Iain MacDonald Sproat was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP). He was educated at Winchester College

Winchester College

Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...

 and Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

. He worked as a publisher and journalist.

At the 1970 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1970

The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...

, he stood in the marginal Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 constituency of Aberdeen South

Aberdeen South (UK Parliament constituency)

Aberdeen South is a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and it elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...

, and ousted the sitting Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 MP, Donald Dewar

Donald Dewar

Donald Campbell Dewar was a British politician who served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament in Scotland from 1966-1970, and then again from 1978 until his death in 2000. He served in Tony Blair's cabinet as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1997-1999 and was instrumental in the creation...

. He was re-elected there at three further elections, until the 1983 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1983

The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...

 when he moved to contest Roxburgh and Berwickshire

Roxburgh and Berwickshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Roxburgh and Berwickshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 to 2005...

 believing that this was a 'safer' seat. However, Aberdeen South was held by the Conservatives, while Roxburgh and Berwickshire fell to the Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 candidate Archy Kirkwood.

Sproat returned to Parliament nine years later, moving to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and succeeding Sir Julian Ridsdale

Julian Ridsdale

Sir Julian Errington Ridsdale, CBE was a British National Liberal and later Conservative Party politician and long-serving Member of Parliament for the constituency of Harwich in Essex...

 as MP for Harwich

Harwich (UK Parliament constituency)

Harwich was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Until its abolition for the 2010 general election it elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 in the 1992 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1992

The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...

. He served as Minister for Sport in John Major

John Major

Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...

's government from 1993 to 1997, but at the 1997 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1997

The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...

 he was defeated by the Labour candidate Ivan Henderson

Ivan Henderson

Ivan John Henderson is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Member of Parliament for Harwich from 1997 to 2005.-Early life:...

. Sproat stood again in Harwich at the 2001 election

United Kingdom general election, 2001

The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...

, but Henderson was returned with an increased majority.

Sproat did not contest the 2005 general election

United Kingdom general election, 2001

The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...

, when Douglas Carswell

Douglas Carswell

John Douglas Wilson Carswell is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Clacton, having been first elected as MP for Harwich in 2005....

 regained the seat for the Conservatives.

A lifelong cricket fan, he was founder publisher of the Cricketers' Who's Who (Green Umbrella) which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2009. In 1979 he married Judith Mary Kernot, who survived him.

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