Lynch Maydon

Lieutenant-Commander Stephen Lynch Conway Maydon, DSO and bar, DSC, RN (15 December, 1913 – 2 March, 1971) was a British Navy officer and politician who had a brief career in government.

Maydon's father John was a member of the Natal Legislative Assembly and he was born there, but brought up in Britain and schooled at Twyford School near Winchester. He showed an early interest in the Royal Navy, enlisting in 1931, and studying at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. During the Second World War Maydon commanded submarines L26, P35 and Tradewind.

At the 1950 general election, Maydon fought Bristol South, a safe Labour constituency. He was then chosen for the safe Conservative seat of Wells, which he won in the 1951 election. Peter Thorneycroft, then President of the Board of Trade, named him as his Parliamentary Private Secretary in 1952; he served for only a year.

After the 1959 general election, Maydon was Chairman of the Conservative Parliamentary Party Defence Committee for two years. Harold Macmillan brought him into government as Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance from July 1962, where he served alongside Margaret Thatcher. He retained this office under Sir Alec Douglas-Home.

Maydon was a right-winger who supported the use of corporal punishment, arguing that it was an effective sentence as a last resort. He opposed sanctions against Rhodesia and voted against the Race Relations Bill in 1968 and also opposed House of Lords Reform. He retired at the 1970 general election, and died less than a year later.

References

*M. Stenton and S. Lees, "Who's Who of British MPs" Vol. IV (Harvester Press, 1981)
*Philip Norton, "Dissension in the House of Commons 1945-1974" (Macmillan, 1975)