David Faber | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Westbury | |
In office 9 April 1992 –14 May 2001 | |
Preceded by | Dennis Walters |
Succeeded by | Andrew Murrison |
Personal details | |
Born | 7 July 1961 |
Nationality | British |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse(s) | 1. Sally Gilbert 2. Sophie Hedley |
David James Christian Faber (born 7 July 1961) is a schoolmaster and former Conservative member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. He did not seek re-election in 2001,after which he became an author,before in 2010 being appointed as head master of Summer Fields School,Oxford. He is the grandson of the late former Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (1894–1986).
The son of Julian and Lady Caroline Faber,Faber comes from an aristocratic political family drawn from the Whig and latterly the Conservative traditions. His maternal grandfather Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister at the time of his birth. His maternal grandmother,Lady Dorothy Cavendish,was descended from three Prime Ministers,the 4th Duke of Devonshire (1756–1757),the 2nd Earl of Shelburne (1782–1783) and the 3rd Duke of Portland (1783 and 1807–1809). Faber's great-great-great-granduncle was Lord Hartington and his great-grandfather Victor Cavendish,9th Duke of Devonshire was also a statesman. His mother's cousins included Andrew Cavendish,11th Duke of Devonshire,who was married to Deborah Mitford,and Andrew's elder brother William Cavendish,Marquess of Hartington,who was married to Kathleen Kennedy,the sister of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy. His uncle Maurice Macmillan was a leading figure of Edward Heath's 1970s government.
Faber was educated at Summer Fields School,Summertown;and then at Eton College and Balliol College,Oxford. As an undergrade Faber was a member of the Bullingdon Club,an all-male dining club for Oxford University students dating back to 1780. It is known for its wealthy members,grand banquets,and bad behaviour,including vandalism of restaurants and students' rooms. [1]
Faber first stood for Parliament,unsuccessfully,in 1987 at Stockton North,where he was defeated by Labour's Frank Cook.
He worked in marketing and as a political assistant to Jeffrey Archer before entering the House of Commons in 1992 as Conservative Member of Parliament for Westbury. [2] He was parliamentary private secretary to the Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office,1994 to 1996,and then to the Secretary of State for Health,from 1996 to 1997. In opposition,after the Conservatives lost the 1997 general election,he was their front bench spokesman on Foreign and Commonwealth affairs,until 1998. He served as a member of several Parliamentary select committees:Social Security,1992–1997,Culture,Media and Sport,1998 to 2001,and the Public Accounts Committee,2000–2001. [3]
Faber stood down from parliament at the 2001 general election,to be succeeded by fellow Conservative Andrew Murrison,when he began a new career as a writer. His book Speaking for England:Leo,Julian and John Amery,the tragedy of a political family (2005) was about Julian Amery,his uncle by his (Amery's) marriage to Faber's maternal aunt,Julian's father Leo,and brother John,who was executed after the Second World War for high treason.
In 2009,he was appointed as head of his old prep school,Summer Fields,with effect from September 2010.
Faber married firstly Sally Gilbert,a television weather presenter,and they had one son together,but later divorced,with Faber citing James Hewitt as co-respondent. [4] He married secondly Sophie Amanda Hedley,and they have two daughters. He is a past committee member of the Marylebone Cricket Club,the governing body of the game of cricket,managing an MCC tour of Canada in 2001. [5] He is also a member of White's. [3]
Duke of Devonshire is a title in the Peerage of England held by members of the Cavendish family. This branch of the Cavendish family has been one of the wealthiest British aristocratic families since the 16th century and has been rivalled in political influence perhaps only by the Marquesses of Salisbury and the Earls of Derby.
Deborah Vivien Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, was an English aristocrat, writer, memoirist, and socialite. She was the youngest and last-surviving of the six Mitford sisters, who were prominent members of British society in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political alliance with the Conservative Party in opposition to Irish Home Rule. The two parties formed the ten-year-long coalition Unionist Government 1895–1905 but kept separate political funds and their own party organisations until a complete merger between the Liberal Unionist and the Conservative parties was agreed to in May 1912.
