| Collection | Bernard Weatherill Papers |
| Description | Bruce Bernard Weatherill (1920-2007) was a British politician and a former Speaker of the House of Commons. His papers are most detailed in relation to the period of his speakership (1983-1992), but there are a few records of his earlier parliamentary career and a small group of personal papers of which the most interesting historically are the letters he wrote home while on military service. As well as providing biographical source material, the collection relates to parliamentary practices and procedures in the 1980s and 1990s and focuses on the contemporary role of the Speaker, within and outside the House of Commons.
The Collection contains constituency papers, parliamentary papers, video and audio tapes, printed material, newspapers including loose copies of Illustrated London News and Punch with annotations, personal correspondence, photographs and miscellany. |
| Admin history | Bruce Bernard Weatherill, known to his family and friends as Jack, was born in 1920. After service in the Second World War as a Captain in the 19th King George V's Own Lancers in India, he returned to his native Guildford and became active in the local Conservative Association. In 1964 he was elected Member of Parliament for Croydon North East, which he represented until 1992. He entered the Conservative Whip's office in 1967, becoming Deputy Chief Whip in 1973. In 1979 he was appointed Chairman of Ways and Means and consequently Deputy Speaker and succeeded George Thomas as Speaker of the House of Commons in 1983. He was elevated to the peerage following his retirement from the House of Commons in 1992 and became Convenor of the Cross-Bench Peers in 1995. He died in 2007. |