Richard Alexander (British politician)

Richard Thain Alexander (29 June 1934 – 20 April 2008) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Newark in Nottinghamshire until losing his seat in the landslide of the 1997 general election.

Alexander was born in Aberdeen, although his father was an architect from Lincoln. He went to Logie Coldstone prep school in Eastbourne and Dewsbury Grammar School and the Wheelwright School in Dewsbury, Yorkshire before studying law at University College London and then at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. He was articled in London, and then worked as a solicitor in Scunthorpe from 1960-4 and then in Retford, Nottinghamshire from 1964 to 1985.

Having joined the Young Conservatives in 1957, Alexander served on their National Advisory Committee in 1961 and fought his first elections in 1962 and 1963, standing (unsuccessfully) for Scunthorpe Town Council. He was elected to Retford Borough Council in 1965 and to Nottinghamshire County Council in 1967, serving until 1974. He was elected to Bassetlaw District Council in 1975, and he was Mayor of Retford in 1977-78.

He was a parliamentary candidate for Lincoln in 1966 and again in 1970, but he was not chosen by the right-wing local party to fight the by-election of 1973. The seat was won by the sitting MP, Dick Taverne, each time.

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