British politician

Bernard Richard Braine, Baron Braine of Wheatley, PC (24 June 1914 – 5 January 2000) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for 42 years, from 1950 to 1992, representing cons*uencies in Essex.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Political career
• 3 Later life
• 4 Arms
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Early life

He was educated at Hendon County Grammar School, and served with the North Staffordshire Regiment in the Second World War, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

Political career

In 1948, Braine opposed GATT, arguing that it limited imperial preference.

Having stood unsuccessfully for Leyton East in 1945, Braine was elected as MP for Billericay at the 1950 general election. When cons*uency boundaries were revised for the 1955 election he was returned for the new South East Essex cons*uency, and when that cons*uency was abolished for the 1983 general election, he was elected for the new Castle Point cons*uency, becoming Father of the House of Commons in 1987 after James Callaghan's elevation to the House of Lords.

During his long parliamentary career, Braine served as a junior Minister variously for Pensions, Commonwealth Relations and Health.

He was chairman of the National Council on Alcoholism, and author of the report Alcohol and Work (1977), widely known as the Braine Report. He was a member of the Parliamentary Groups on Human Rights and against abortion. For many years he served as an unofficial amb*ador of HM's government to the Polish Government-in-Exile in London. He was knighted in the 1972 New Year Honours, and appointed as a Privy Counsellor in 1985.

Braine championed many causes involving oppressed people. Among them was the Campaign for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted, of which he was President and later Chairman during 1980-1987. In this capacity and in collaboration with the exiled journalist Josef Josten, he campaigned vigorously for the release from prison of the dissident playwright Vaclav Havel, who later became President of the Czech Republic. He was decorated by Havel at a ceremony in Prague Castle on 28 October 1995.

Later life

Braine stepped down from Parliament at the 1992 general election, and on 10 August that year he was made a life peer as Baron Braine of Wheatley, of Rayleigh in the County of Essex. He died in January 2000 at the age of 85.

Arms

References

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Bernard Braine
• "In Memoriam Bernard Braine". Ins*ute of Alcohol Studies. January 2000. Retrieved 18 January 2007.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
• Parliamentary Archives, The papers of Baron Braine of Wheatley, 1947-1994