Anthony Stodart, Baron Stodart of Leaston

{{Short description|Scottish Conservative politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{more citations needed|date=April 2009}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = The Lord Stodart of Leaston | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|PC}} | image = | caption = | office1 = Member of the House of Lords | status1 = Lord Temporal | term_label1 = Life peerage | term_start1 = 1 June 1981 | term_end1 = 31 May 2003 | office2 = Member of Parliament<br />for Edinburgh West | term_start2 = 8 October 1959 | term_end2 = 20 September 1974 | predecessor2 = Ian Clark Hutchison | successor2 = James Douglas-Hamilton | birth_date = {{Birth date|1916|06|06|df=yes}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|2003|05|31|1916|06|06|df=y}} | death_place = | spouse = | party = Unionist | relations = | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''James Anthony Stodart, Baron Stodart of Leaston''' PC (6 June 1916 – 31 May 2003) was a Scottish Conservative politician.

== Political career ==

=== First political aspirations ===

Although he was an active Unionist in his youth, he fell out with the party and joined the Liberal Party, standing as their candidate in Berwick and East Lothian at the 1950 general election.

By the following year, Stodart had returned to the Tory fold and was Unionist candidate for Midlothian and Peebles at the 1951 snap election and for Midlothian in 1955.

=== Member of Parliament (1959–1974) ===

At the 1959 general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh West, which he held until the October 1974 general election, when he was succeeded by fellow Conservative Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.

Stodart served as a junior Scottish Office Minister under Sir Alec Douglas-Home from 1963 to 1964, and at the Ministry of Agriculture under the leadership of Edward Heath, from 1970 to 1974.

=== Out of parliament ===

He became chairman of the Agriculture Credit Corporation from 1975 to 1987 and chaired an inquiry into Scottish local government in 1980.

=== Member of the House of Lords (1981–2003) ===

After leaving the House of Commons, he was created a life peer as '''Baron Stodart of Leaston''', of Humbie in the District of East Lothian on 1 June 1981.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=48630 |date=4 June 1981 |page=7603}}</ref>

== Personal life ==

The son of a colonel in the Indian medical service, he took over the family farm at Kingston, North Berwick, East Lothian, after his father died when he was just eighteen years old. Eventually, he farmed more than {{convert|800|acre|km2}} at Leaston, near Humbie, East Lothian.

His wife Hazel died in 1995. They had no children.

== References == {{reflist}} *{{Rayment-hc|date=March 2012}}

== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-james-stodart | Anthony Stodart }}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Edinburgh West | years = 1959 – Oct 1974 | before = Ian Clark Hutchison | after = Lord James Douglas-Hamilton }} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stodart, Anthony}} Category:1916 births Category:2003 deaths Category:People from North Berwick Category:Nobility from East Lothian Category:Politicians from Edinburgh Stodart of Leaston Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Edinburgh constituencies Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Ministers in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home governments, 1957–1964 Category:People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire Category:Scottish Conservative MPs Category:Scottish Liberal Party parliamentary candidates Category:UK MPs 1959–1964 Category:UK MPs 1964–1966 Category:UK MPs 1966–1970 Category:UK MPs 1970–1974 Category:UK MPs 1974 Category:Unionist Party (Scotland) MPs Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II