Jack Dormand
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The Right Honourable The Lord Dormand of Easington |
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|---|---|
| Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party | |
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In office October 1981 – 11 June 1987 |
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| Preceded by | Fred Willey |
| Succeeded by | Stan Orme |
| Member of Parliament for Easington |
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In office 18 June 1970 – 11 June 1987 |
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| Preceded by | Manny Shinwell |
| Succeeded by | John Cummings |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
27 August 1919 Haswell, County Durham, England |
| Died | 18 December 2003 Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Political party | Labour |
John Donkin Dormand, Baron Dormand of Easington (27 August 1919 – 18 December 2003), known as Jack Dormand, was a British educationist and Labour Party politician from the coal mining area of Easington in County Durham, in the north-east of England. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Easington constituency from 1970 until his retirement in 1987.
Described as an "old-style centre-right socialist", Dormand was a working-class child who progressed through grammar school education to study at Oxford and Harvard to a career as an educational administrator before entering Parliament at the age 50, where he was noted as an advocate for education and for mining areas. He never achieved ministerial office, but as a skilled administrator he played a significant role as a government whip in the 1970s, and as Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party when the party was in opposition in the 1980s. An atheist and a staunch republican, he reluctantly accepted a life peerage when he retired from the House of Commons and was an active working peer until his death 16 years later.
Dormand was born near Easington at the workingmen's club in the village of Haswell, when his father Bernard, a former miner, was steward. He was educated locally at Wellfield Grammar School. Although he later took up rugby, he was a skilled footballer in his youth, good enough to have professional trials with both Manchester United and Charlton Athletic. Sport remained a major part of his life; until his death he remained a member Houghton-le-Spring Rugby Club and of Burnmoor Cricket Club, last playing both games at the age of 63.
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