Timothy Raison

The Right Honourable Sir Timothy Raison
Minister for Overseas Development
In office 6 January 1983 – 10 September 1986
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Neil Marten
Succeeded by	Chris Patten
Minister of State for Immigration
In office 4 May 1979 – 6 January 1983
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Brynmor John
Succeeded by	David Waddington
Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment
In office 11 February 1975 – 19 November 1976
Leader	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Margaret Thatcher
Succeeded by	Michael Heseltine
Member of Parliament for Aylesbury
In office 18 June 1970 – 16 March 1992
Preceded by	Spencer Summers
Succeeded by	David Lidington
Personal details
Born	Timothy Hugh Francis Raison (1929-11-03)3 November 1929 London, England
Died	3 November 2011(2011-11-03) (aged 82) Oxford, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Veldes Charrington ​ (m. 1956)​
Children	4, including Paul
Parent	Max Raison (father)
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford

Sir Timothy Hugh Francis Raison (3 November 1929 – 3 November 2011) was a British Conservative politician and journalist. He was the MP for Aylesbury from 1970 to 1992, and served in the cabinet of Margaret Thatcher.

Early life and education

Raison was born in Upper Norwood, Lambeth, London, in 1929. He was the son of publisher and editor Maxwell Raison, general manager of Picture Post, and his wife Celia, Raison was educated, through being a scholarship boy, at two independent schools: at Dragon School in Oxford, where he became Head of School. From there he got a scholarship to Eton College, then to Christ Church, Oxford, to which he also attained a scholarship. He performed his national service with the Durham Light Infantry, where he was a second lieutenant.

Career

Raison began his career as a journalist, first working on Picture Post, then New Scientist. Whilst at New Scientist he also edited Crossbow, journal of the Bow Group (a centre-right group within the Conservative Party).

According to Christopher Chataway, it was Raison, then still a journalist, who first came up with the idea of a World Refugee Year in 1958: 'It came from Tim Raison, who was a friend of mine and, like me, wanted to be a Conservative member of parliament ... He floated the idea past me and I thought it was terrific. He, I and two other journalists, Trevor Philpott and Colin Jones, wrote an article [in the Spring 1958 edition of Crossbow entitled "A Plan to Save the Refugees"] which was the start of the idea'.

In 1960 Raison received The Nansen Refugee Award, which is given annually by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in recognition of outstanding service to the cause of refugees. He co-founded and edited the social science magazine New Society from 1962 until 1968 and was MP for Aylesbury from 1970 until his retirement in 1992. He served as a junior Education and Science Minister (1973–1974).

Raison served as a Home Office minister from 1979 to 1983, under then Home Secretary William Whitelaw, (later hereditary peer Viscount Whitelaw). He then served as Minister for Overseas Development (1983–1986).

Personal life and death

In 1956, Raison married violin teacher Veldes Julia Charrington, daughter of John Arthur Pepys Charrington, of Netherton, Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire, president of the Charrington Brewery and Master of the Worshipful Company of Brewers in 1952, of that landed gentry family of Cherry Orchard, Shaftesbury, Dorset; they had a son, Paul Raison, and three daughters.

On 3 November 2011, Raison died on his 82nd birthday from complications of an abdominal aortic aneurysm at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Honours

• He was made a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council in the 1982 New Years Honours List.
• He was knighted on 31 December 1990.

Further reading

• Times Guide to the House of Commons, 1987 and 1992 editions.