John Marcus Fox was born at the Maternity Home, Bradford Road, Batley, Yorkshire, on Saturday, 11 June 1927.[1] He had a twin sister with whom he attended dancing lessons.[1] At those lessons, he met Betty Boothroyd, later to become the Speaker of the House of Commons.[2] He attended Wheelwright Grammar School for Boys (now a campus of Kirklees College) in Dewsbury.[1]
Fox served in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment as a Lieutenant, a detail which he was sometimes known to mention in after-dinner speeches. Fox left the Army and began his political career with his election to Dewsbury Council in 1956, remaining there until 1963. He then became a bank clerk, a sales manager for Woolworths and for Terry's in York, and then a company director.[3] He unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary seat of Dewsbury in 1959, followed by Huddersfield West in 1966, before eventually being elected for Shipley in 1970.[1]
Parliamentary career
After Fox's election to parliament as the MP for Shipley, he served as a whip under Edward Heath, and then was a junior minister under Margaret Thatcher. He was moved back to the back-benches in 1981, and started ascending the pole to become chairman of the 1922 Committee, becoming vice-chairman in 1983 and chairman in 1992.[1] He received an MBE in 1963 for political services in Yorkshire,[4] was knighted in 1986 for political service,[5] and became a member of the Privy Council in 1996.[6]
He married Ann Tindall in 1954; they had a son and a daughter.[7]
Fox was in poor health in the last years of his life, suffering from Alzheimer's disease as well as having multiple strokes.[1] He died at a care home in Shipley, West Yorkshire, on 16 March 2002, at the age of 74.[1]
