Background
Needham is the son of Francis Needham, 5th Earl of Kilmorey, and Helen Bridget Fandel-Phillips, daughter of Sir Lionel Fandel-Phillips, 3rd Baronet. He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1977 but does not use the title.
Needham is the son of Francis Needham, 5th Earl of Kilmorey, and Helen Bridget Fandel-Phillips, daughter of Sir Lionel Fandel-Phillips, 3rd Baronet. He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1977 but does not use the title.
Eton College; spoken languages: some German.
The latter year he stood unsuccessfully for parliament for the safe Labour seat of Pontefract and Castleford in the February general election, and then was also defeated at the more marginal Gravesend in October. This is an Irish peerage and did not bar him from sitting in the House of Commons. He was one of the "Wiltshire Wets", Conservative MPs from the county who expressed concern at the perceived loss of jobs resulting from the "monetarist" policies of Margaret Thatcher.
His constituency was abolished for the 1983 general election, when he was returned to the House of Commons for the new North Wiltshire constituency.
He held the seat until he retired from Parliament at the 1997 general election. In Government
Needham was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, James Prior, between 1983 and 1984, and to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Patrick Jenkin, between 1984 and 1985.
He served under Thatcher and later John Major as a Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland between 1985 and 1992 and under Major as Minister of State for Trade between 1992 and 1995, and was instrumental in transforming Northern Ireland"s economic base and the United Kingdom"s export strategy under Michael Heseltine. He was the longest serving British government Northern Ireland minister.
In 1994 he was sworn of the Privy Council.
In his book Battling for Peace (1999), he recalls attending a service at Westminster Abbey in 1991:
The former chairman of the county council and high sheriff for the year, Nigel Anderson, was a redoubtable old soldier who had a profound dislike of Mrs Thatcher and kept muttering "Well done, keep it up" in a loud whisper at every opportunity when there was a lull in the service. Needham is now a director of Lonrho & Avon Rubber. He was a Director of Dyson for over 16 years.
He has written two books: Honourable Member and Battling for Peace: Northern Ireland"s Longest-Serving British Minister (1999).
An account of his years in Northern Ireland and his contribution to peace. In 2015 he became a director of M2M solution provider Adaptive Modules Limited.
Church of England
48th United Kingdom Parliament. 49th United Kingdom Parliament. 50th United Kingdom Parliament.
51st United Kingdom Parliament]
A Member of Parliament from 1979 to 1997, he served as Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland between 1985 and 1992 and as Minister of State for Trade between 1992 and 1995.
Needham was a member of the Somerset County Council between 1967 and 1974. At the 1979 general election, he was returned as Member of Parliament for Chippenham in Wiltshire.
Spouse Sissy Juliane Needham (née Thiessen-Gairdner), 1965. Children: two son, one d.