Education
A chartered engineer, Chidgey was educated as a mechanical engineer at the Admiralty College, Portsmouth (Portsmouth Naval College) and then as a civil engineer at the Portsmouth Polytechnic.
A chartered engineer, Chidgey was educated as a mechanical engineer at the Admiralty College, Portsmouth (Portsmouth Naval College) and then as a civil engineer at the Portsmouth Polytechnic.
He went to Brune Park County High School (now called Brune Park Community College) in Gosport. Chidgey was a Councillor from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s on New Alresford Town Council and Winchester City Council. He contested the Hampshire Central European Parliament constituency at by-election in 1988 and at the 1989 European Parliament election.
At the 1992 general election, he contested the Eastleigh constituency in Hampshire, finishing second behind the Conservative candidate, Stephen Milligan.
He was re-elected in the 1997 and 2001 general elections and stood down at the 2005 general election. On 13 May 2005 it was announced that Chidgey would be created a life peer, and on 17 June 2005 the peerage was created as Baron Chidgey, of Hamble-le-Rice in the County of Hampshire.
In the House of Lords, he was Liberal Democrat spokesman in defence from 2005 to 2006. He was Given the Freedom of the Borough of Eastleigh in 2005.
In 2008 Chidgey was named the Chairman of the oversight committee for the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit, a think tank devoted to policy concerns throughout the Commonwealth.
He was Regional Chairman of the Hampshire and Wight Liberal Democrats from 1992 to 1994.
51st United Kingdom Parliament. 52nd United Kingdom Parliament. 53rd United Kingdom Parliament]
A former Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for Eastleigh, he now sits in the House of Lords.
In the House of Commons, he was a member of the Chairman"s panel (2001–2005), an Employment & Training spokesman, Transport spokesman, Trade & Industry spokesman and a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee (1999–2005) and of the Joint Committee on Human Rights (2003–2005).
From 2007, Baron Chidgey is a member of the AWEPA Governing Council.