John Garrett

Who was John Garrett?

John Laurence Garrett was a British management consultant and Labour Party politician. He was Member of Parliament for Norwich South for 19 years in two non-consecutive terms, from 1974 to 1983, and later from 1987 to 1997.

Garrett was born in Romford, the son of a book-keeper. He was brought up in Walthamstow, and attended Sir George Monoux Grammar School. After National Service in the Royal Air Force he read geography at University College, Oxford, graduating with a first. He undertook research into industrial location, receiving a B.Litt, and spent a year at the University of California graduate business school as a King George VI Fellow.

He worked in industry as a labour officer in the chemical industry, then a market research manager in the car industry, and finally a management consultant with Inbucon from 1963. He contributed to the Fulton Commission, on the reform of the civil service, from 1966 to 1968.

He joined the Labour Party in 1951, and was elected to Greenwich Borough Council in 1970. He fought Norwich South in 1972, and unseated the Conservative Thomas Stuttaford, a local GP, at the February 1974 general election.