Eric Lubbock, 4th Baron Avebury

Encyclopedia : E : ER : ERI : Eric Lubbock, 4th Baron Avebury

Eric Reginald Lubbock, 4th Baron Avebury 7th Bt, PC (born 29 September 1928) is an English politician. He succeeded his cousin as Baron Avebury in 1971 and was elected as a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords in 1999.

Contents

1 Background
2 Political career
3 Private Life
4 External links

Background

He is the son of the Honourable Maurice Fox Pitt Lubbock (the sixth son of John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury) and the Honourable Mary Katherine Adelaide Stanley, daughter of Arthur Lyulph Stanley, 5th Baron Sheffield and Stanley of Alderley. He was educated at Upper Canada College, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Harrow School and he read Engineering Science at Balliol College, Oxford.

He served as a Lieutenant in the Welsh Guards and he joined Rolls-Royce in 1951. He was employed as a production manager (1951-1956) and as a production engineer (1956-1960).

Political career

Having joined the Liberal Party in 1960 and becoming a councillor the following year, Lubbock won a sensational by-election victory in Orpington on 15 March 1962 with a majority of 7,855. This was a swing of nearly 22% from the Conservatives and brought the number of Liberal MPs to seven.

Many commentators speculated that the Liberals would make a substantial breakthrough at the following general election and this by-election was taken as the start of a Liberal revival. Unfortunately, the party was hampered by organisational difficulties and progress was slow, with a loss of votes and seats under Harold Wilson’s Labour government.

As the MP for Orpington, he was appointed Chief Whip by Jo Grimond in 1963, a post he held until 1970.

When the party leader Jo Grimond resigned in 1967 Eric Lubbock was one of the three Liberal MPs who stood for the position. Jeremy Thorpe, whoever, won with six votes to Emlyn Hooson’s and Lubbock’s three apiece.

In the Commons he was on the Speaker’s Commission on Electoral Law in 1964-1966, and proposed STV in multi-member constituencies, only to be voted down by 18-1. He also proposed reducing the voting age to 18, on which two Labour Members supported him.

In 1970, Orpington reverted to its Tory origins. On losing the seat Lubbock said

"In 1962 the wise, far-seeing people of Orpington elected me as their Member; in 1970 the fools threw me out".

Lubbock is a grandson of John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury and the following year upon the death of his cousin he succeeded to the peerage, becoming Lord Avebury. He sat on the Royal Commission on Standards of Conduct in Public Life and in 1976 founded the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, which he chaired for the next 21 years.

He is currently a member of the Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Team, speaking frequently on conflict resolution and human rights. He was elected to an Honorary Fellowship at Balliol College in 2004.

Private Life

He has married twice:

1) Kina-Maria O'Kelly de Gallagh (2 September 1953-1983)
* 1) The Honourable Lyulph Ambrose Jonathan Lubbock (born 15 June 1954); married Susan MacDonald 14 May 1977, with issue.
* 2) The Honourable Maurice Patrick Guy Lubbock (born 5 November 1955); married Diana Tobin 1982 with issue.
* 3) The Honourable Victoria Sarah Maria Lubbock (born 27 April 1959); married Alan Binnie 1983 with issue.
2) Lindsay Stewart (1985- to date)
* The Honourable John William Stewart Lubbock (born 8 August 1985)

External links

[Lord Avebury] profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
[Lord Avebury's Personal Blog]

|- style="text-align: center;"

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.