Peter Kirk

Sir Peter Michael Kirk (18 May 1928 – 17 April 1977) was a British writer, broadcaster, Conservative politician, minister in the governments of Alec Douglas-Home and Edward Heath, and leading European Parliamentarian.

Early life The elder son and fourth child of Kenneth Escott Kirk (Bishop of Oxford, 1937-1954), Kirk was born in Headington, Oxford, and was educated at Marlborough and at Trinity College, Oxford, where he obtained an MA in modern history having first studied languages (including a period at the University of Bern studying Old High German). He attended the congress in the Hague in 1948 from which the European Movement sprang, and was President of the Oxford Union Society in 1949. His election agent blamed his death on overwork resulting from his dual mandate as both MP for Saffron Walden and Member of the European Parliament.

The by-election for his Saffron Walden seat was won by the Conservative candidate Alan Haselhurst. The Peter Kirk Memorial Fund was set up in his honour, to give scholarships to young people to study modern Europe and its institutions.

Personal life A devout Anglican, he was a delegate to the World Council of Churches in Delhi in 1961. His publications included One Army Strong (Faith Press, 1958) and a monograph on T.S. Eliot in Thirteen for Christ (ed. Melville Harcourt, Sheed & Ward, 1963)

He was married in August 1950 to Elizabeth Mary, daughter of Richard Brockbank Graham and Gertrude (née Anson). They had three sons, including Matthew Kirk, who was later the British Ambassador to Finland.