25 Facts About Peter Bottomley

Sir Peter James Bottomley was born on 30 July 1944 and is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as a Member of Parliament since 1975 when elected for Woolwich West, serving until it was abolished before the 1983 general election.

Peter Bottomley has represented the Worthing West constituency since its establishment in 1997.

Peter Bottomley was born in Newport, Shropshire, the son of Sir James Peter Bottomley, a wartime army officer who later joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and of Barbara, nee Vardon, a social worker.

Peter Bottomley was baptised at St Swithun's Parish Church at Cheswardine in Shropshire, where his parents had married.

Peter Bottomley's supervisor was James Mirrlees, who later gained the Nobel Prize for Economics.

Peter Bottomley joined the Conservative Party in 1972, at the age of 28.

Peter Bottomley contested the Vauxhall constituency in the 1973 GLC election and Woolwich West parliamentary seat in the February and October general elections of 1974, failing to defeat the sitting Labour MP William Hamling.

Hamling died on 20 March 1975, and in the space of 18 months, Peter Bottomley faced the electors of Woolwich West for a third time at the by-election on 26 June 1975.

Peter Bottomley was elected the Conservative MP for Woolwich West with a majority of 2,382, holding this seat and its successor, Eltham, in Parliament for the next 22 years.

Peter Bottomley was for some years a member of the Conservative Monday Club as well as a member of the Bow Group and Tory Reform Group.

Peter Bottomley has been chairman of the Church of England's Children's Society, a trustee of Mind and of Nacro and on the policy committee of One Parent Families.

Peter Bottomley served with John Sentamu on the successor committee to the Archbishop of Canterbury's commission that produced the report Faith in the City, and chaired the churches' review group on the Churches Main Committee.

Peter Bottomley is a member of the Ecclesiastical Committee and has been appointed the Parliamentary Warden at St Margaret's Church, Westminster.

Peter Bottomley has led the United Kingdom delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Peter Bottomley fought the new constituency of Eltham at the 1983 general election, winning the seat with a majority of more than 7,500 votes.

Peter Bottomley was dropped by Thatcher in 1990, when he briefly became PPS to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Brooke.

Peter Bottomley has been a captain of the Parliamentary football team, participated in the parliamentary swimming competition and organised the annual dinghy sailing against the House of Lords.

Peter Bottomley was captain of the Commons eight, winning the first Thames rowing race in gigs against the Lords in 2007.

Peter Bottomley decided not to re-contest Eltham after major boundary changes, but sought nomination elsewhere.

In 2009, Peter Bottomley was the vice-chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Flag Group.

Peter Bottomley has been a supporter of British pensioners living overseas, mainly in Commonwealth countries who have had their British state pensions frozen at the rates at which they were first paid or as at the dates of migration.

An advocate for reducing the voting age to 16, Peter Bottomley is a co-founder and Vice Chair of the APPG on Votes at 16 and a supporter of the Votes at 16 campaign.

Peter Bottomley is co-chair to the APPG on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood and campaigns to get justice for those affected by the tainted blood scandal.

Peter Bottomley's niece is Kitty Ussher, the economist, former Labour MP and Minister.

Peter Bottomley was knighted in the 2011 New Year Honours for public service.