Neil Balfour

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Neil Balfour
Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire North
In office
1979–1983
Personal details
Born (1944-08-12) 12 August 1944 (age 79)
Lima, Peru
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1969; div. 1978)​
Serena Mary Spencer-Churchill Russell
​
​
(after 1978)​
ChildrenNicholas Augustus Roxburgh Balfour
EducationAmpleforth College
Eton College
Alma materUniversity College, Oxford

Neil Roxburgh Balfour (born 12 August 1944) is a British merchant banker, financier and politician. He was the member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire North from 1979 to 1983.

Early life[edit]

Balfour was born on 12 August 1944 in Lima, Peru, where his father was a merchant and polo player.[1] He is the son of Archibald Roxburgh Balfour (1883–1958) and, his second wife, Lilian Helen (née Cooper) Balfour (d. 1989).[2][3] His father, who was awarded the Military Cross, was a Captain in the Lothians and Border Horse Yeomanry.[2] His older brother Christopher Roxburgh Balfour was born in 1941, and his sister Janet Roxburgh Balfour (b. 1943) married David John Cecil Berens.

Balfour‘s paternal grandparents were merchant and shopowner Alexander Balfour of Dawyck and Janet Roxburgh, the sister of Archibald Roxburgh and an aunt of J. F. Roxburgh.[4] His maternal grandfather was Maxwell Dennison Cooper.[3]

He was educated at Ampleforth College and University College, Oxford, where he graduated with a B.A. degree.[5]

Career[edit]

In 1968, he was admitted to Middle Temple and became entitled to practise as a barrister.

Balfour was the Conservative Party candidate for Chester-le-Street at a by-election in March 1973, a seat that the party had little chance of winning. Balfour was candid about his chances but hoped to come a strong second, despite his campaign being based in a caravan in a garden. In the event, the Conservative vote collapsed to the Liberals and he lost his deposit; the Labour campaign accused the Liberals of dirty tricks but regarded Balfour as an honourable opponent.[citation needed]

After fighting the Chester-le-Street seat again in the February 1974 general election, Balfour moved jobs to join the European Banking Co. Ltd as an assistant manager. He served as an Executive Director from 1980 to 1983. In the October 1974 general election he fought Hayes and Harlington, and he was elected to the European Parliament in the 1979 European Parliament elections from the Yorkshire North constituency.[citation needed]

In the European Parliament, Balfour concentrated on trade policy. He attacked member state governments for lacking any will to remove state aids to industry and to institute free trade. As budget spokesman for the Conservative MEPs, he attacked the European Community's budgeting process but, in October 1981, joined with other Conservative MEPs in signing a letter calling on the UK to join the European Monetary System. In December 1982, he made an impressive speech attacking the MEPs voting to withdraw a budget rebate for the United Kingdom that had been accepted by the European Council. However, the next year, he led a more moderate group in supporting a short freeze in payment of the rebate because he worried that opposing it would lead the Parliament to vote to stop payments altogether.[citation needed]

Ryedale[edit]

Balfour stood down at the 1984 European Parliament election. He had been appointed Chairman of the York Trust Ltd in 1983, which later became York Mount Group. However, he did not give up Parliamentary ambitions. John Spence, the Conservative MP for Ryedale (part of his former European Parliament constituency), died in 1986, and Balfour was selected to defend the seat in a by-election.[6]

The by-election took place at a time when the Conservatives were unpopular and the Liberals nominated a popular local teacher, Elizabeth Shields. On polling day, Shields won the seat comfortably.[6] Balfour returned to merchant banking, and from 1991 was Chairman of Mermaid Overseas Ltd. In 1999 he became involved with the emerging Polish market as a Director of Mostostal Warszawa SA, serving as Chief Executive Officer from 2000 to 2002.[citation needed]

Policy stance[edit]

In 2000 he wrote a letter to The Spectator in which he declared "as a committed Europhile" that the best solution would be to allow Britain to opt into EU laws it liked, and supported the call from Conrad Black for Britain to negotiate membership of the North American Free Trade Agreement.[citation needed]

Personal life[edit]

In 1969, Balfour married Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia in London. Princess Elizabeth is the only daughter of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia and Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark. Her older brothers were Prince Nicholas and Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia.[7] They have a son, Nicholas Augustus Roxburgh Balfour (b. 1970).

On November 4, 1978, he married Serena Mary Spencer-Churchill Russell, who was engaged to Broadway producer Michael Santangelo in 1964 [8] before marrying commodities broker Robert Salant in 1966, then Neil McConnell, a grandson of Avon Products founder David H. McConnell, in 1968.[citation needed] Serena was the daughter of American newspaper publisher Edwin F. Russell and Lady Sarah Consuelo Spencer-Churchill,[9] daughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough.[10] Serena's wedding to Salant was famously upstaged by her parents, who were in the process of an acrimonious divorce.[11]

With Serena, Balfour is the father of:[12]

  • Consuelo Lily Balfour (b. 1979)
  • Alastair Albert David Balfour (b. 1981)[13]

In 2004, the Balfours lived at Warwick Square in London, England.[14]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Laffaye, Horace A. (2015). The Polo Encyclopedia, 2d ed. McFarland. p. 381. ISBN 9781476619569.
  2. ^ a b "NURSE AND CHILD KILLED. Car and Coach Collide. GREAT NORTH ROAD SMASH". The Guardian. 14 April 1930.
  3. ^ a b "Balfour, Neil Roxburgh". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U6310. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  4. ^ Annan, Noel Gilroy Annan Baron (1965). Roxburgh of Stowe: The Life of J. F. Roxburgh and His Influence in the Public Schools. Longmans. pp. 21, 208.
  5. ^ Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage. Burke's Peerage Limited. 1914. p. 50.
  6. ^ a b Lelyveld, Joseph; Times, Special To the New York (9 May 1986). "Conservatives Suffer Reverses in Local Elections". The New York Times.
  7. ^ C. Arnold McNaughton, The Book of Kings: A Royal Genealogy, in 3 volumes (London, U.K.: Garnstone Press, 1973), volume 2, page 515.
  8. ^ "Engagement Ends for Miss Russell" The New York Times (July 17, 1964); retrieved September 20, 2022
  9. ^ Daley, Bill (17 October 2000). "A DISTINGUISHED AND ENGAGING LIFE". Hartford Courant.
  10. ^ "Lady Sarah Spencer-Churchill". The Telegraph. 19 October 2000.
  11. ^ "Milestones: Sep. 9, 1966" TIME (September 9, 1966); retrieved September 20, 2022
  12. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths SPENCER, CHURCHILL". The New York Times. 14 October 2000.
  13. ^ "METRIC CAPITAL PARTNERS LLP". thegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  14. ^ Mikhailova, Anna (17 April 2010). "Serena Balfour: these are a few of my favourite things". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
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