Rt. Hon. Lord Kimball of Easton in the County of Leicestershire DL, President of the Gainsborough Constituency Conservative Association has passed away at the age of 85 on Wednesday, 26th March 2014.

Marcus Richard Kimball was born on October 18th 1928, the son of Major Laurence Kimball, Conservative MP for Loughborough. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge; he was Master of the Beagles at Eton and of the Drag at Cambridge.  After National Service as a subaltern with the Royal Horse Guards, he farmed near Oakham, and chaired the East Midlands Young Conservatives.

In 1955 Kimball was elected to Rutland County Council and fought Derby South in the general election.  Lord Kimball was became the Member of Parliament for the Gainsborough Constituency being elected in a by-election in 1956 caused by the elevation of Captain Harry Crookshank to the peerage.  Lord Kimball’s took the seat with a majority of 1,006 over the Labour candidate, Mr. H. Walston and the Liberal candidate Major Spence, in third place.

Lord Kimball would contest the 1959, 1964, 1966, 1970, February 1974 & October 1974 and 1979 general elections as the Conservative Party Candidate. In his final victory before his retirement at the 1983 general election, when the seat became Gainsborough & Horncastle, Lord Kimball had increased his majority to a sizable 7,155 over the Liberal candidate Mr. Roger Blackmore.

At Westminster, he voted to retain the death penalty; sided with dissidents who feared the Suez adventure would do lasting harm to relations with America; and proved himself one of the best shots in the parliamentary team.

Lords Speaker Baroness D’Souza announced to the House of Lords that the Conservative peer had died on Wednesday night.

In 1985 he was elevated to the peerage and became Lord Kimball of Easton in the County of Leicestershire. During his time in the Lords he headed a formidable, unofficial whipping operation that blocked Bills to outlaw hunting and hare coursing for several decades. Even when facing a mountainous Labour majority after 1997, Lord Kimball, who was deputy president of the Countryside Alliance, managed to head off a ban on hunting for almost two Parliaments.

He felt there should be a sense of proportion over constituency matters, advising aspiring Tory MPs: “If you go after a seat, don’t spoil them by promising to hold surgeries; I never did. And don’t promise to live in the constituency until you’ve found out whether there is a good hunt.  You can only get to know a constituency well if you ride over it.”

Lord Kimball married, in 1956, June Fenwick, with whom he had two daughters.

Lord Kimball served as Association President for many, many years and had recently been re-elected at the Association’s Annual General Meeting held on Friday, 21st March 2014.