Iain MacDonald Sproat (8 November 1938 – 29 September 2011) was a British

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

Member of Parliament (MP). He was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

and

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

. He worked as a publisher and journalist.

Parliamentary career

Sproat first contested

Rutherglen Rutherglen (; , ) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, immediately south-east of the city of Glasgow, from its centre and directly south of the River Clyde. Having previously existed as a separate Lanarkshire burgh, in 1975 Rutherglen lo ...

in a by-election in May 1964, and again in the general election later that year, but was unsuccessful in both campaigns. At the 1970 general election, he stood in the marginal

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

constituency of Aberdeen South, and ousted the sitting Labour MP,

Donald Dewar Donald Campbell Dewar (21 August 1937 – 11 October 2000) was a Scottish statesman and politician who served as the inaugural First Minister of Scotland, first minister of Scotland from 1999 until his death in 2000 and leader of the Labour Par ...

. He was re-elected there at three further elections, until the 1983 general election when he moved to contest Roxburgh and Berwickshire believing that this was a 'safer' seat. However, Aberdeen South was held by the Conservatives, while Roxburgh and Berwickshire fell to the Liberal candidate

Archy Kirkwood Archibald Johnstone Kirkwood, Baron Kirkwood of Kirkhope, (born 22 April 1946), is a British Liberal Democrat politician. Education Kirkwood was educated at Cranhill Secondary School in Cranhill, Glasgow, and studied pharmacy at Heriot-Watt ...

. Sproat returned to Parliament nine years later, moving to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and succeeding Sir Julian Ridsdale as MP for

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-o ...

in the 1992 general election. He served as parliamentary secretary and then

minister of state Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

in the

Department for National Heritage The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It holds the responsibility for culture and sport, and some aspects of the media throughout the UK, such as broadcasting. I ...

, where had responsibility for film, and then Minister for Sport in

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. Following his defeat to Ton ...

's government from 1993 to 1997, but at the 1997 general election he was defeated by the Labour candidate

Ivan Henderson Ivan John Henderson (born 7 June 1958) is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harwich from 1997 to 2005. He is currently a member of Essex County Council for Harwich. Early life Henderson ...

. Sproat stood again in Harwich at the 2001 election, but Henderson was returned with an increased majority. Sproat did not contest the 2005 general election; instead Douglas Carswell regained the seat for the Conservatives.

Outside Parliament

In 1979 he married Judith Mary Kernot, who survived him. A lifelong

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

fan, in 1980 he was founder publisher of the Cricketers' Who's Who (Green Umbrella) which celebrated its 43rd anniversary in 2022. A tireless campaigner to clear the name of his literary hero,

P.G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse ( ; 15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Je ...

, he secured Wodehouse's knighthood in 1975 and later wrote 'Wodehouse at War' (pub Milner & Co. Ltd. 1981) claiming the author's innocence regarding charges that he acted as a propagandist for Nazi Germany during World War II.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sproat, Iain 1938 births 2011 deaths People educated at St Mary's School, Melrose Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Aberdeen constituencies Scottish Conservative MPs People educated at Winchester College UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1992–1997