Peter Hordern

Sir Peter Maudslay Hordern, D.L., P.C., (born 18 April 1929) is a British Conservative Party politician.

Hordern was educated at Geelong Grammar School, Australia and Christ Church, Oxford. He served with the 60th Rifles, 1947–49, joining the regiment of his father and great uncle : Brig. General Gwyn Venables Hordern, C.B., C.M.G., – and became a Member of the Stock Exchange.

For much of his time in Parliament he had one of the largest majorities in the Commons and was considered a doughty fighter for constituents. He served as Member of Parliament for Horsham from 1964 to 1974, for Horsham and Crawley from 1974 to 1983 and for Horsham once again from 1983 to 1997. He was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1993. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for West Sussex. He was a member of the Public Accounts Committee from 1970–1987, Chairman of the Public Accounts Commission (1988–1997); Chairman of the Finance Committee (1970–1972); appointed to the Executive of the 1922 Committee in 1967, later becoming Secretary of the 1922 Committee and Chairman of the Conservative backbench Committee on Europe.

Colin Welch described him as "the ablest Tory never to have been a minister. " Andrew Roth's Parliamentary Profiles (1987–1991) describes him as " Widely respected, well-connected, principled Rightwing, monetarist City gent; a hard-headed long term thinker; a devout believer in sanctity of tight money" : " I was not only one of the first in this house to be a monetarist...I confidently expect to be about the last. " Ahead of the hyper-inflation of the mid '70's, he attacked (with some prescience) the Bank of England in 1970 for insufficient monetary restraint and (while Chairman of the Finance Committee) publicly opposed Chancellor Barber's over expansion of monetary supply in April 1971 and attacked Heath Government's "absurd " proposals for statutory prices and income policy.

He was appointed a Director of Petrofina UK PLC, in 1973 and Chairman in 1987. He was appointed a Director of F & C Smaller Companies Investment Trust PLC, in 1978 and Chairman in 1986. He was appointed as a Director of TR Technology Investment Trust in 1985 (formerly Atlas Electric and General Trust). In 1982, he was appointed a Consultant to Fisons PLC and a Consultant to House of Fraser PLC and Pannell Kerr Forster in 1984.

Sir Peter Hordern is the son of Captain Charles Hubert Hordern MBE and grandson of Rt. Rev. Hugh Maudslay Hordern (Bishop of Lewes). He married Elizabeth Susan Chataway (sister of the former Conservative MP Sir Christopher Chataway) in 1964. They have two sons and one daughter: Andrew Charles Hugh Hordern (b. July 5, 1965), M.A. Oxon; President Oxford University Conservative Association (1986) ; MBA INSEAD (1991), who died on November 25, 2009 after a long illness; James Peter Hordern, B.A. (b. September 8, 1967), and Dr. Sara Victoria Margaret Mahon, M.B., B.S., Bsc, M.R.C.P. (b. March 19, 1971).

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Peter Hordern

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Frederick Gough	Member of Parliament for Horsham 1964 – February 1974	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Horsham and Crawley February 1974 – 1983	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Horsham 1983 – 1997	Succeeded by Francis Maude