Dennis Turner, Baron Bilston (26 August 1942 – 25 February 2014) was a British

Labour Co-operative Labour and Co-operative Party (often abbreviated to Labour Co-op; ) is a description used by candidates in United Kingdom elections who stand on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Co-operative Party. Candidates contest elections under an el ...

politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for

Wolverhampton South East Wolverhampton South East is a constituency in West Midlands that was created in 1974. The seat has been represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by Pat McFadden of the Labour Party since 2005. McFadden curre ...

from 1987 to 2005.

Early life

Turner was born in Bradley in the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...

and lived there his entire life. He was the son of Thomas Herbert Turner and Mary Elizabeth Peasley. He was educated at Stonefield

Secondary Modern School A secondary modern school () is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Secondary modern schools accommodated the majority (70–75%) of pupil ...

(now South Wolverhampton and Bilston Academy) on Prosser Street in Bilston and

Bilston Bilston is a market town in the City of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands County, West Midlands, England. It is in the Black Country, south east of Wolverhampton city centre and close to the borders of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough, Sandwell ...

College of Further Education (now part of

City of Wolverhampton College City of Wolverhampton College is a further education college located in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. History The college was formed in September 1999 as the result of a merger of Wulfrun College in Wolverhampton and Bilston Community ...

), worked as a

market trader A marketplace, market place, or just market, is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a ''souk'' (from ...

and steelworker, and later ran a

social club A social club or social organization may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation or activity with in an organizational association known as a Club (organization), club. Exampl ...

. He was a strong

trades union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

ist. He was one of the youngest-ever councillors on Wolverhampton Council from 1966, rising through the ranks to become deputy leader for seven years. He was Director of Springvale Co-operative Leisure Centre. He was on

West Midlands County Council West Midlands County Council (WMCC) was, from 1974 to 1986, the upper-tier administrative body for the West Midlands county, a metropolitan county in England. History The WMCC existed for a total of twelve years. It was established on 1 April 1 ...

from 1973–86.

Parliamentary career

Turner contested

Halesowen and Stourbridge Halesowen and Stourbridge was a parliamentary constituency in the West Midlands, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from February 1974 until it was abolished for the ...

in the February and October general elections in 1974. He was elected member of Parliament for

at the 1987 general election. He never held high office, serving as an opposition

whip A whip is a blunt weapon or implement used in a striking motion to create sound or pain. Whips can be used for flagellation against humans or animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain, or be used as an audible cue thro ...

then as Parliamentary Private Secretary to

Clare Short Clare Short (born 15 February 1946) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Development from 1997 to 2003. Short began her career as a civil servant. A member of the Labour Party until 2006, she was Member o ...

at the

Department for International Development The Department for International Development (DFID) was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom, from 1997 to 2020. It was responsible for administering foreign aid ...

. He also campaigned on issues of

Fairtrade A fair trade certification is a product certification within the market-based movement of fair trade. The most widely used fair trade certification is FLO International's, the International Fairtrade Certification Mark, used in Europe, Africa ...

and

further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is additional education to that received at secondary school that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. It ...

, and chaired the Commons Catering Committee. He chaired the Co-op Parliamentary Group for two years and the West Midlands group of Labour MPs. He once introduced a private member's bill seeking to make clear in law the correct amount of froth at the top of a pint of beer. Turner stepped down from Parliament at the 2005 general election; he announced his retirement at a very late stage, citing an impending lung operation on a collapsed diaphragm.

Pat McFadden Patrick Bosco McFadden (born 26 March 1965) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton South ...

was selected to replace him. On 13 May 2005 it was announced that he would be created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

, and on 20 June 2005 the title was created as Baron Bilston, of Bilston in the County of West Midlands. Turner later revealed that this choice of title was a mistake, and he had intended to take the title Baron Turner of Bilston.

Personal life

Lord Bilston was a Distinguished Supporter of the

British Humanist Association Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent non-religious people in the UK through a mixture of charitable servic ...

. He married Patricia Narroway in 1976 and had a son and a daughter. Lord Bilston died in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

on 25 February 2014, aged 71.

References

External links

They Work For You

Wolverhampton University Honorary Doctorate 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Dennis 1942 births 2014 deaths British humanists Councillors in the West Midlands (county) Councillors in Wolverhampton

Labour Co-operative MPs for English constituencies People from Bilston UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 Labour Party (UK) councillors Life peers created by Elizabeth II