Tom Sackville

Thomas or Tom Geoffrey Sackville (born 26 October 1950) is a British Conservative politician and anti-cultist.

For other people named Thomas Sackville, see Thomas Sackville (disambiguation).

The Honourable
Thomas Sackville
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
In office
28 November 1995 – 1 May 1997
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byNicholas Baker
Succeeded byThe Lord Williams of Mostyn
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security
In office
14 April 1992 – 28 November 1995
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded bynew appointment
Succeeded byJohn Horam
Lord Commissioner of the Treasury
In office
30 October 1989 – 14 April 1992
Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher
John Major
Preceded byDavid Heathcoat-Amory
Succeeded byTimothy Wood
Member of Parliament
for Bolton West
In office
9 June 1983 – 8 April 1997
Preceded byAnn Taylor
Succeeded byRuth Kelly
Personal details
Born (1950-10-26) 26 October 1950
Parent(s)William Sackville, 10th Earl De La Warr
Anne Rachel Devas

Family and early life

Sackville is the second son of William Sackville, 10th Earl De La Warr (died February 1988) and Anne Rachel Devas, and his brother is William Herbrand Sackville, the 11th Earl De La Warr.[1]

In 1979, he married Catherine Thérèsa Windsor-Lewis, daughter of Brigadier James Charles Windsor-Lewis.[1] They have two children, Arthur Michael Sackville (born 1983) and Savannah Elizabeth Sackville (born 1986), both adopted.[1]

He was educated at Eton College and Lincoln College, Oxford, and he began his professional career in merchant banking.[1]

Parliamentary career

Sackville first ran for Parliament in the constituency of Pontypool in the 1979 election, being beaten by Labour's Leo Abse.

He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Bolton West from the 1983 election until he was defeated by Ruth Kelly in the 1997 election. He held the office of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State between 1992 and 1997, initially for the Department of Health, then as a Home Office minister between 1995 and 1997.[1][2]

Anti-cult activities

In 1985 he started All-Party Committee Against Cults[3] and 20 October 2000 he became first chairman of The Family Survival Trust (formerly Family, Action, Information, Rescue/Resource or FAIR), an anti-cult organisation.[2]

In 1997 he ended government funding for the independent research group Information Network Focus on Religious Movements (INFORM), created by sociologist Eileen Barker. Funds were reinstated in 2000.[2] In his article for The Spectator (2004) he accused INFORM and its president Eileen Barker of "refusing to criticise the worst excesses of cult leaders", and congratulated the Archbishop of Canterbury for declining to become a patron of INFORM. The allegations were described by INFORM as unfounded.[3]

In 2005 he was elected as vice-president of European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism (FECRIS), an umbrella organization for anti-cult groups in Europe, and from 2009 he has served as its president.[3]

Sackville is the current CEO of the International Federation of Health Plans.[4] He is also the current chairman of the trustees of the Family Survival Trust.[5]

See also

References
  1. Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage. Vol. 1 (107th ed.). p. 1074. ISBN 978-0971196629. Cited in Lundy, Darryl Roger (ed.). "Hon. Thomas Geoffrey Sackville". The Peerage. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016.
  2. "Cult advisers in clash over clampdown", The Daily Telegraph, 31 July 2000, retrieved 19 December 2009
  3. Regis Dericquebourg, A Case Study: FECRIS, Journal for the Study of Beliefs and Worldviews, 2012/2, p.188–189, ISBN 978-3-643-99894-1
  4. "Speakers Health Insurance Counter Fraud Group". hicfg.com. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  5. "The Family Survival Trust - supporting victims of cults". The Family Survival. Retrieved 2 August 2022.


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