22 Facts About Quentin Davies

John Quentin Davies, Baron Davies of Stamford was a British Labour politician and life peer who served as the Member of Parliament for Grantham and Stamford from 1987 to 2010.

Quentin Davies served as a junior defence minister in the Brown ministry from 2008 to 2010.

Quentin Davies was born in Oxford, the son of a doctor who had served in the Royal Air Force in the Second World War.

Quentin Davies was educated: firstly at the Dragon School, a preparatory school in Oxford, and then at the Quaker Leighton Park School at Reading.

Quentin Davies then studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, graduating with a first class Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1966.

Quentin Davies left the diplomatic service in 1974 when he joined Morgan Grenfell.

Quentin Davies continued as a consultant to Morgan Grenfell until 1993.

Quentin Davies contested the 1977 Birmingham Ladywood by-election for the Conservatives.

Quentin Davies was elected to the House of Commons ten years later at the 1987 General Election for the safe Conservative seat of Stamford and Spalding on the retirement of the sitting MP, Kenneth Lewis.

Quentin Davies held the seat with a majority of 13,991 votes.

Quentin Davies was awarded the 'Parliamentarian of the Year Award' by The Guardian in 1996, the same year he was named 'Backbencher of the Year' by BBC Radio 4.

Quentin Davies was the Chairman of the Conservative Group for Europe from March 2006 until his defection to Labour in June 2007.

Quentin Davies announced in 2010 that he would not stand for re-election in the coming general election.

On 28 May 2010 it was announced Quentin Davies would be made a life peer in the Dissolution Honours List and he was created Baron Quentin Davies of Stamford, of Stamford in the county of Lincolnshire on 7 July.

Quentin Davies left the Conservative Party to join the Labour Party benches on 26 June 2007, the night before Gordon Brown became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Quentin Davies will have no one but himself to blame.

On 5 October 2008, Quentin Davies was promoted to the government, becoming a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence Equipment and Support at the Ministry of Defence.

Quentin Davies replaced Lady Taylor as both Parliamentary Under-Secretary and Defence Procurement Minister.

Quentin Davies came under fire less than a month after taking over the Defence Equipment brief when an SAS reservist commander in Afghanistan resigned because of what he described as a 'chronic underinvestment' in troops' equipment and called the government's attitude to the consideration of the lack of military equipment 'cavalier at best, criminal at worst'.

Quentin Davies added it was not the attitude of the government to be dismissive of the lives of British soldiers and he said it was 'very surprising and sad' to hear the claims of the former SAS commander and when on visiting troops in Afghanistan recently all those he spoke to were pleased with the equipment supplied.

Quentin Davies was reportedly high on drink and drugs at the time of the murder.

Quentin Davies died on 13 January 2025, at the age of 80.