Frederick Corfield

Sir Frederick Vernon Corfield (1 June 1915–August 25 2005) was a British Conservative politician and minister.

Corfield came from an army family and was educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy. He joined the Royal Artillery in 1935. During World War II he served first with the British Expeditionary Force and then with the 51st (Highland) Division but he was captured by German forces in 1940 and spent the remainder of the war in an internment camp, where he studied law. On his return to England he qualified as a lawyer and was called to the bar in 1946.

He became MP for South Gloucestershire in 1955. Under Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home he held the position of Joint Parliamentary Secretary of Housing and Local Government (1962-4). He became an opposition spokesman on land and natural resources 1964-65 and subsequently an executive member of the 1922 Committee.

In 1970 Corfield was briefly Minister of State at the newly formed Department of Trade and Industry under John Davies. He subsequently held the positions of Minister for Aviation Supply and Aerospace Minister (1970-2) where he was responsible for the cancellation of the Black Arrow rocketry programme but provided financial assistance to Rolls-Royce (whose Filton, Bristol factory was within his constituency) when it ran into difficulties that hampered its defence commitments. This help included the nationalisation of the strategically significant aero-engine part of RR. He also presided over the first full scale roll-out of Concorde.

He returned to the backbenches in 1972 and did not contest his Gloucestershire seat in the general election of February 1974. After this retirement from the Commons he returned to legal pursuits and took seats on the boards of various water companies.