Patrick Mayhew

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British barrister and politician

title: "Patrick Mayhew" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1929-births", "2016-deaths", "20th-century-king's-counsel", "alumni-of-balliol-college,-oxford", "attorneys-general-for-england-and-wales", "attorneys-general-for-northern-ireland", "british-anglicans", "british-king's-counsel", "british-barristers", "conservative-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituencies", "conservative-party-(uk)-life-peers", "deaths-from-cancer-in-england", "deputy-lieutenants-of-kent", "knights-bachelor", "life-peers-created-by-elizabeth-ii", "mayhew-family", "members-of-the-middle-temple", "members-of-the-privy-council-of-the-united-kingdom", "peers-retired-under-the-house-of-lords-reform-act-2014", "people-educated-at-tonbridge-school", "people-of-the-troubles-(northern-ireland)", "politics-of-the-borough-of-tunbridge-wells", "presidents-of-the-oxford-union", "presidents-of-the-oxford-university-conservative-association", "secretaries-of-state-for-northern-ireland", "solicitors-general-for-england-and-wales", "uk-mps-1974", "uk-mps-1974–1979", "uk-mps-1979–1983", "uk-mps-1983–1987", "uk-mps-1987–1992", "uk-mps-1992–1997"] description: "British barrister and politician" topic_path: "politics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Mayhew" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British barrister and politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
name	The Lord Mayhew of Twysden
honorific-suffix
image	Lord Mayhew of Twysden.jpg
office1	Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
primeminister1	John Major
term_start1	10 April 1992
term_end1	2 May 1997
predecessor1	Peter Brooke
successor1	Mo Mowlam
office2	Attorney General for England and Wales
Attorney General for Northern Ireland
primeminister2	Margaret Thatcher
John Major
term_start2	13 June 1987
term_end2	10 April 1992
predecessor2	Michael Havers
successor2	Sir Nicholas Lyell
office3	Solicitor General for England and Wales
primeminister3	Margaret Thatcher
term_start3	13 June 1983
term_end3	13 June 1987
predecessor3	Ian Percival
successor3	Sir Nicholas Lyell
office4	Minister of State for the Home Office
primeminister4	Margaret Thatcher
term_start4	5 January 1981
term_end4	13 June 1983
predecessor4	Leon Brittan
successor4	Douglas Hurd
office5	Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment
primeminister5	Margaret Thatcher
term_start5	4 May 1979
term_end5	5 January 1981
predecessor5	John Grant
successor5	David Waddington
office6	Member of Parliament
for Tunbridge Wells
term_start6	28 February 1974
term_end6	8 April 1997
predecessor6	Constituency established
successor6	Archie Norman
office7	Member of the House of Lords
status7	Lord Temporal
termlabel7	Life peerage
term_start7	12 June 1997
term_end7	1 June 2015
birth_name	Patrick Barnabas Burke Mayhew
birth_date
birth_place	Cookham, England
death_date
death_place	Kilndown, England
party	Conservative
alma_mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Middle Temple
spouse
children	4
::

Patrick Barnabas Burke Mayhew, Baron Mayhew of Twysden, (11 September 1929 – 25 June 2016) was a British barrister and politician.

Early life

Mayhew was born in Cookham, Berkshire, on 11 September 1929. His father, George Mayhew, was a decorated army officer turned oil executive; his mother, Sheila Roche, descended from members of the Anglo-Irish Protestant ascendancy, was a relative of James Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy, an Irish National Federation MP for Kerry East. Through his father, Mayhew was descended from the Victorian social commentator Henry Mayhew. He was educated at Tonbridge School, an all boys public school in Tonbridge, Kent.

He then served as an officer in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, studied law at Balliol College, Oxford, and was president of the Oxford University Conservative Association and of the Oxford Union. He was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1955.

Political career

Mayhew contested Dulwich in 1970, but the incumbent Labour member, Sam Silkin, beat him by 895 votes. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Tunbridge Wells constituency from its creation at the February 1974 general election, standing down at the 1997 election.

He was Under Secretary of Employment from 1979 to 1981, then Minister of State at the Home Office from 1981 to 1983. After this, he served as Solicitor General for England and Wales from 1983 to 1987, and then Attorney General for England and Wales and simultaneously Attorney General for Northern Ireland from 1987 to 1992.

He was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1992 to 1997.

He was one of only five Ministers (Tony Newton, Kenneth Clarke, Malcolm Rifkind and Lynda Chalker are the others) to serve throughout the whole 18 years of the Governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. This represents the longest uninterrupted Ministerial service in Britain since Lord Palmerston in the early 19th century.

Honours and awards

Mayhew was knighted in 1983. On 12 June 1997, he was given a life peerage as Baron Mayhew of Twysden, of Kilndown in the County of Kent. He retired from the House of Lords on 1 June 2015.

Personal life

In 1963, Mayhew married the Rev. Jean Gurney, and they had four sons. His son Jerome Mayhew is the Conservative MP for the constituency of Broadland and Fakenham (previously Broadland) in Norfolk since the 2019 general election.

Mayhew, a devout Anglican, was a churchwarden at Christ Church, Kilndown.

Mayhew suffered from cancer and Parkinson's disease in his later years. He died from cancer at his home on 25 June 2016, aged 86.

Arms

|image = [[File:Coronet of a British Baron.svg|centre|150px]] [[File:Mayhew of Twysden Escutcheon.png|centre|200px]] |escutcheon = Or an orle fracted and there conjoined to two chevronels couped Azure between three trefoils slipped Vert each enfiling a coronet Azure. |crest = An eagle winds elevated and addorsed Argent beaked and legged Or the dexter foot plucking a harp also Or. |supporters = Dexter a roach urinant argent finned Or sinister a gurnard urinant Argent finned Or. |motto = Mon Dieu Est Ma Roche}}

References

Shiels, David C.. (2020). "Mayhew, Patrick Barnabas Burke, Baron Mayhew of Twysden (1929–2016), politician".
{{harv. Bates. 2016
(29 May 1993). "Profile: The grandee with the smoking gun: Sir Patrick Mayhew MP, attorney-in-question". ESI Media.
Maume, Patrick. (September 2023). "Mayhew, Patrick Barnabas Burke".
"Sir Patrick Mayhew (Hansard)".
(22 June 1987). "No. 50971". The London Gazette.
"Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973".
{{London Gazette. (24 June 1983)
{{London Gazette. (17 June 1997)
"Lord Mayhew of Twysden". UK Parliament.
(25 June 2016). "Former NI Secretary Lord Mayhew dies, aged 86". BBC News.
(2003). "Debrett's Peerage".

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