Lord Skelmersdale
Horticulturalist and naturalist who as a Tory minister in the 1980s opened Britain’s first ‘toad tunnel’
THE 7TH LORD SKELMERSDALE, who has died aged 73, was a Conservative hereditary peer who served in junior ministerial posts under Margaret Thatcher in the departments of the Environment and Health and Social Security and in the Northern Ireland Office.
A horticulturalist by trade, a keen bridge player and a longstanding president of the British Naturalists’ Association, the quietly spoken Skelmersdale seldom made headlines, but could be relied upon for loyal service answering questions in the House of Lords and serving on committees.
A rare outing to the world’s news pages occurred in March 1987 when, as Under Secretary of State at the Department of the Environment, he launched Britain’s first toad tunnel – under the busy A4155 from Henley to Marlow in Buckinghamshire – built to stop love-struck amphibians being squashed by traffic in the mating season as they made their way from their woodland winter home to a breeding pond beside the River Thames.
Brandishing a specimen driven by car from London to pose for the occasion – its nocturnal country cousins being unavailable – Lord Skelmersdale waxed almost lyrical as he set the animal down on the muddy ground, snipped the small ribbon across the six-inch mouth of the tunnel and dedicated the project in the name of Queen and toad.
“The butterfly upon the road, Preaches contentment to that toad,’’ he said, quoting Kipling, before observing that “the toad is an inoffensive and often misunderstood creature. I must say this is the first time I’ve actually held a toad. And my sympathy goes very much to the toad.’’
He was delighted to be presiding over the ceremony, declaring that such projects “serve to remind us that man is not alone on this Earth”.
Roger Bootle-wilbraham was born on April 2 1945, the son of Brigadier Lionel Bootle-wilbraham, DSO, MC, who would inherit the Skelmersdale title on the death of a cousin in 1969. His mother, Ann, née Quilter, was the granddaughter of a baronet.
The title had been created in 1828 for the former MP for Westbury, Newcastle-underlyme, Clitheroe and Dover, Edward Bootle-wilbraham. From Eton and Lord Wandsworth College, Basingstoke, Roger Bootle-wilbraham went to the Somerset Farm Institute at Cannington. He did voluntary work in Zambia from 1969 to 1971.
In 1972 he married Christine Morgan and together they bought Broadleigh Gardens, a horticultural centre near Taunton, where they set up a nursery business. He succeeded to the peerage in 1973 on the death of his father and for the next eight years worked as managing director of Broadleigh Nurseries.
Appointed a Lord-in-waiting to the Queen (House of Lords whip) by Mrs Thatcher in 1981, he served as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Environment (1986-87), at the Department of Health and Social Security and, after a departmental split, at the Department of Social Security (1987-89), and finally in the Northern Ireland Office (1989-90). He was not reappointed by John Major.
A well-liked and approachable figure in the House of Lords, Skelmersdale served as deputy chairman of committees from 1991 to 1996 and as a deputy speaker from 1996 to 2003.
A keen bridge player, he was a member of the all-party parliamentary bridge group and captained the Lords’ bridge team for several years. He was helpful with aspects of junior bridge, visited a number of schools and was always present when pupils visited Parliament. He was due to play in the annual Lords v Commons bridge match the day before he died.
In 1999, after the hereditary peers lost their automatic right to sit in the House of Lords, he was “thrilled” to come fifth on the ballot for the group of 92 hereditaries allowed to stay on pending completion of House of Lords reform, for which the more than 200 hopefuls had to submit personal manifestos of not more than 75 words. “I am sure my CV was by far the most boring,” Skelmersdale said, “but I very much enjoy my work here.”
Appointed an opposition whip in 2003, after David Cameron took over as Conservative Party leader Lord Skelmersdale served as a Shadow Minister for the Department for Work and Pensions, but was not appointed to a ministerial position in the coalition government of 2010-15.
He served as president of the British Naturalists Association from 1980 to 1995 and of the Somerset Trust for Nature Conservation from 1980 to 2014. He was chairman of the Stroke Association from 1993 to 2004.
He is survived by his wife Christine and by their daughter, Carolyn, and son, Andrew Bootle-wilbraham, who inherits the Skelmersdale title.