Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Sir Geoffrey Robert Clifton-Brown (born 23 March 1953) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for The Cotswolds. He also serves as the treasurer of the 1922 Committee. Early career Geoffrey Clifton-Brown was born in Cambridge, elder son and eldest of four children of farmer Robert Lawrence Clifton-Brown (1929–2016), of Maltings Farmhouse, Haverhill, Suffolk, a councillor and mayor (2002) of St Edmundsbury, Suffolk, and (Florence) Elizabeth Lindsay (1926–2006), daughter of Ronald Arthur Vestey, of Great Thurlow Hall, Suffolk, DL, High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1961, and grand-daughter of Sir Edmund Hoyle Vestey, 1st Baronet. His paternal grandfather, Lt-Col Geoffrey Benedict Clifton-Brown, late of the 12th Royal Lancers, was MP for Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk from 1945 to 1950. He is a descendant of the Army officer and MP James Clifton Brown. He was educated at Tormore School, in Upper Deal, Kent and then Eton College, before attending the Royal Agricultural College where he qualified as a chartered surveyor in 1975. He began his career as a graduate estate surveyor at the Property Services Agency in Dorchester and, later in 1975, became an investment surveyor with Jones Lang Wootton. He became the vice chairman of the Norfolk North Conservative Association in 1984. He was elected as Constituency Chairman in 1986, a position he held until he resigned in 1991 in order to stand for election as a Conservative candidate. Parliamentary career During 1991, Clifton-Brown was selected as the candidate for the then Conservative parliamentary constituency of Cirencester and Tewkesbury, following the retirement of the former Cabinet minister Nicholas Ridley. He retained the seat at the 1992 general election, with a majority of 16,058, and made his maiden speech on 12 June 1992.