Biography.guide
Home › People › Politician › Derek Coombs
Portrait of Derek Coombs

Derek Coombs

1931 – 2014

British politician

Don't just read it — keep itBiographies to ownE-book · Audio · Video From $7 →

About Derek Coombs

Lived 1931 – 2014 (aged 83). Derek Coombs was a British politician.

Derek Michael Coombs (12 August 1931 – 30 December 2014) was a British Conservative politician. He was Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley from 1970 to 1974, winning a marginal seat which was later recovered by Labour's Sydney Tierney. Whilst an MP, he supported the UK's joining of the then EEC. Additionally, he introduced a private members bill which relaxed the earnings rule for pensioners, and assisted the peace process in Northern Ireland which led to the Sunningdale Agreement. Derek Coombs was also briefly an officer in the Royal Artillery, a successful businessman, a supporter of the arts, and the founding chairman of Prospect magazine.

Family Derek Coombs was married first in early 1959 in Sutton Coldfield to Patricia (b. Leeds North, late-1930 ) the elder sister of Peter O'Toole; Coombs and Patricia had two children, a daughter Sian (b. early-1967 but when that did not succeed Derek teamed up with former Financial Times journalist David Goodhart, and together founded Prospect, the intellectual monthly magazine in 1995. Coombs invested several hundred thousand into the venture and it became a leading magazine in Westminster. In 2008 when Derek became ill, George Robinson, a director of London-based hedge fund Sloane Robinson Investment Management, and Peter Hall, of boutique fund manager Hunter Hall, each acquired 26% of the title after Coombs’ attorneys, acting for the magazine's chairman and largest shareholder, sold his 40% stake. S&U operates today under the Aspen Bridging and Advantage Finance brands.

Derek was a serial entrepreneur and developer and, amongst other ventures, built several shopping centres under the company Hardanger alongside Nicholas Sciviter.

The Coombs family held stakes in Metalrax, a previous engineering venture

Biography shop

Don’t just read it —
keep it.

Full-length biographies made to live with: read them, listen on the way to work, watch them tonight.

  • E-book
  • Audio
  • Video
Browse the shop — from $7

Instant download · yours to keep · every purchase keeps this site free

Important facts

Birth century
Occupation
Nationality
Positions held
Member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom
Also known as
Derek Michael Coombs

People in Derek Coombs's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Derek Coombs's

Frequently asked questions

Who was Derek Coombs?

British politician (1931-2014)

When was Derek Coombs born?

Derek Coombs was born on 12 August 1931.

When did Derek Coombs die?

Derek Coombs died on 30 December 2014.

What was Derek Coombs's occupation?

Derek Coombs was a politician.

What nationality was Derek Coombs?

Derek Coombs was British.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Derek Coombs

· Wikidata: Q5261890

· DBpedia: Derek Coombs

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Derek Coombs. https://biography.guide/derek-coombs/

MLA: "Derek Coombs." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/derek-coombs/.

Chicago: "Derek Coombs." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/derek-coombs/.

Data last updated: 2026-09-22 · Spot an error? Report a correction.

Page generated 2026-09-27 04:59 UTC