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, was an English Army officer, Whig politician and peer who sat in the House of Commons from 1661 until 1684 when he inherited his father's peerage as Earl of Devonshire and took his seat in the House of Lords. Cavendish was part of the "Immortal Seven" which invited William of Orange to depose James II of England as part of the Glorious Revolution, and was rewarded for his efforts by being elevated to the Duke of Devonshire in 1694.
William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, was a British nobleman and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1721 to 1729 when he inherited the Dukedom.
Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire,, styled Lord Cavendish of Keighley between 1834 and 1858 and Marquess of Hartington between 1858 and 1891, was a British statesman. He has the distinction of having held leading positions in three political parties: leading the Liberal Party, the Liberal Unionist Party and the Conservative Party in either the House of Commons or the House of Lords. After 1886 he increasingly voted with the Conservatives. He declined to become prime minister on three occasions, because the circumstances were never right. Historian and politician Roy Jenkins said he was "too easy-going and too little of a party man." He held some passions, but he rarely displayed them regarding the most controversial issues of the day.
Victor Christian William Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire, known as Victor Cavendish until 1908, was a British peer and politician who served as Governor General of Canada.
Edward William Spencer Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire,, known as the Marquess of Hartington from 1908 to 1938, was a British politician. He was the head of the Devonshire branch of the House of Cavendish. He had careers with the army and in politics and was a senior freemason. His sudden death, apparently of a heart attack at the age of fifty-five, occurred in the presence of the suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams.
Andrew Robert Buxton Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire,, styled Lord Andrew Cavendish until 1944 and Marquess of Hartington from 1944 to 1950, was a British peer and politician. He was a minister in the government of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, and is also known for opening Chatsworth House to the public.
Maurice Victor Macmillan, Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden,, was a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament. He was the only son of Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963.
William John Robert Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington was a British politician and British Army officer. He was the elder son of Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire, and therefore the heir to the dukedom. He was killed in action in the Second World War during fighting in the Low Countries in September 1944 whilst leading a company of the Coldstream Guards.
Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery, also known as L. S. Amery, was a British Conservative politician and journalist. During his career, he was known for his interest in military preparedness, British India and the British Empire and for his opposition to appeasement. After his retirement and death, he was perhaps best known for the remarks he made in the House of Commons on 7 May 1940 during the Norway Debate.
Peregrine Andrew Morny Cavendish, 12th Duke of Devonshire,, is an English peer. He is the only surviving son of Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire, and his wife, the former Deborah Mitford. He succeeded to the dukedom following the death of his father on 3 May 2004. Before his succession, he was styled Earl of Burlington from 1944 until 1950 and Marquess of Hartington between 1950 and 2004. His immediate family are owner-occupiers of Chatsworth House and are worth an estimated £910 million. Estates landscaped before 1900 by the family are parts of Derbyshire and North Yorkshire. Other capital managed by the Duke includes fine and contemporary art, forestry and farming.
The Bullingdon Club is a private all-male dining club for Oxford University students. It is known for its wealthy members, grand banquets, and bad behaviour, including vandalism of restaurants and students' rooms. The club selects its members not only on the grounds of wealth and willingness to participate but also by reference to their education.
Mary Alice Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, was a British courtier who served as Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth II from 1953 to 1967. She was the granddaughter of Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury.
Harold Julian Amery, Baron Amery of Lustleigh, was a British Conservative Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 39 of the 42 years between 1950 and 1992. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1960.
Julian Tufnell Faber was a leading figure in the insurance business.
Lady Dorothy Evelyn Macmillan was an English socialite and the third daughter of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire, and Evelyn Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. She was married to Harold Macmillan from 1920 until her death.
The Cavendishfamily is a British noble family, of Anglo-Norman origins. They rose to their highest prominence as Duke of Devonshire and Duke of Newcastle.
St Peter's Church, Edensor, is a Grade I listed church in Edensor, Derbyshire. St Peter's is the closest parish church in the Church of England to Chatsworth House, home of the Dukes of Devonshire, most of whom are buried in the churchyard. St Peter's is in a joint parish with St Anne's Church, Beeley.