Michael Shersby
| Sir Michael Shersby | |
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Member of Parliament for Uxbridge |
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In office 7 December 1972 – 8 May 1997 |
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| Preceded by | Charles Curran |
| Succeeded by | John Randall |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
17 February 1933 Ickenham, Middlesex |
| Died | 8 May 1997 (aged 64) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Barbara Barrow |
Sir Julian Michael Shersby (17 February 1933 – 8 May 1997) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was Member of Parliament for Uxbridge.
Shersby was born to Bill and Nora Shersby at his parents home at 9 Court Road, Ickenham (an area destined to become part of his Parliamentary constituency throughout his nearly 25 years as an MP) on 17 February 1933. Christened Julian Michael, he was known primarily as Michael by the age of ten. He had an older brother Dick (also known as Harold), an older sister Marjorie, and a younger brother Brian. Shersby's father Bill was employed for many years by the Port of London Authority, as an administration manager.
Shersby's parents were very keen for all of their four children to be academically successful. Accordingly, Michael Shersby first attended the local Breakspear primary state school and was later sent by his parents to The John Lyon School, an independent school in Harrow, for his secondary education. However, for a variety of reasons, Shersby left school at sixteen and in 1949 he started his working career in a humble clerical position at a company in London. Shersby continued to live with his family in Ickenham until 1958, when, at the age of 25, he married Barbara Barrow from West Drayton (also part of the Uxbridge constituency), and they moved to London. Shersby qualified as a trained Conservative party agent during the 1950s and worked in that capacity in his early 20s for a number of years before then pursuing a career in the British industrial film industry between 1958 and 1966 and then subsequently between 1966 and 1988 he was Director General of the British Sugar Bureau, the trade association of the British sugar industry.
Shersby's career as an elected political representative began in 1959 when he was first elected as a borough councillor on Paddington Borough Council for Maida Vale North ward and he then continued to serve for the Maida Vale ward of Westminster City Council from 1964 to 1970 after Paddington was subsumed into the new larger unitary Council's area. He served as Deputy Lord Mayor on Westminster City Council from 1967 to 1968.
Shersby was first elected to Parliament at a 1972 by-election that followed the sudden death of Charles Curran, who had re-taken the seat for the Conservatives from Labour's John Ryan in the 1970 general election. This was a by-election Shersby had not been expected to win since it took place in the depths of unpopularity of the Heath Government and on the same night that Shersby was elected to Parliament (7 December 1972) the Conservatives lost the considerably safer seat of Sutton and Cheam by a large majority after a huge swing against the party there to the Liberal party. But in Uxbridge Shersby managed to hang on to a seat taken back from Labour for the Conservatives by Charles Curran in 1970, even though the majority fell from 1970's 3646 votes to a rather less comfortable 1,178 votes that night. His local roots as an Ickenham born lad probably helped him considerably in that election and over the years he consistently built up his majority to a high point of 15,970 votes in the 1987 general election by establishing a reputation as an extremely committed and hardworking backbench MP more interested in being able to pursue single issues he believed in rather than pursuing the trappings of power as a minister at what would have been the expense of his political independence.
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