Cecil Parkinson
Cecil Edward Parkinson, Baron Parkinson, PC[1] (1 September 1931 – 22 January 2016) was a British Conservative Party politician and cabinet minister. A chartered accountant by training, he entered Parliament in November 1970, and was appointed a minister in Margaret Thatcher's first government in May 1979. He successfully managed the Conservative Party's 1983 election campaign, and was rewarded with an appointment as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, but was forced to resign following revelations that his former secretary, Sara Keays, was pregnant with his child, whom she later bore and named Flora Keays.[2] Flora was born with severe cerebral palsy.
"Baron Parkinson" redirects here. For other people titled Lord Parkinson, see Lord Parkinson (disambiguation).
The Lord Parkinson
- The Lord Cockfield (Trade)
- Patrick Jenkin (Industry)
1 September 1931
Carnforth, Lancashire, England
22 January 2016 (aged 84)
Marylebone, London, England
4
Parkinson subsequently served as Secretary of State for Energy, and later Secretary of State for Transport. He resigned that office in 1990, on the same day that Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister. He was created Baron Parkinson in 1992, and served in the House of Lords until his retirement in September 2015.[3][4]
Early life[edit]
Cecil Parkinson was born at 4 Edward Street, Carnforth, Lancashire, the son of Sydney Parkinson (13 April 1906 – 15 July 1995), a warehouseman for a corn dealer, later a railwayman, and his wife, Bridget, née Graham (29 January 1910 – 1991), who was from a Northern Irish family from Tyrone and Fermanagh but their roots were in Scotland. He had a younger sister, Norma (b. March 1933).[5] He was educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School, a state-run day and boarding school for boys, from 1943 to 1950 after passing his eleven-plus from where he won a scholarship to Cambridge University, where he read English at Emmanuel College, later switching to read law. He won a Blue as an athlete, competing over 220 and 440 yards. While at university, Parkinson was a Labour supporter and for a time was a member of that party. He even canvassed for them at the 1950 and 1951 General Elections. He did National service as an NCO in the Royal Air Force from 1950 to 1952.
After leaving university, Parkinson worked as a manager for the Metal Box Company, later becoming a consultant. He trained and qualified as a chartered accountant, and founded Parkinson-Hart Securities in 1961.
Personal life[edit]
Parkinson married Ann Mary Jarvis on 2 February 1957. They had three daughters: Mary, Emma and Joanna. Mary was found hanged in December 2017 following a period of depression after her father's death in 2016.[12][13]
As a result of an extra-marital affair with Sara Keays, his personal secretary, he fathered a daughter, Flora, whom he never met or acknowledged.
He was a supporter of Preston North End,[14] and in November 1988 paid a tribute to Tom Finney on This Is Your Life.[15]
Parkinson was an active freemason.[16]
Death[edit]
Parkinson died from colorectal cancer at The London Clinic in Marylebone, London, on 22 January 2016.[17] He left nothing in his will for his daughter Flora:[18] in April 2017, it was reported that Sara Keays was preparing to sue Parkinson's estate to continue to gain support for her daughter's 24-hour care, for regular payments had ceased a few months after Parkinson died.[19]
Parkinson's daughter, Mary, was found dead at her home in Wandsworth on 10 December 2017, aged 57. Police did not treat the death as suspicious,[20] and it was later reported that she had taken her own life.
Charitable works[edit]
He was one of the three presidents of the UK-based charity Action on Addiction.[21]
In the media[edit]
Parkinson's affair with Sara Keays was a running joke in the satirical magazine Private Eye for over a decade (and on the satirical TV programme Spitting Image for nearly as long), with the magazine seldom passing up an opportunity to portray Parkinson as having a voracious sexual appetite.[22] The relationship was the subject of a 2024 Channel 5 television documentary, A Very British Sex Scandal: The Love Child & the Secretary, aired from 1 May.[23]
He was interviewed about the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006 BBC TV documentary series Tory! Tory! Tory!