Name Iain Sproat | ||
 | ||
Role British member of Parliament Died September 29, 2011, London, United Kingdom Books Wodehouse at war, The picture life of Edward Heath | ||
Animal Aunts House of Commons Part 2
Iain MacDonald Sproat (8 November 1938 – 29 September 2011) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP). He was educated at Winchester College and Magdalen College, Oxford. He worked as a publisher and journalist.
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Parliamentary career
Sproat first contested Rutherglen in a by-election in May 1964, and again in the general election later that year, but was unsuccessful in both campaigns.
At the 1970 general election, he stood in the marginal Scottish constituency of Aberdeen South, and ousted the sitting Labour MP, Donald Dewar. He was re-elected there at three further elections, until the 1983 general election when he moved to contest Roxburgh and Berwickshire believing that this was a 'safer' seat. However, Aberdeen South was held by the Conservatives, while Roxburgh and Berwickshire fell to the Liberal candidate Archy Kirkwood.
Sproat returned to Parliament nine years later, moving to England and succeeding Sir Julian Ridsdale as MP for Harwich in the 1992 general election. He served as Minister for Sport in John Major's government from 1993 to 1997, but at the 1997 general election he was defeated by the Labour candidate Ivan Henderson. Sproat stood again in Harwich at the 2001 election, but Henderson was returned with an increased majority. Sproat did not contest the 2005 general election; instead Douglas Carswell regained the seat for the Conservatives.
Outside Parliament
A lifelong cricket fan, he was founder publisher of the Cricketers' Who's Who (Green Umbrella) which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2009. In 1979 he married Judith Mary Kernot, who survived him.
A tireless campaigner to clear the name of his literary hero, P.G. Wodehouse, he single-handedly secured Wodehouse's knighthood in 1975 and later wrote 'Wodehouse at War' (pub Milner & Co. Ltd. 1981) proving the author's innocence.