Neil Thorne
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Colonel Sir Neil Gordon Thorne, OBE, TD, DL (born 8 August 1932) is a British Conservative Party politician.[1][2] He contested the constituency of Ilford South six times from October 1974 to 1997, and was the Member of Parliament for the seat from 1979 to 1992, when he lost by 402 votes to Labour's Mike Gapes.[3]
Thorne served in the Territorial Army Royal Artillery, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1989, he founded the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme, which aims to improve the quality of debate on military issues, and does this by exposing Members of Parliament to first-hand experience of the armed forces.[4]
Thorne is a member of the Steering Group Committee for the British Chinese Armed Forces Heritage project which started in 2015. This is a joint project in collaboration between the Ming-Ai (London) Institute and Regent's University London. Thorne is a freemason.[5]
In 2018 Thorne attracted media criticism for his application for planning permission to relocate a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst.[6] Suffragettes raised funds and twice negotiated the site of the statue in 1930 and 1956, when the government also attempted to remove the statue. The proposed site in Regents University has no link to Mrs Pankhurst or suffragette history.
Footnotes
- ^ "Colonel Sir Neil Thorne honoured for 60s years' service to Freemasonry". Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ "Friends of St Cross volunteer who survived the blitz meets Prince Edward at Battle of Britain commemoration". Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ "Sir Neil Thorne". UK Parliament. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ Calvert, Jonathan; Rowell, Andy (31 August 2008). "Tory MP Douglas Carswell 'punished' for damning army kit". The Sunday Times.
- ^ "Conservatives at the heart of Freemasonry". The Independent. 31 October 1995.
- ^ Khomami, Nadia (17 August 2018). "Anger over plan to move Pankhurst statue away from parliament". the Guardian. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
References
- Times Guide to the House of Commons, 1992 and 1997 editions
- Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages [self-published source] [better source needed]
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- 1932 births
- Living people
- Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
- UK MPs 1979–83
- UK MPs 1983–87
- UK MPs 1987–92
- Knights Bachelor
- Royal Artillery officers
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England
- Conservative MP (UK), 1930s birth stubs
- UK MP for England stubs