Antony Kirby Speller (12 June 1929 – 15 February 2013) 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 ...

politician. Speller was born in

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

on 12 June 1929, the son of Captain John Speller, director of posts and telegraphs for India, who later returned to take over the city's Bystock Hotel. He was educated at Exeter School, before graduating in Economics from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

and in Social Studies from

Exeter University The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School o ...

.Tony Speller Obituary
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', 5 March 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2014. On his second attempt, in the 1979 general election, he defeated former Liberal leader

Jeremy Thorpe John Jeremy Thorpe (29 April 1929 – 4 December 2014) was a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament for North Devon from 1959 to 1979 and as leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976. In May 1979 he was tried at the Old ...

to become MP for

North Devon North Devon is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based just outside Barnstaple, the district's largest town. The district also includes the towns of Ilfracombe, Lynton and Lynmouth and Sout ...

, which effectively ended Thorpe's political career. Speller held the seat until 1992 when he lost to the

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

Nick Harvey Sir Nicholas Barton Harvey (born 3 August 1961) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the member of parliament (MP) for North Devon from 1992 to 2015 and the Minister of State for the Armed Forces from 2010 to 2012. Early life ...

. Speller married first, in 1950, Margaret Lloyd-Jones; they had two sons and a daughter before divorcing in 1958. In 1960, he married Maureen McLellan, with whom he had a son and a daughter.

Sources

*''Times Guide to the House of Commons'', 1992

External links

* 2013 deaths 1929 births Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Politicians from Exeter Alumni of the University of London Alumni of the University of Exeter UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1920s-stub