# Tim Rathbone

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**John Rankin** "**Tim**" **Rathbone** (17 March 1933 – 12 July 2002) was a British businessman and [Conservative](/source/Conservative_Party_(UK)) politician who was the [Member of Parliament](/source/Member_of_Parliament_(United_Kingdom)) (MP) for the seat of [Lewes](/source/Lewes_(UK_Parliament_constituency)) between 1974 and 1997.

## Background

Rathbone was born in London on 17 March 1933, the son of a [Conservative](/source/Conservative_Party_(UK)) MP also called [John Rankin Rathbone](/source/John_Rathbone_(Bodmin)), who represented [Bodmin](/source/Bodmin_(UK_Parliament_constituency)) from 1935 until his death as a fighter pilot for the [Royal Air Force](/source/Royal_Air_Force) in the [Battle of Britain](/source/Battle_of_Britain) in 1940.[1] Rathbone's mother, American-born [Beatrice Wright](/source/Beatrice_Wright), then succeeded him as MP at the by-election, serving until 1945.[1] Tim Rathbone was a great-nephew of [Eleanor Rathbone](/source/Eleanor_Rathbone), who had been an independent MP for the [Combined English Universities](/source/Combined_English_Universities_(UK_Parliament_constituency)) between 1929 and 1946, and a staunch women's rights campaigner. He was a great-grandson of [William Rathbone](/source/William_Rathbone_VI), a Liberal MP for Liverpool and later Carnarvonshire.

Rathbone was educated at [Eton College](/source/Eton_College) and [Christ Church, Oxford](/source/Christ_Church,_Oxford), where he read [Philosophy, Politics and Economics](/source/Philosophy,_Politics_and_Economics). After a spell as merchant banker, he emigrated in 1958 to the United States where he attended [Harvard Business School](/source/Harvard_Business_School) and worked for the New York advertising firm [Ogilvy and Mather](/source/Ogilvy_and_Mather), before returning to the UK in 1966.[1][2] In 1960, he married Margarita Sanchez y Sanchez, a Cuban, with whom he had three children: John-Paul, Michael and Cristina.[1]

## Politics

Upon his return to Britain, Rathbone was recruited by party chairman [Edward du Cann](/source/Edward_du_Cann) to work for the [Conservatives](/source/Conservative_Party_(UK)) as Chief Publicity Officer.[1] He was relatively ineffectual in this position, partly because his brief overlapped with other Conservative staffers. Rathbone moved to the [Charles Barker Group](/source/Charles_Barker_Group), a leading advertising agency in 1968, where he remained for 18 years.[1] He was appointed to a string of directorships within the group and was managing director of Ayer Barker until 1974.

In 1973, he was selected to fight the safe Conservative seat of [Lewes](/source/Lewes_(UK_Parliament_constituency)), which he duly won in the [February 1974 election](/source/February_1974_United_Kingdom_general_election). Upon entering Parliament, it was clear that Rathbone had a reforming zeal about him, and pushed for declaration of Members' interests, electoral reform and devolution. In 1981, he divorced his first wife and the following year married Susan Stopford Sackville.[1]

Rathbone was also a staunch critic of [apartheid](/source/Apartheid): On a visit to [Rhodesia](/source/Rhodesia), he proposed ousting [Ian Smith](/source/Ian_Smith) and holding transitional elections for a majority black government.[1] In 1986, he invited [Oliver Tambo](/source/Oliver_Tambo), a prominent member of the South African opposition to address Conservative MPs.[3]

When the Conservatives entered government in 1979, Rathbone was appointed as [Parliamentary Private Secretary](/source/Parliamentary_Private_Secretary) to [Gerald Vaughan](/source/Gerard_Vaughan_(British_politician)), the Minister for Health, a position he held until 1982.[1] He later served as PPS to other Ministers. He did not achieve high ministerial office however because of his rebelling tendencies, and was perceived as a "[wet](/source/Wets_and_dries)". *[The Independent](/source/The_Independent)* described him as "a Tory of the lightest imaginable shade of liberal blue".[2] He opposed the Bill that scrapped the [Greater London Council](/source/Greater_London_Council) and other metropolitan authorities in 1984, and also the [poll tax](/source/Tax_per_head). He also became Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Drug Misuse.[4] Rathbone was a relation of, and godfather to, the future Conservative leader [David Cameron](/source/David_Cameron), and once employed a university-aged Cameron as a researcher.[5]

## Later years

After losing his seat to the [Liberal Democrats](/source/Liberal_Democrats_(UK)) in the [1997 general election](/source/1997_United_Kingdom_general_election), Rathbone became chairman of Sponsorship Consultancy Ltd.[3] In August 1998, was expelled from the Conservative Party by [William Hague](/source/William_Hague) for his support of the breakaway [Pro-Euro Conservative Party](/source/Pro-Euro_Conservative_Party).[1] He died from cancer in London on 12 July 2002, at the age of 69.[1][2] He is buried in the churchyard of St Peter's Church, [Lowick](/source/Lowick,_Northamptonshire), Northamptonshire.

## References

1. "Tim Rathbone". *[The Times](/source/The_Times)*. 16 July 2002. p. 30.

1. Pearce, Edward (16 July 2002). ["Tim Rathbone"](https://www.newspapers.com/image/721133681/). *[The Independent](/source/The_Independent)*. p. 16. Retrieved 2 April 2024. – via [Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com)

1. ["Tim Rathbone"](https://www.newspapers.com/image/753165099/). *[The Daily Telegraph](/source/The_Daily_Telegraph)*. 16 July 2002. p. 23. Retrieved 2 April 2024. – via [Newspapers.com](/source/Newspapers.com)

1. Roth, Andrew (16 July 2002). ["Tim Rathbone"](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/jul/16/guardianobituaries.conservatives). *[The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)*. Retrieved 2 April 2024.

1. Hanning, James (12 May 2010). ["Born to rule? The charmed life of a class act"](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/born-to-rule-the-charmed-life-of-a-class-act-1971394.html). *[The Independent](/source/The_Independent)*. Retrieved 2 April 2024.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Tim Rathbone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Rathbone) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Rathbone?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.