Patrick Mayhew, Baron Mayhew of Twysden

Patrick Barnabas Burke Mayhew, Baron Mayhew of Twysden, (11 September 1929 – 25 June 2016) was a British barrister and politician.

Early life Mayhew was born in Cookham, Berkshire, on 11 September 1929. His father, George Mayhew, was a decorated army officer turned oil executive; his mother, Sheila Roche, descended from members of the Anglo-Irish Protestant ascendancy, was a relative of James Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy, an Irish National Federation MP for Kerry East. Through his father, Mayhew was descended from the Victorian social commentator Henry Mayhew. He was educated at Tonbridge School, an all boys public school in Tonbridge, Kent. He was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1955.

Political career Mayhew contested Dulwich in 1970,

He was Under Secretary of Employment from 1979 to 1981, then Minister of State at the Home Office from 1981 to 1983. After this, he served as Solicitor General for England and Wales from 1983 to 1987, and simultaneously Attorney General for Northern Ireland from 1987 to 1992.

He was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1992 to 1997. On 12 June 1997, he was given a life peerage as Baron Mayhew of Twysden, of Kilndown in the County of Kent. He retired from the House of Lords on 1 June 2015.

Personal life In 1963, Mayhew married the Rev. Jean Gurney, and they had four sons. He died from cancer at his home on 25 June 2016, aged 86.