Ronald Gardner-Thorpe

Colonel Sir Ronald Laurence Gardner-Thorpe GBE TD (13 May 1917 – 11 December 1991), was a British company director and Liberal Party politician who also became the 653rd Lord Mayor of London in 1980.

Ronald Gardner-Thorpe

Background

Gardner-Thorpe was the son of 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 1962 West Derbyshire by-election. 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 elected Sheriff of London in 1978 and Lord Mayor of London in 1980. In 1980 he was knighted a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE).

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
1962 West Derbyshire by-election
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

Honours/Awards
  • GBE (1980)
  • KStJ (1980)
  • TD (1948)
  • Hon DCL London (1980)
  • Hon DH Lewis Chicago (1981)
  • Hon FRCP (1986)

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. Retrieved 25 June 2015. Registration required.
  4. Time & Tide – Volume 43, 1962
  5. British parliamentary election results 1950–1983, Craig, F.W.S.
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