John Cordle

John Howard Cordle (11 October 1912 – 23 November 2004) was a British Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1959 to 1977.

John Cordle
Member of Parliament for Bournemouth East (Bournemouth East and Christchurch, 1959–1974)
In office 8 October 1959 – 25 July 1977
Preceded by	Nigel Nicolson
Succeeded by	David Atkinson
Personal details
Born	John Howard Cordle 11 October 1912
Died	23 November 2004 (aged 92)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Grace Lucy Walkey ​ ​ (m. 1938; div. 1956)​ Venetia Caroline Maynard ​ ​ (m. 1957; div. 1971)​ Terttu Heikura ​ ​ (m. 1976)​
Children	11
Education	City of London School

Life and career

Cordle, the son of Ernest William Cordle, was educated at the City of London School and became managing director of E. W. Cordle and Son Ltd. in 1946. He was also a member of Lloyd's of London. He served as a member of the Church Assembly 1946–53, as a director of the Church Society from 1951 and of the Church of England newspaper from 1959.

Cordle contested The Wrekin in 1951. He was Member of Parliament for Bournemouth East and Christchurch from 1959 to 1974, and after boundary changes, for Bournemouth East from 1974 to 1977, when he resigned as a result of the John Poulson scandal. David Atkinson was elected as his successor in the subsequent by-election.

Family

Cordle was married three times. He was first married in 1938 (divorced 1956) to Grace Lucy Walkey (b. 1918);[lower-alpha 1] by this marriage, he had issue (four sons and a daughter), of whom only two (or three) sons outlived him. He married secondly in 1957 (divorced 1971) to Venetia Caroline Maynard (b. 22 March 1936),[2] by whom he had issue (one son and three daughters), including Marina, Viscountess Cowdray. He married thirdly in 1976 to Terttu Heikura,[3] his children's nanny who was 35 years his junior, by whom he had two sons. Only this last wife's name was included in his Who's Who entry.[4]

• By his first marriage, 1938–1956 :
  1. Anthony John Cordle (b. 1939), who married (1966) Miranda Mary Marling (1941–2001), eldest daughter of Sir John Stanley Vincent Marling, 4th Bt (d. 1977), and had issue (two daughters);
     1. Lucia Georgina Diana Cordle (b. 11 Nov 1968)
     2. Jessica Grace Rosanne Cordle (b. 1972)
  2. Paul Howard Cordle (b. 29 Jan 1941)
  3. Hugh Cordle (d. inf. 1944)
  4. Charles Cordle (1945 – 21 December 1999)
  5. Roseanne Cordle (d. 1970)

• By his second marriage, 1957–1971 :
  1. Sophie Jane Cordle (b. 9 Feb 1958)
  2. Rupert Alister Peter John Cordle (b. 14 May 1959); married (1989) to Camilla Ann Wigram,[5][lower-alpha 2] a niece of Lord Bethell (d. 2007), and had issue (three sons)[lower-alpha 3]
  3. Marina Rose Cordle[9] (b. 6 May 1960); married (1 July 1987, as his second wife) Michael Orlando Weetman Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray, son of Weetman John Churchill Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray (by his first wife Lady Anne Pamela Bridgeman), and had issue (two sons and three daughters)
  4. Rachel Venetia Cordle (b. 3 Aug 1963)

• By his third marriage, 1976–2002 (his death) :
  1. (a son)
  2. (a son)

Notes

Footnotes

1. Grace Lucy Walkey[1] was the fifth (but fourth-surviving) daughter of James Rowland Walkey (1880–1960), by his wife Bijou France Paske, the third daughter of Col. Henry Gresham Paske (95th Regt of Foot, of Needham Market, Suffolk). The Guardian's more outspoken obituary says: "He married his first wife Grace in 1938 ... and in 1964 she demanded that the divorce court jail him for breaking custody orders."[2]
2. Her younger twin sister, Lucy Olga Wigram (now Lucy Sangster, b. 3 December 1966), is the wife (since 1990) of Benjamin (or Ben) Sangster, a son of Robert Sangster.
3. In a story with her twin Lucy Sangster,[6] The Telegraph says that Camilla had a third child in 2002. That son, Freddie (b. March 2002),[7] had been recovering from leukaemia, which was diagnosed on 15 March 2007.[8]

References

1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 26 October 2008. Retrieved 17 November 2008.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
2. Roth, Andrew (25 November 2004). "Obituary: John Cordle". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 August 2020. He married his second wife, Vanessa [sic], in 1957 and they divorced in 1971. She went public when he used the police and a security guard to ban his mother-in-law from the family home. He later legally suppressed her book, A Woman Crucified.
4. "John Cordle". The Daily Telegraph (obituary). 24 November 2004. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 12 August 2020. He endured appalling misfortune in his family life: his grandson was killed in a road accident and his grand-daughter electrocuted; his daughter Sophie became a heroin addict and fell into prostitution; his son Rupert was jailed for theft (although he subsequently redeemed himself and became a respected businessman); Cordle was also predeceased by a son and a daughter.
5. "Person Page". thepeerage.com.
6. "I'll never get over my son's death". The Daily Telegraph. 17 November 2004. Archived from the original on 9 October 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2019.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
8. "Archive news from the Hampshire Chronicle". Hampshire Chronicle. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
9. "Person Page". thepeerage.com.

Sources

• Times Guide to the House of Commons October 1974
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
• The Times obituary, 24 November 2004. Retrieved 17 November 2008.
• Daily Telegraph obituary 24 November 2004. Retrieved 17 November 2008.
• Andrew Roth. The Guardian obituary 25 November 2004. Retrieved 17 November 2008.
• John Barnes. The Independent obituary 9 December 2004. Retrieved 17 November 2008.
• Genealogy of Grace Lucy Walkey, the first Mrs Cordle Archived 26 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Cordle