Dudley Smith

Sir Dudley Gordon Smith (14 November 1926 – 14 December 2016) was a British Conservative politician who served as a junior minister under Edward Heath. He was a Member of Parliament for a total of 35 years, latterly for Warwick and Leamington, which he represented for almost 30 years before he lost his seat in the Labour landslide in the 1997 general election.

Early life and career Smith was born on 14 November 1926 in Cambridge to Hugh and Elizabeth Smith. His father ran a small business. He attended Chichester High School in West Sussex but left at the age of 16 to pursue in career in journalism which he started by joining the local paper. In 1945 he joined Portsmouth Evening News, then The News of the World as a Fleet Street reporter. Finally, by 1953 he had joined the Sunday Express, going onto become Assistant News Editor under the Editor Sir John Junor.

Political career Eager to become a politician, Smith unsuccessfully fought Peckham in 1955, losing to incumbent Freda Corbet by 13,768. Ultimately Lord Home was chosen as the successor.

1963 also saw Smith became PPS to Robert Carr, Minister for Technical Cooperation, then as an opposition whip in 1964.

Member of Parliament for Warwick & Leamington: 1968–1997 Following a brief 2 years as director for public relations for the Beecham Group, Dudley Smith yet again found himself in the Commons as MP for Warwick and Leamington which he won with a majority of 21,922 in the 1968 Warwick and Leamington by-election.

As the opposition spokesman on employment and productivity, and with his former boss Robert Carr who was now Shadow Minister of Labour, Smith argued in 1969 that the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity, Barbara Castle, should hold to her ‘In Place of Strife’ white paper which proposed to restrict the powers of the trade unions.

Outside of parliament Prior to the 1964 general election, Dudley Smith published a biography of Harold Wilson, the Leader of the Opposition, entitled Harold Wilson: A critical biography. In 1981 he became the Chairman of the Wilderness Foundation UK. In 1988, he became Deputy Lieutenant for Warwickshire. He was a Freeman of the City of London and was Chairman from 1985 to 1990 for the United and Cecil Club. He was a governor Mill Hill School for three decades.

Personal life and death Smith was married twice, first in 1958 Anthea Higgins with whom he had three children, a son, Russell, and two daughters, Charlotte and Antonia. They divorced in 1973 following his wife's affair with her husband's fellow Conservative MP Tim Fortescue, member for Liverpool Garston, who she later married. In 1976, Smith married again, this time to a management consultant called Catherine Amos. However, this also ended in divorce in 2011.