Jock Bruce-Gardyne

Who was Jock Bruce-Gardyne?

John Bruce-Gardyne, Baron Bruce-Gardyne was a British Conservative Party politician.

Son of Captain Evan Bruce-Gardyne, DSO, RN 13th Laird of Middleton, and a member of a Scottish landholding family who have been based in the county of Angus since at least 1008 AD. He was born in Chertsey, Surrey. Bruce-Gardyne was educated at Twyford School, Winchester College and Magdalen College, Oxford, and then served for six years in Foreign Service before becoming a journalist. He was a council member of the Bow Group.

At the 1964 general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament for South Angus where the family seats of Gardyne Castle, Finavon Castle and Middleton all stood. He held the seat until the October 1974 general election, when he lost to Andrew Welsh of the Scottish National Party. Bruce-Gardyne was later elected MP for Knutsford in a 1979 by-election, but was effectively forced out of the House of Commons when the seat was abolished by boundary changes for the 1983 general election. He was a monetarist but also was against the Falklands war and was an independent-minded MP. His well-known publication, Meriden: Odyssey Of A Lame Duck virulently attacked Tony Benn's setting up of the Meriden Workers' Co-operative to continue production of Triumph Motorcycles. He was succeeded in the new Tatton seat by Neil Hamilton. He was created a life peer as Baron Bruce-Gardyne, of Kirkden in the District of Angus, on 7 October 1983.