Bill Shelton

Sir William Jeremy Masefield Shelton (30 October 1929 – 2 January 2003) studying at Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts, on an English-Speaking Union scholarship, and then Worcester College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Then he lectured on economics for a year at the University of Texas at Austin, before moving into business and advertising, which included work in South America.

Shelton married Anne Warder in 1960,

Shelton was one of the first people to advocate for Thatcher to succeed Edward Heath as Conservative leader, becoming second-in-command to campaign manager Airey Neave. After Thatcher's victory in the leadership election, Shelton became her Parliamentary Private Secretary, but resigned the following year, preferring the freedom of the backbenches. He continued his interest in education, repeatedly being elected vice-chairman of the backbench Conservative Education Committee, and serving as a junior minister in the Department of Education and Science from 1981 to 1983, in which role he increased computer provision in primary schools and proposed a new vocational qualification of secondary education.

Shelton became an increasingly vocal critic of local government. He clashed with the left-wing leadership of his local Lambeth Council and promoted a bill in 1981 to restrain local-government spending. However, he opposed Thatcher's flagship Community Charge ('poll tax') because it was designed to give local authorities more independence.

Shelton was known as a Thatcherite, serving on Thatcher's campaign team in the leadership election of 1989 and opposing her resignation in 1990. He was confident of retaining his seat in 1992, but, having been defeated, he received 5000 letters of thanks, mostly from people who had voted Labour.