Speir (10 September 1910 – 16 September 1998) was a British Conservative Party politician. He was born at East Saltoun in

East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, and educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

, where he was chairman of the

Cambridge University Conservative Association The Cambridge University Conservative Association, or CUCA, is a student political society founded 1921, as a Conservative Association for students at Cambridge University, although it has earlier roots in the late nineteenth century. CUCA is n ...

. He became a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

, and in 1939 he joined the

army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

, where he served in the Intelligence Corps throughout the Second World War. At the 1945 general election, he stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate in the safe Labour seat of

Linlithgowshire West Lothian, also known as Linlithgowshire (its official name until 1925), is a counties of Scotland, historic county in the east central Lowlands of Scotland. until 1925. It is bounded geographically by the River Avon, Falkirk, Avon to the wes ...

in Scotland, winning 36% of the votes. He was unsuccessful again at the 1950 general election. At the 1951 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden nearby, and close to Hadrian's Wall. Hexham was the administra ...

, and held the seat until he retired at the 1966 general election. Three

private members bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in whi ...

s sponsored by Speir were passed into law: the Litter Act 1958, the Noise Abatement Act 1960 and the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act 1963.

References

*Obituary, ''The Independent'', 24 September 1998 by Patrick Cosgrave *

External links

* 1910 births 1998 deaths English solicitors Intelligence Corps officers People educated at Eton College Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Speakers of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 Knights Bachelor British Army personnel of World War II People from East Lothian People educated at West Downs School 20th-century English lawyers {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1910s-stub