Richard Pilkington

Sir Richard Antony Pilkington, (10 May 1908 – 9 December 1976) was a British Conservative Party politician and an officer in the British Army.

Early life He was born in St Helens to the Chairman of the Pilkington glass works, Arthur Pilkington, and Marjorie Cope, daughter of the painter Arthur Stockdale Cope. He was educated at Charterhouse and Christ Church, Oxford. He worked and travelled in North America from 1928 until 1930, when he joined the Coldstream Guards as an officer, serving in Sudan and Egypt.

Military and political career In 1935 he resigned his commission to enter politics and was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Widnes in Lancashire. On the outbreak of the Second World War he rejoined the Army and travelled to France with the British Expeditionary Force.