John Bruce-Gardyne, Baron Bruce-Gardyne (12 April 1930 – 15 April 1990), was a British Conservative Party politician. Son of Captain Evan Bruce-Gardyne, DSO, RN, 13th Laird of Middleton, and a member of a Scottish landholding family who have been based in the county of

Angus Angus may refer to: *Angus, Scotland, a council area of Scotland, and formerly a province, sheriffdom, county and district of Scotland * Angus, Canada, a community in Essa, Ontario Animals * Angus cattle, various breeds of beef cattle Media * ...

since at least 1008 AD, he was born in

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, southwest of central London. It grew up around Chertsey Abbey, founded in AD 666 by Earconwald, St Erkenwald, and gained a municipal charter, market charter from Henry I of Engla ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. Bruce-Gardyne was educated at Twyford School,

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 ...

, and then served for six years in Foreign Service before becoming a journalist. He was a council member of the Bow Group. At the 1964 general election, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for South Angus where the family seats of Gardyne Castle, Finavon Castle and Middleton all stood. He held the seat until the October 1974 general election, when he lost to Andrew Welsh of the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

. Bruce-Gardyne was later elected as the MP for

Knutsford Knutsford () is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire East district, in Cheshire, England; it is located south-west of Manchester, north-west of Macclesfield and south-east of Warrington. The population of the parish at the 2021 Uni ...

at a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

in 1979, but was effectively forced out of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

when the seat was abolished by boundary changes for the 1983 general election. He was a

monetarist Monetarism is a school of thought in monetary economics that emphasizes the role of policy-makers in controlling the amount of money in circulation. It gained prominence in the 1970s, but was mostly abandoned as a direct guidance to monetary ...

and was opposed to the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

and was an independent-minded MP. His well-known publication, ''Meriden: Odyssey Of A Lame Duck'', virulently attacked

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician and political activist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabine ...

's creation of the Meriden

Workers' Co-operative A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which management is elected by ...

to continue production of Triumph Motorcycles. He was succeeded in the new Tatton seat by Neil Hamilton. He was 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 ...

as Baron Bruce-Gardyne, of Kirkden in the District of Angus, on 7 October 1983. He married Sally Louisa Mary Maitland, daughter of Commander Sir John Maitland, in 1959. He died of a

brain tumour A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign (non-cancero ...

in Kensington and Chelsea at the age of sixty.

Footnotes

References

* *''Times Guide to the House of Commons'', 1966, 1979 and 1983 editions * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bruce-Gardyne, Jock 1930 births 1990 deaths Conservative Party (UK) life peers People educated at Winchester College People from Angus, Scotland Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Bow Group UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 People from Chertsey People educated at Twyford School Scottish Conservative MPs Unionist Party (Scotland) MPs Life peers created by Elizabeth II