Wainwright, Richard Scurrah, MP
1918-2003

Leeds local preacher, accountant, company director and MP, born on 11 April 1918.. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and Cambridge and brought up in Leeds at the Lady Lane UM Central Mission and its successor on the Gipson Estate. A conscientious objector, he served during World War II in the Friends Ambulance Unit and was a member of the Quaker-based Joseph Rowntree Social Services Trust from 1959 to 1984. An active Liberal, having twice failed to take Pudsey, in 1966 he was elected for Colne Valley, a seat with a radical, Nonconformist political tradition, which he held, except from 1970 to 1974, until his retirement in 1987. He played a pivotal role in the Party's post-war revival and in the reorganizing of its finances. He was Party Chairman 1970-1972, a Liberal spokesman first on trade and industry and later on unemployment. For eight years he served on the Select Committee on the Treasury.

In 1976 he was a leading parliamentary opponent of the Methodist Church Bill which, inter alia, removed the necessity for parliamentary approval of changes in doctrinal matters. He died on 16 January 2003.

Sources
  • Guardian, 17 January 2003
  • Times, 20 January 2003

Occupations

Entry written by: DCD
Category: Person
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