Ronald Gardner-Thorpe

Ronald Gardner-Thorpe

Colonel Sir Ronald Laurence Gardner-Thorpe GBE TD JP (13 May 1917 – 11 December 1991), was a British company director and Liberal Party politician. He was also Lord Mayor of London.

Background

Gardner-Thorpe was the son Joseph Gardner and Hannah Coulthurst Thorpe. He was educated at St John's College, Portsmouth.^[1][2] In 1938 he married Hazel Mary Dees. They had one son.^[3]

Political career

Gardner-Thorpe was Liberal candidate for the Eastbourne division of Sussex at the 1959 General Election. The Liberals had not run a candidate at the previous election in 1955. He managed a respectable 18% poll, finishing third. He was joint honorary treasurer of the Liberal Party, a member of the party executive and President of the Home Counties Young Liberals.^[4]

He was Liberal candidate at the West Derbyshire by-election, 1962. The election took place at a period where the Liberal Party's fortunes were on the rise following victory in the Orpington by-election. Again, no Liberal had stood at the previous general election; despite this, he was able to poll nearly a third of the vote, push Labour into third place and come within 1,200 votes of gaining the seat from the Conservatives. He was Liberal candidate again for West Derbyshire at the 1964 General Election. However this time, the Conservatives regained some lost support and Gardner-Thorpe remained second. He did not stand for parliament again.^[5] He was Sheriff of London in 1978. In 1980 he was appointed a Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1980.

Electoral record

General Election 1959: Eastbourne

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Charles Stuart Taylor	27,874	57.3	-8.4
	Labour	A A Dumont	11,837	24.3	-10.0
	Liberal	Ronald Laurence Gardner-Thorpe	8,955	18.4	n/a
Majority			16,037	33.0	+1.6
Turnout			48,666	77.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	+0.8

West Derbyshire by-election, 1962

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Aidan Merivale Crawley	12,455	36.0	-25.3
	Liberal	Ronald Laurence Gardner-Thorpe	11,235	32.5	+32.5
	Labour	John Dilks	9,431	27.2	-11.5
	Independent	Raymond Gregory	1,433	4.1	+4.1
Majority			1,220
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1964: West Derbyshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Aidan Merivale Crawley	16,825	44.2	+8.2
	Liberal	Ronald Laurence Gardner-Thorpe	11,559	30.4	-2.1
	Labour	John Dilks	9,669	25.4	-1.8
Majority			5,266	13.8	+10.3
Turnout				85.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	+5.1

References

1. "Sir Ronald Gardner-Thorpe". Royal College of Physicians. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
2. Cradled In History: the History of St John's College by Michael Magan, 1974, p.90, 181
3. "GARDNER-THORPE, Col Ronald (Laurence)", Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014, accessed 25 June 2015. Registration required.
4. Time & Tide - Volume 43, 1962
5. British parliamentary election results 1950-1983, Craig, F.W.S.