Former Labour MP and defence minister Sir Patrick Duffy dies aged 105 | Labour
Former Labor MP and defense minister Sir Patrick Duffy has died aged 105 after a short illness, a family friend said.
He died on January 2 and is believed to be Britain’s longest-living former MP.
According to author Kevin Meagher, who helped Duffy publish her memoirs, the politician was “a kind of living historical jukebox” where you could “press buttons and say, you know, what it was like to meet.” [the former prime minister] Clement Attlee?”
Queen Elizabeth II He was knighted by Elizabeth and Pope John II. Duffy, who received a papal knighthood from John Paul, served in the Second World War and survived a plane crash in the Orkney Islands while serving in the Fleet Air Arm.
Duffy first stood for parliament in 1950 and was first elected as an MP after winning the Colne Valley by-election in 1963, then served in Sheffield Attercliffe from 1970 until his retirement in 1992.
He served as parliamentary under-secretary of the Royal Navy in James Callaghan’s Labor government in the late 1970s.
Meagher said Duffy had “received a lot of criticism” as the only MP to “rebuke” former prime minister Margaret Thatcher for the death of Republican hunger striker Bobby Sands in 1981. Thatcher and Duffy would later drink tea together, especially when she was president of the NATO Assembly in the 1980s.
A statement written by Meagher and confirmed by Duffy’s family said: “An extraordinary man of lifelong achievement, Patrick leaves behind family and friends of all ages who will miss his kindness, sense of humor and incredible acuity in recalling personalities and events from a century ago.”
“Patrick’s life was one well lived, filled with accomplishments, the admiration of his colleagues, and the love and affection of his many family and friends. We will miss him greatly.”
