Ronald Henry Atkins was a British Labour politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Preston North for two terms: from 1966 until 1970, and from February 1974 until 1979.
34 Facts About Ronald Atkins
1.
2.
Ronald Atkins supported the campaigns by Tony Benn and Jeremy Corbyn to lead the Labour Party.
3.
Ronald Atkins became the longest-lived British MP with a registered date of birth, surviving to the age of 104.
4.
Ronald Atkins was born into a large Noncomformist family on 13 June 1916 in Barry, Glamorgan, the son of Frank Ronald Atkins, a master butcher, and his wife Elizabeth.
5.
Ronald Atkins suffered greatly from psoriasis, which led him to start working rather than going to university.
6.
Ronald Atkins attended Southampton University, but his studies were interrupted by the Second World War, as well as his condition.
7.
Ronald Atkins tried to improve his health in order to enter the armed forces by eating a carrot-only diet for more than a month.
8.
Ronald Atkins became a tutor and lecturer for the National Council of Labour Colleges.
9.
Ronald Atkins was head of English at Halstead secondary school in Braintree, Essex.
10.
Whilst in Essex, Ronald Atkins became a councillor on Braintree Rural District Council, serving from 1952 to 1961.
11.
Ronald Atkins was on the Mid-Essex education committee of Essex County Council.
12.
Ronald Atkins successfully campaigned to save the Preston to Ormskirk railway line, which was under threat of closure.
13.
Ronald Atkins supported Liberal MP David Steel's abortion bill, which did not go down well with Preston's large Catholic population.
14.
Ronald Atkins thought this may have cost him his seat at the subsequent 1970 general election: Atkins lost to the Conservative candidate Mary Holt, and Labour were out of power.
15.
At the February 1974 election, Ronald Atkins won back Preston North, defeating Mary Holt by a majority of just 255 votes.
16.
Labour formed a minority government, and Ronald Atkins was back in Parliament.
17.
Ronald Atkins was re-elected with an increased vote share, and Labour won the election with a small overall majority, on the back of a pledge to hold a referendum on Britain's recent entry to the European Economic Community.
18.
In common with the left of his party at the time, Ronald Atkins was opposed to membership of the EEC.
19.
In 1976, Wilson stood down as prime minister, and in the resulting leadership election, Ronald Atkins helped organise left-winger Tony Benn's campaign.
20.
In between his two terms in Parliament, Ronald Atkins stood for election to Preston City Council's Ward No 5 in 1973.
21.
Ronald Atkins won a seat, serving until 1976, by which time he had returned to the House of Commons.
22.
Ronald Atkins supported Preston Polytechnic becoming Lancashire Polytechnic, which took place in 1984.
23.
Ronald Atkins's ward was abolished in boundary changes for the 1990 elections, and he instead stood in Avenham ward, which covered the central area of the town.
24.
In 2002, the next set of boundary changes saw Ronald Atkins' ward abolished again, with him instead standing in the Town Centre ward, and receiving more votes than the two Labour candidates who were elected.
25.
In 2006, a year which saw poor performances by Labour in the local elections, Ronald Atkins fended off a strong challenge from the Respect Party to retain his seat by just seven votes.
26.
Ronald Atkins remained a Labour councillor until 2010, when he stood down; aged 93, he was the oldest member of the council.
27.
In 1950, Ronald Atkins married Jesse Scott; the union ended in divorce in 1979.
28.
Ronald Atkins married his second wife, Elizabeth Alison Wildgoose in 2012, who was more than forty years his junior, shortly after she was elected to Ashton ward on Preston council.
29.
Ronald Atkins's recreations were listed in Who's Who as "jazz, dancing, walking, local and national politics, connoisseur of good coffee"; he was an active ballroom dancer to late in life.
30.
Ronald Atkins celebrated his 100th birthday in June 2016, attributing his long life to "good genes, an active lifestyle, and wild Atlantic salmon" in his diet.
31.
On 30 August 2018, Ronald Atkins became the longest-lived MP ever, surpassing Theodore Taylor's record.
32.
Ronald Atkins died at his home in Preston on 30 December 2020, at the age of 104.
33.
Ronald Atkins was survived by Elizabeth, his daughters Charlotte and Liz, and his stepson Donald.
34.
Ronald Atkins was a real guiding force; the Labour group in Preston called him 'the guru'.