Eldon Griffiths

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Sir Eldon Griffiths
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Minister for Sport
In office
19 June 1970 – 4 March 1974
Prime MinisterEdward Heath
Preceded byDenis Howell
Succeeded byDenis Howell
Member of Parliament
for Bury St Edmunds
In office
14 May 1964 – 16 March 1992
Preceded byWilliam Traven Aitken
Succeeded byRichard Spring
Personal details
Born(1925-05-25)25 May 1925
Wigan, Lancashire, England
Died3 June 2014(2014-06-03) (aged 89)
PartyConservative
Spouse(s)
Sigrid Gante
​
​
(m. 1949; div. 1985)​

Betty Stannard
​
​
(m. 1985; died 2010)​
[1]
Susan Donnell
​
(m. 2013)​
[2]
Children2, including John Griffiths
Alma materEmmanuel College, Cambridge
ProfessionJournalist and farmer

Sir Eldon Wylie Griffiths (25 May 1925 – 3 June 2014) was a British Conservative politician and journalist.

Early life

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Griffiths was born on 25 May 1925 in Wigan, Lancashire.[2] His Welsh father was a police sergeant. He attended Ashton-under-Lyne Grammar School.[2] Following the Second World War service in the Royal Air Force he gained a double first class degree in history from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and an MA from Yale University.[3][2]

Career

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Journalism

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After university Griffiths worked in the Conservative Research Department and became a journalist and farmer. He was on staff of US magazine Newsweek,[2] as managing editor.[citation needed]

Political career

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He became the MP for Bury St Edmunds after a by-election in 1964, and represented the seat until he retired in 1992. His Daily Telegraph obituary claimed he was "rangy, articulate, but dour... a political loner, and not over-popular on the Tory benches." However, it listed many achievements as MP and in other spheres.[4] He served as Minister for Sport during the Edward Heath government of 1970 to 1974. He also served as parliamentary spokesman for the Police Federation. In 1985, he was made a Knight Bachelor for "political service".[5]

Academia

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For a brief period while an MP, Griffiths worked as a professor at the University of California, Irvine,[1] a role in which The Times said led to him being called the member for Orange County.[6]

Director appointments

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Griffiths was a director of one of Gerald Carroll's Carroll Group companies.[7]

Personal life

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In June 2013, aged 88, he announced his third marriage, to Susan Donnell.[8]

Honours

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He was a Freeman of the borough of St Edmundsbury.

References

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  1. ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ a b c d e Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  3. ^ Eldon Griffiths Obituary in the Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 June 2014
  4. ^ Daily Telegraph, London 4 June 2014
  5. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  6. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  7. ^ "SFO looks at 500m fall of Carroll empire", Dominic O'Connell, Sunday Business, 1 October 2000, p. 1.
  8. ^ Former MP of Bury St Edmunds to marry for third time at the age of 88, Bury Free Press. Accessed 18 January 2023.
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