John Arthur Watts (19 April 1947 – 8 September 2016) was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom

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 ...

between 1983 and 1997. Watts was educated at Bishopshalt Grammar School,

Hillingdon Hillingdon is an area of Uxbridge within the London Borough of Hillingdon, centred 14.2 miles (22.8 km) west of Charing Cross. It was an ancient parish in Middlesex that included the market town of Uxbridge. During the 1920s the civil pari ...

, and

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

, where he chaired the

Cambridge University Conservative Association The Cambridge University Conservative Association, or CUCA, is a student political society founded 1921, as a Conservative Association for students at Cambridge University, although it has earlier roots in the late nineteenth century. CUCA is n ...

. Following graduation he became a chartered accountant. After boundary changes in

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 ...

, Watts defeated Joan Lestor, the former Labour MP for Eton and Slough, to win the new constituency of

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

. Watts decided not to contest the Slough seat at the 1997 General Election due to unfavourable boundary changes, and contested

Reading East Reading East was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. In the 2019–2024 Parliament, it was one of two Labour seats from a total of eight seats in Berkshire. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Re ...

where the sitting Conservative MP was retiring; however, he was defeated by the Labour candidate, Jane Griffiths. Watts died in September 2016 at the age of 69.

References

* 1947 births 2016 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Slough Government and politics of Slough Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1940s-stub