Quentin Davies, Baron Davies of Stamford

Early life and education

Quentin Davies was born in Oxford, the son of a doctor who had served in the Royal Air Force in the Second World War.

He was educated: firstly at the Dragon School, a preparatory school in Oxford, and then at the Quaker Leighton Park School at Reading.

Davies then studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, graduating with a first class Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1966. After graduating he became a Frank Knox Fellow at Harvard University.

Career

Diplomat

After his education, he joined the diplomatic service and was appointed Third Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1967, and became a Second Secretary at HM Embassy Moscow in 1969, before returning to London as one of several First Secretaries at the Foreign Office in 1972.

Merchant banker

Davies left the diplomatic service in 1974 when he joined Morgan Grenfell. In turn he was an assistant director, the president of the firm in France in 1978, and a director of the international company in 1981, in which capacity he remained until his election to Parliament in 1987. He continued as a consultant to Morgan Grenfell until 1993.

Politician

Davies contested the 1977 Birmingham Ladywood by-election for the Conservatives. The by-election, caused by the resignation of Brian Walden, was won by Labour's John Sever with a majority of 3,825. He was elected to the House of Commons ten years later at the 1987 General Election for the safe Conservative seat of Stamford and Spalding on the retirement of the sitting MP, Kenneth Lewis. Davies held the seat with a majority of 13,991 votes. The constituency was abolished in 1997, and he represented the redrawn seat of Grantham and Stamford until his retirement from the House of Commons at the 2010 General Election.

In Parliament, he was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science Angela Rumbold in 1988, and remained her PPS in her incarnation as the Minister at the Home Office. After the 1992 General Election he was a member of the Treasury Committee until he was promoted to the Opposition frontbench by William Hague in 1998 as a spokesman on social security, moving in 1999 to speak on Treasury matters, moving again in 2000 as a spokesman on defence. After the 2001 General Election he joined the Shadow Cabinet of Iain Duncan Smith, even though he had backed Kenneth Clarke's leadership bid. Under Iain Duncan Smith, he became the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, continuing until the election of Michael Howard in 2003, when he became a member of the International Development Committee, a role that he continued in until he joined the Labour Party in 2007.

Prior to becoming a Minister, Davies held many directorships and consultancies with several companies. He was awarded the 'Parliamentarian of the Year Award' by The Guardian in 1996, the same year he was named 'Backbencher of the Year' by BBC Radio 4. He was the Chairman of the Conservative Group for Europe from March 2006 until his defection to Labour in June 2007. In 1991, he was fined on two charges of animal cruelty, having been legally responsible for his farm employees’ failure to feed the sheep on his estate. Following his conviction and the immediate dismissal of the shepherd who had been left in charge, he was greeted by Labour MPs with calls of 'Baaa!'

Davies announced in 2010 that he would not stand for re-election in the coming general election. At the general election of 6 May 2010, Nick Boles, a Conservative (later an independent Conservative), was elected in his place. On 28 May 2010 it was announced Davies would be made a life peer in the Dissolution Honours List and he was created Baron Davies of Stamford, of Stamford in the county of Lincolnshire on 7 July.

Personal life and death

Davies married Chantal Tamplin (daughter of Lt.Col. Richard Tamplin) in 1983 at St Andrew's church in Irnham, Lincolnshire; she was his Parliamentary Assistant and they have two sons (Alexander born May 1987 and Nicholas in August 1988). They lived at Frampton Hall (built in 1725 by Coney Tunnard) in Frampton, in the borough of Boston.

In January 2010, Quentin Davies's niece, former model Jessica Davies, was found guilty of murder in Paris and sentenced to 15 years in jail after admitting to stabbing to death a man in her apartment. She was reportedly intoxicated at the time of the murder.

Quentin Davies died on 13 January 2025, at the age of 80.