30 Facts About Geoffrey Finsberg

Geoffrey Finsberg served at Glapwell colliery in Derbyshire; in 1993, he was elected as the first president of the Bevin Boys Association.

From a young age, Geoffrey Finsberg was active in the Conservative Party, and was founder chairman of Mansfield Young Conservatives from 1946 to 1947; this was the area where he was working as a Bevin Boy.

Geoffrey Finsberg subsequently became chairman of the Hampstead Young Conservatives, aged 22, at a time when the constituency had nearly 1,000 party members.

Geoffrey Finsberg was keen to get into Parliament, and, along with many others, he schemed to remove Hampstead's incumbent Conservative MP, Charles Challen, and replace him with Henry Brooke.

Geoffrey Finsberg was re-elected at the following two council elections.

Geoffrey Finsberg served as National Chairman of the Young Conservatives from 1954 to 1957.

Geoffrey Finsberg became a Justice of the Peace for Inner London in 1962.

Geoffrey Finsberg was elected to Camden's Hampstead Central ward at the inaugural 1964 elections, and became Leader of the Council in 1968, a role he held until 1970.

At the 1970 general election, whilst still serving as a councillor, Geoffrey Finsberg was elected as the Member of Parliament for Hampstead, unseating the incumbent Labour MP Benjamin Whitaker by a margin of just 474 votes.

Geoffrey Finsberg acted as Opposition spokesman on Greater London from 1974 to 1979, and was a member of the Executive of the 1922 Committee, representing Conservative backbenchers, from 1974 to 1975.

Boundary changes saw Geoffrey Finsberg become the MP for Hampstead and Highgate at the 1983 general election, at which he beat another Labour left-winger, John McDonnell.

That year, Geoffrey Finsberg again became a Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party Organisation, holding this role until 1987.

In 1983, Geoffrey Finsberg became a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Western European Union; in 1987, he became its delegation leader.

Geoffrey Finsberg was the founding Vice-Chairman of the parliamentary branch of Conservative Friends of Israel: he broke the party Whip during the 1973 Yom Kippur War to vote against his leader Ted Heath's government in a division on an arms embargo.

Geoffrey Finsberg retired from Parliament at the 1992 general election, at which his seat was taken by Labour's Glenda Jackson, defeating Conservative Oliver Letwin.

Geoffrey Finsberg was created a life peer in 1992 as Baron Finsberg, of Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden.

Outside of politics, Geoffrey Finsberg was active in business and charities.

Geoffrey Finsberg served as a member and Deputy Chairman of the South East Regional Board at Trustee Savings Bank.

Geoffrey Finsberg was a member of the Post Office Users National Council from 1970 to 1977, and a member of the Council of the Confederation of British Industry from 1968 to 1979, where he was Chairman of the Post Office Panel.

Geoffrey Finsberg served as Vice-President of the Association of Municipal Corporations from 1971 to 1974, where he was Deputy Chairman from 1969 to 1971.

Geoffrey Finsberg was a patron of the Maccabi Association of Great Britain, and in 1993, became a trustee of the Marie Curie Cancer Foundation.

Geoffrey Finsberg was vice president and life patron of Children and Youth Aliyah.

Geoffrey Finsberg became a Fellow of the Institute of Personnel Management in 1975.

Geoffrey Finsberg was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1959 New Year Honours, and knighted in the 1984 New Year Honours.

Outside the UK, Geoffrey Finsberg was awarded Austria's Order of Merit in 1989, and the following year, became a Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic in Spain.

In 1969, Geoffrey Finsberg married Pamela Benbow Hill; she died in 1989, and the following year, he married Yvonne Elizabeth Sarch, who was an old friend of his.

Geoffrey Finsberg was a member of the Carlton Club and the Marylebone Cricket Club.

Geoffrey Finsberg lived in South Hampstead, part of his former constituency.

Geoffrey Finsberg died on 8 October 1996, aged 70, in Stockholm.

Geoffrey Finsberg was survived by his second wife, Lady Finsberg.