Derek Anthony Enright (2 August 1935 – 31 October 1995) was a British Labour Party politician. He was a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

from 1979 to 1984, and the MP for

Hemsworth Hemsworth is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire and had a population of 13,311 at the 2001 census, ...

from 1991 until his death.

Early life

Born in

Thornaby-on-Tees Thornaby-on-Tees, commonly referred to as Thornaby, is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, north of York and south-east of Middlesbrough. On the south bank of the River Tees, Thornaby falls within th ...

, North Riding of Yorkshire, he attended St. Michael's College on St John's Road, Leeds (which has since merged with Mount St Mary's Catholic High School), then a grammar school. He was educated at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street, Oxford, Broad Street and Parks Road ...

, gaining a BA in Classics and a

DipEd The Diploma of Education, often abbreviated to DipEd or GradDipEd, is a postgraduate qualification offered in many Commonwealth countries including Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Overview The diploma can build on the ...

, and worked as a school teacher of classics at

The John Fisher School The John Fisher School is a Roman Catholic voluntary-aided boys' faith school based at Peaks Hill, near Purley, South London. The school is located in and funded by the London Borough of Sutton. It occupies the former site of the 19th-century ...

, a Roman Catholic grammar school in Purley, Surrey, from 1959 to 1967. He taught at St Wilfrid's Catholic High School in the 1970s, where he taught students to sing " Yellow Submarine" and "

Ten Green Bottles "Ten Green Bottles" is a popular children's repetitive song that consists of a single verse (music), verse of music that is repeated, with each verse decrementing by one the number of bottles on the wall. The first verse is: This pattern co ...

" in Latin.

Parliamentary career

He was elected as a Labour

(MEP) for

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

, staying until

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

. He was British Labour group spokesman on third world affairs and women's rights, and was later an EC delegate in

Guinea Bissau Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a country in West Africa that covers with an estimated population of 2,026,778. It borders Senegal to its north and Guinea to its southeast. Guinea-Bissau was once part of the kin ...

. He contested Kent East in the 1984 European election. He became Member of Parliament (MP) for Hemsworth, West Yorkshire at a 1991 by-election. A devout Catholic, he co-founded, in 1990, the cross-party Movement for Christian Democracy, portions of which later evolved into the

Christian Peoples Alliance The Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) is a minor Christian right political party in the United Kingdom. The party was founded in its present form in 1999, having grown out of a cross-party advocacy group called the Movement for Christian Democrac ...

. He was a strong supporter

European integration European integration is the process of political, legal, social, regional and economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about through the European Union ...

and the

Social Chapter European labour law regulates basic transnational standards of employment and partnership at work in the European Union and countries adhering to the European Convention on Human Rights. In setting regulatory floors to competition for job-creatin ...

. On 2 March 1993, during a debate on the Education Reform Bill, Enright mentioned that "To help my pupils discover what the optative and subjunctive are all about, I translated

Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

songs into Latin." Challenged by

Nicholas Fairbairn Sir Nicholas Hardwick Fairbairn, (24 December 1933 – 19 February 1995) was a Scottish politician and advocate. He was the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Kinross and Western Perthshire from October 1974 to 1983, and then for Pert ...

to sing a Beatles song in Latin, Enright immediately stood up and did so, singing " Yellow Submarine" in Latin. The Deputy Speaker,

Geoffrey Lofthouse Geoffrey Lofthouse, Baron Lofthouse of Pontefract, JP (18 December 1925 – 1 November 2012), popularly known in his former constituency as Geoff Lofthouse, was a British Labour politician, MP and life peer. Early life He was born in Feathe ...

, got him to curtail his performance by reminding Enright of the rules of the House: "Order. The hon. Gentleman has been a Member of the House long enough to know its rules full well."

Personal life

He married Jane Simmons in 1963, and they had two sons and two daughters. His son, Duncan Enright, stood against

Michael Heseltine Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, (; born 21 March 1933) is a British politician. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket Media Group in 1957. Heseltine se ...

in Henley at the 1997 general election, and against

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

Witney Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. History The Toponymy, place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest kno ...

at the 2015 general election. Duncan is a councillor in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

. Enright died from cancer in London on 31 October 1995, at the age of 60.

References

External links

Derek Enright singing Yellow Submarine in Latin in the House of Commons
(2 March 1993)
They Work For You

{{DEFAULTSORT:Enright, Derek 1935 births 1995 deaths Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Catholic socialists Deaths from cancer in England English Roman Catholics Labour Party (UK) MEPs Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies MEPs for England 1979–1984 People educated at Mount St Mary's Catholic High School, Leeds Politicians from Leeds Schoolteachers from Yorkshire UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997