- Ronald Bell (UK politician)
Sir Ronald McMillan Bell, (
14 April 1914 –27 February 1982 ), QC (1966),Knight Bachelor (1980), was a Conservative PartyMember of Parliament (MP) in theUnited Kingdom representing South Buckinghamshire from 1950 to 1974 and Beaconsfield from 1974 to 1982. He was a senior member of theConservative Monday Club from 1962 to 1982.Family and education
The younger son of John Bell, Ronald was educated at
Cardiff High School , and Magdalen College,Oxford University , (BA 1936, MA 1941). In 1935, he was Secretary and Treasurer of theOxford Union Society , and President of theOxford University Conservative Association . In 1954, he married Elizabeth Audrey, eldest daughter of Kenneth Gossell, MC, of Burwash, Sussex, and by her had two sons (Andrew and Robert), and two daughters (Fiona and Lucinda).Military and civilian life
In 1938, he was called to the Bar at
Gray's Inn ,London , and practised as a barrister-at-law in London and on the South-Eastern Circuit. He took silk in 1966. Bell served in theRoyal Navy Volunteer Reserve from 1939 to 1946. In 1975, he became a member of Court of theUniversity of Reading .Political career
Bell had unsuccessfully contested the Caerphilly Division of
Glamorgan at a by-election in 1939, but was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for Newport at a by-election in May 1945. He lost that seat just two months later, at the general election in July 1945.He was a member of Paddington Borough Council in London from 1947 to 1949, and was elected as Conservative MP for South Buckinghamshire at the 1950 general election. When that constituency was abolished for the February 1974 general election, he was elected for the new Beaconsfield from 1974. In 1974, he became a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on European Legislation.
Monday Club
Bell was an early (1962) and very active senior member of the Conservative Monday Club, and led the rebels in the House of Commons against the
Race Relations Act 1965 . He argued against the importing of a new law affecting freedom of speech, and freedom to employ whoever one wishes, and, supported byEnoch Powell , said the Bill made "very deep and damaging encroachments into the proper sphere of personal decision". He also felt that the Bill was an effort to achieve unwarranted equality, and that it was "concerned solely and exclusively with the intention to achieve social equality". ["Hansard",23 March (p.102) and23 April 1968 , (p.102)] .He was one of the principal MP speakers at the Club's 'Law and Liberty'
May Day 1970 rally inTrafalgar Square , in answer to the 'Stop the Seventy Tour' campaign designed to stop theSouth Africa n cricket tour.Bell was still a member of the Club's Executive Council in 1971 and 1972 when, in September of the latter year, he was a principal speaker at the Club's 'Halt Immigration Now!' rally in
Westminster Central Hall , following which a resolution was passed calling upon the government to halt all immigration, repeal theRace Relations Act , and start a full repatriation scheme. This was delivered toEdward Heath , thenPrime Minister , who said that the government had no intention of repealing the Act.Publications
* Bell, Ronald, "Crown Proceedings", London, 1948.
References
* Copping, Robert, "The Story of the Monday Club - The First Decade", Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, April 1972,(P/B).
* Copping, Robert, "The Monday Club - Crisis and After" CAIS, Ilford, May 1975 (P/B), pps:6 and 16.
* Obituary - The "Primrose League Gazette", (editor Stephen Parker), vol.86, no.2, April 1982, London.
* Black, A & C, "Who Was Who, 1981-1990", London, (vol.VIII).
*
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