Tim Rathbone

John Rankin "Tim" Rathbone (17 March 1933 – 12 July 2002) was a British businessman and Conservative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the seat of Lewes between 1974 and 1997.

Background Rathbone was born in London on 17 March 1933, the son of a Conservative MP also called John Rankin Rathbone, who represented Bodmin from 1935 until his death as a fighter pilot for the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain in 1940. Rathbone's mother, American-born Beatrice Wright, then succeeded him as MP at the by-election, serving until 1945. In 1960, he married Margarita Sanchez y Sanchez, a Cuban, with whom he had three children: John-Paul, Michael and Cristina.

When the Conservatives entered government in 1979, Rathbone was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Gerald Vaughan, the Minister for Health, a position he held until 1982. Rathbone was a relation of, and godfather to, the future Conservative leader David Cameron, and once employed a university-aged Cameron as a researcher.

Later years After losing his seat to the Liberal Democrats in the 1997 general election, Rathbone became chairman of Sponsorship Consultancy Ltd. In August 1998, was expelled from the Conservative Party by William Hague for his support of the breakaway Pro-Euro Conservative Party. He died from cancer in London on 12 July 2002, at the age of 69. He is buried in the churchyard of St Peter's Church, Lowick, Northamptonshire.