Sir Anthony Stuart Garner (28 January 1927 – 22 March 2015) was a political organiser for the British Conservative Party.

Early life

Anthony Garner was born on 28 February 1927 in

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

, England.Sir Anthony Garner
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The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'', 14 April 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2015.Sir Anthony Garner, political organiser - obituary
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The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', 14 April 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2015. He was educated at

Liverpool College Liverpool College is a school in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, England. It was one of the thirteen founding members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, Headmasters' Conference (HMC). History Liverpool College was the first of man ...

Career

Garner first worked for the Conservative Party as an organiser for the Young Conservatives in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

in 1948. He revived the membership by organising fundraising weekends at Filey Holiday Camp. By 1951, he became a Conservative Party agent in Halifax, West Yorkshire. He worked on the campaigns of Prime Ministers

Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Caricatured as " Supermac", ...

in 1959 and Sir

Alec Douglas-Home Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel (; 2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995), styled as Lord Dunglass between 1918 and 1951 and being The 14th Earl of Home from 1951 till 1963, was a British Conservative politician who se ...

in 1964. Later, he worked as an agent for London at the

Conservative Central Office The Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ), formerly known as Conservative Central Office (CCO), is the headquarters of the British Conservative Party, housing its central staff and committee members, including campaign coordinators and ma ...

. He served as the Director of Organisation from 1976 to 1988.Anthony Seldon, Stuart Ball, ''Conservative century: the Conservative Party since 1900'', Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 18

/ref> In this capacity, he was instrumental in putting the local organisation in place that ensured that

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

won the elections of 1979, 1983 and 1987. He escaped unscathed from the

Brighton hotel bombing A Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) assassination attempt against members of the British government took place on 12 October 1984 at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, East Sussex, England, United Kingdom. A long-delay time bomb was plant ...

. He served as the Director of Campaigning from 1992 to 1998. He was a co-founder of Conservatives Abroad. He later worked as a lobbyist, co-founder and Chairman of the

British-Iranian Chamber of Commerce Iranians in the United Kingdom consist of people of Iranian nationality who have settled in the United Kingdom, as well as British residents and citizens of Iranian heritage. Iranians in the United Kingdom are referred to by hyphenated terms s ...

. He also served on the Boards of Directors of the Carroll Anglo-American group, the

Carroll Aircraft Corporation The Carroll Group was a family-owned group of businesses formed in the early twentieth century that expanded rapidly in the 1980s when it was taken over by Gerald Carroll, grandson of the founder. At that time it was one of the largest private bu ...

and the

Farnborough Aerospace Development Corporation The Carroll Group was a family-owned group of businesses formed in the early twentieth century that expanded rapidly in the 1980s when it was taken over by Gerald Carroll, grandson of the founder. At that time it was one of the largest private b ...

. He served as a Governor of his alma mater, Liverpool College, and as President of the Old Lerpoolian Association. He received a knighthood in 1984.

Personal life

He married Shirley Taylor in 1967 They had two sons, Christopher and David

Death

He died on 22 March 2015. He was eighty-eight years old.

References

1927 births 2015 deaths Politicians from Liverpool People educated at Liverpool College Knights Bachelor Conservative Party (UK) people Grenadier Guards officers {{England-politician-stub