Ian Cameron Bruce (born 14 March 1947) is a British Conservative party politician, who represented

South Dorset South Dorset is a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since 2024 by Lloyd Hatton, of th ...

in parliament from 1987 to 2001.

Life and career

He attended Chelmsford Technical High School and studied Electronics at the

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...

, then completed an HNC in Electronics at Mid-Essex Technical College. He was a student apprentice at Marconi in Chelmsford from 1965 to 1968, and for the next five years had work study roles at that company, Pye Unicam,

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK r ...

and BEPI (part of the Pye Group). From 1973 to 1975, he was a product manager at Sinclair. Having stood for the Labour seat of

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

, he was narrowly defeated by Labour candidate Peter Pike. He was elected as the Conservative Party Member of Parliament for

in 1987. In 1997 he won the seat with a slim majority of 77 votes, but was defeated at the 2001 general election by

Jim Knight James Philip Knight, Baron Knight of Weymouth, (born 6 March 1965) is a British politician who served as Minister for the South West and Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform from 2009 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party and ...

. In the

2004 European Parliament election The 2004 European Parliament election was held between 10 and 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom. The European Parliamental parties could not be voted for, but elect ...

, he was the fifth of six in the Conservative Party's list for the

Yorkshire and the Humber Yorkshire and the Humber is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It is one of the three regions covering Northern England, alongside the North West England and North East England regio ...

region, but was not elected. He married Hazel in 1969. They are both former local

councillors A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or regi ...

on Weymouth and Portland Borough Council and have had four children together.

References

External links

* 1947 births Living people Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Chelmsford UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 Alumni of the University of Bradford Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for South Dorset {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1940s-stub