Eldon Griffiths

Sir Eldon Griffiths
File:Sir Eldon Griffiths.jpeg
Minister for Sport
In office 19 June 1970 – 4 March 1974
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Denis Howell
Succeeded by	Denis Howell
Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds
In office 14 May 1964 – 16 March 1992
Preceded by	William Traven Aitken
Succeeded by	Richard Spring
Personal details
Born	(1925-05-25)25 May 1925 Wigan, Lancashire, England
Died	3 June 2014(2014-06-03) (aged 89)
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Sigrid Gante ​ ​ (m. 1949; div. 1985)​ Betty Stannard ​ ​ (m. 1985; died 2010)​ Susan Donnell ​ (m. 2013)​
Children	2, including John Griffiths
Alma mater	Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Profession	Journalist and farmer

Sir Eldon Wylie Griffiths (25 May 1925 – 3 June 2014) was a British Conservative politician and journalist.

Early life

Griffiths was born on 25 May 1925 in Wigan, Lancashire. His Welsh father was a police sergeant. He attended Ashton-under-Lyne Grammar School. Following the Second World War service in the Royal Air Force he gained a double first class degree in history from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and an MA from Yale University.

Career

Journalism

After university Griffiths worked in the Conservative Research Department and became a journalist and farmer. He was managing editor of Newsweek.

Political career

He became the MP for Bury St Edmunds after a by-election in 1964, and represented the seat until he retired in 1992. His Daily Telegraph obituary claimed he was "rangy, articulate, but dour... a political loner, and not over-popular on the Tory benches." However, it listed many achievements as MP and in other spheres. He served as Minister for Sport during the Edward Heath government of 1970 to 1974. He also served as parliamentary spokesman for the Police Federation. In 1985, he was made a Knight Bachelor for "political service".

Academia

For a brief period while an MP, Griffiths worked as a professor at the University of California, Irvine, a role in which The Times said led to him being called the member for Orange County.

Director appointments

Griffiths was a director of one of Gerald Carroll's Carroll Group companies.

Personal life

In June 2013, aged 88, he announced his third marriage, to Susan Donnell.

Honours

He was a Freeman of the borough of St Edmundsbury.

• The Times Guide to the House of Commons, Times Newspapers Ltd, 1966 & 1987
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Eldon Griffiths