Colin Thornton-Kemsley

Sir Colin Norman Thornton-Kemsley, OBE, TD (2 September 1903 – 17 July 1977) was a Conservative and National Liberal politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kincardine and Western Aberdeenshire from 1939 to 1950, and for North Angus and Mearns from 1950 until his retirement at the 1964 general election.

Sir Colin Thornton-Kemsley

OBE TD
Photograph by Bassano Ltd, taken 1950.
Chairman of the National Liberal Party
In office
1961–1964
Preceded byJames Henderson-Stewart
Succeeded byDavid Renton
Member of Parliament
for North Angus and Mearns (1950-1964)
Kincardine and Western Aberdeenshire (1939–1950)
In office
30 March 1939  15 October 1964
Preceded byMalcolm Barclay-Harvey
Succeeded byAlick Buchanan-Smith
Personal details
Born(1903-09-02)2 September 1903
Died17 July 1977(1977-07-17) (aged 73)
Political partyNational Liberal
Conservative

Early life

Thornton-Kemsley was born in 1903 and grew up in a London suburb. He was educated at Chigwell School, and graduated from Wadham College, Oxford.

Whilst he had a Scottish grandfather, he had no real connection to Scotland until 1930, when he married Alice Thornton; his second cousin and the granddaughter of the prominent Dundee lawyer Sir Thomas Thornton. Thomas Thornton had purchased Thornton castle in Kincardineshire in 1893, and at the time of the wedding Thornton was the owner and resident of the property.

Political career

Thornton-Kemsley was an active member of the Conservative constituency association for the London suburb of Epping, where he lived. He also served as the Honorary Treasurer of Essex and Middlesex Provincial Area, National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations. As a member of the Epping constituency party he made a name for himself in Conservative Party circles as a Neville Chamberlain loyalist who was central to bringing about a censure of Winston Churchill by the Epping Conservative Association.

In 1939 Malcolm Barclay-Harvey, the incumbent Unionist Member of Parliament for Kincardine and Western Aberdeenshire, was offered the position of Governor of South Australia. Thornton-Kemsley, due to his previous role in trying to bringing about a censure of Winston Churchill by the Epping Conservative Association, was offered the candidacy. At the outbreak of the war in 1939, Kemsley apologized. Churchill’s reply was characteristic: “I certainly think that Englishmen ought to start fair with one another from the outset in so grievous a struggle, and so far as I am concerned the past is dead.” (See Thornton-Kemsley, “Winston Secures his Base” in Through Winds and Tides, 1974, pp. 26-36.)

References

Party political offices
Preceded by
James Henderson-Stewart
Chairman of the National Liberal Party
1961–1964
Succeeded by
David Renton
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Malcolm Barclay-Harvey
Member of Parliament for Kincardine & Western Aberdeenshire
19391950
Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for North Angus & Mearns
19501964
Succeeded by
Alick Buchanan-Smith


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