Sir Colin Shepherd
Hereford Tory MP who spoke up for local interests, from the SAS to farming and the Mappa Mundi
SIR COLIN SHEPHERD, who has died four days after his 86th birthday, was for 25 years a conscientious Conservative MP for Hereford, holding off the Liberals to take the seat in October 1974, but losing it to them when John Major’s government was routed in 1997.
Tall, quiet and courteous, Shepherd contrived to be one of the least controversial chairmen of the Commons Catering Committee – an easy post in which to put a foot wrong. He was particularly proud of his work chairing the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association at UK and international level and, having served in the Royal Canadian Navy, he chaired the all-party Canada Group.
A little to the Right of centre, Shepherd came to the Commons with a strong Tory pedigree: his mother, Dame Peggy Shepherd, had been president of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations the previous year.
Shepherd once confided: “I find the Commons like a monumental church organ, with no instructions how to play it.” But he became an excellent committee man, and – having a constituency on the border – PPS for three years to the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Welsh Secretary, Peter Walker.
Though generally loyal, he had his sticking points. He was, for example, a consistent opponent of the ordination of divorced men, and as a rural member he rebelled over attempts to charge for school transport, the 20p-a-gallon petrol duty increase in Sir Geoffrey Howe’s 1981 Budget and the level of rate support for local councils.
Twice vice-chairman of the Conservative backbench agriculture committee, Shepherd voiced concerns about rural depopulation and the influx of West Midlanders, and in 1991 raised the issue of the increasing number of farmers committing suicide. Supporting Herefordshire’s most celebrated product, he protested when Denis Healey introduced a cider tax in 1976.
Until the late 1980s, Shepherd’s constituency office was a 14th-century house close to Hereford Cathedral previously occupied by its organists, where Sir Edward Elgar had lived for a time.
In 1988, when the Dean and Chapter proposed selling off the 13th-century Mappa Mundi to raise funds for the cathedral, Shepherd said his constituents were “absolutely devastated”. When the furore resulted in the treasure staying put, he voiced “joy and relief ”.
His constituency was also the home of the SAS, and Shepherd on occasion saw the need to explain what the elite special force actually did, and to defend its actions.
He delivered his most detailed and spirited defence in January 1976, in response to a comprehensive attack on the SAS’S presence and activities in Northern Ireland from the nationalist MP Gerry Fitt.
Shepherd explained that the SAS “bears no relation to any espionage or intelligence organisation. The main difference between the SAS and other military units is that the SAS are trained in and have special skills for operating against guerrillas and terrorists – just as the tank corps is trained to operate in tanks.
“Over the years they have developed a high degree of technique, and it is for this reason that the SAS is rightly feared by terrorists wherever they operate.” In Northern Ireland, the SAS had never operated outside the law but would have made an impact through “good fieldcraft and total dedication”.
Colin Ryley Shepherd was born at Hale, Cheshire, on January 13 1938, the son of Thomas Shepherd and the former Margaret Price.
From Oundle School, he did his National Service with the Royal Navy, then in 1958 went up to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. On graduating he moved to Canada, serving for three years with the RCN and completing his studies at Mcgill University in Montreal.
In 1963 he joined the family firm, Haigh Engineering of Ross-on-wye, taking charge of marketing and product development; he inherited his shareholding in 1975.
As an MP, he spent one day a week with the firm, saying: “It keeps one’s feet, if not on the ground, then very close to it.” He was active in the company, which specialises in healthcare waste disposal systems, until 2010.
Shepherd was selected as candidate for Hereford in May 1974, in the wake of a general election defeat in which the sitting member, David Gibson-watt, had had his majority halved by a Liberal to 3,438.
With the Tories in neighbouring Leominster under even greater pressure, Gibson-watt could see losses on the cards, and decided to retire. After a bruising campaign in that October’s further election, Shepherd hung on with a majority of 1,312.
He held the seat at the next four elections by majorities of 4,970, 2,277, 1,413 (in 1987) and 3,413. He was helped in fighting off a series of strong Liberal and Lib Dem challenges by an enthusiastic party organisation – in 1983 a Shepherd poster even appeared on a goat tethered by the roadside – his hard work in the constituency and his engaged but calming manner.
In his maiden speech at Westminster, Shepherd complained that Herefordshire farmers had seen their income halved, and were having to sell their livestock to stay in business.
From 1983 he chaired the Commons’ Library Committee, then in 1991 he took charge of the Catering Committee in place of the exotic Sir Charles Irving. The job had been a political minefield for several of his predecessors – notably when the committee ordered German crockery in preference to Wedgwood, and Robert Maxwell sold off the best wine in the 1960s – but Shepherd proved a safe pair of hands.
Irving had also been preoccupied with the House’s cellar, but Shepherd’s priority in catering for members and staff was more prosaic: ending long cafeteria queues. “I want to make self-service eating a matter of joy rather than sadness,” he declared.
Shepherd floated converting St Stephen’s Tavern, next to Westminster Underground station, into a refreshment facility for the new parliamentary building that became Portcullis House. Another proposal that came to nothing was one from his fellow Conservative Jacqui Lait for a Commons wine bar.
In December 1992, Shepherd reported that updating the Commons’ restaurants, bars and kitchens to meet new EEC regulations on safety and hygiene had cost £3.5 million. A year later, he proposed a £19 million refit for those same kitchens, saying: “They would be shut down if they were outside.”
In 1994, when Edwina Currie announced a charity draw with a prize of tea and scones at the Commons to promote one of the bodice-ripper novels she had begun writing, Shepherd asked the authorities to check for a violation of the rules.
Knighted on Major’s recommendation in 1996, Shepherd’s luck ran out at the following year’s election as Tony Blair swept to power. The Lib Dems also made gains across the board, and Paul Keetch captured Hereford for them by a majority of 6,648 votes – larger than Shepherd had ever secured.
Out of the Commons, he was director of parliamentary studies for the Centre for Political and Diplomatic Studies from 1999 to 2010. He was also at various times a council member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, a governor of the Commonwealth Institute and a trustee of the Friends of the Commonwealth Foundation.
Outside politics, Colin Shepherd was a church warden at St Swithin’s in the village of Ganarew, and a keen croquet player, but he never lost his close interest in current affairs, on which he would pass comment with a characteristic wry smile.
It was a blessing for Shepherd to be able to celebrate his final birthday at home and thank local friends for all they had done over the years.
He married, in 1966, Louise Cleveland, who survives him with their three sons.