12 Facts About Rhodes Boyson

Sir Rhodes Boyson was an English educator, author and Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for Brent North.

Rhodes Boyson was knighted and made a member of the Privy Council in 1987.

Rhodes Boyson was awarded a PhD in 1967 by London University, his thesis being on Henry Ashworth, a Victorian Lancashire cotton manufacturer, brother-in-law of Richard Cobden, and a Radical campaigner who had a reputation as a model employer.

Rhodes Boyson opposed what he perceived to be lax discipline, both in modern education and in the wider society, and at Highbury Grove he introduced an unfashionably traditional regime, with strictly enforced uniforms, caning for misbehaviour, and a house system.

Rhodes Boyson said that this proved so popular with local parents that the school was consistently oversubscribed.

From 1957 to 1961, Rhodes Boyson was a Labour councillor in Haslingden, where his father was at that time a Labour alderman and had been a trade union secretary.

Rhodes Boyson's father was a cotton spinner, and had been imprisoned as a conscientious objector in the First World War.

Rhodes Boyson left the Labour Party in 1964, joining the Conservative Party three years later.

Rhodes Boyson served as chairman of the National Council for Educational Standards.

Rhodes Boyson was a strong opponent of homosexuality, and a supporter of Section 28.

Rhodes Boyson was a supporter of the Conservative Monday Club and frequently addressed them.

Rhodes Boyson married Violet Burletson in 1946, and they had two daughters.