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Revision as of 17:24, 11 December 2009 by 92.27.151.20 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Edgar Vincent Griffin is an English politician, previously of the Conservative Party. His son, Nick, is Chairman of the British National Party.
Griffin was born in 1921 in Brighton, East Sussex to Edith Lucy Strawson and Edward J. Griffin. Edith Strawson was born 1880 in Tiverton, Devon to Elizabeth and Vincent Strawson (1842-1895), a master apprentice of hairdressing. Strawson's siblings include:
- Alice Blanche (mispelt Blanch) Strawson (1867-1883).
- Bertie Vincent Strawson (1870-1934). Bertie married Mary Ann E. Manley (1870-1957) in 1906 in Tiverton and had one daughter, Marjorie May Strawson (1907-1983), who married Edward George Slade Beacham (1908-1989) in 1935 in Tiverton.
- Bessie Ellen Strawson (born 1872). Bessie married Horace Charles Ford (1883-1939) in 1909 in Steyning
- Louis Charles Strawson (1874-1909).
Griffin was a long-standing Conservative Party member, and a councillor for the St Johns Wood Terrace ward on the St Marylebone Borough Council, from 1959 to 1965. His wife, Jean (nee Thomas), whom Griffin married in 1950, has stood as both a councillor and parliamentary candidate for the British National Party, standing in Enfield North at the 1997 general election, in Chingford & Woodford Green for the 2001 general election and for London in the 1999 European elections.
Following the 2001 general election, and William Hague's resignation as Conservative party leader, Griffin became vice-president in Wales of Iain Duncan Smith's party leadership campaign, despite the fact that Griffin's wife had just stood against Duncan Smith in his Chingford and Woodford Green seat. Griffin was subsequently expelled from that position, and from the Conservative Party itself, when it was discovered that "he assisting the British National Party" by taking BNP-related calls at home on behalf of his wife.
Griffin has been a Freemason since 1947. Among many senior Masonic appointments, he has been Worshipful Master and Worshipful Commander. Only two other Masons have held Grand Rank for longer than Edgar Griffin, who received the Grand Rank of Assistant Grand Inner Guard in 1962.
External links
- Conservative Party statement on Edgar Griffin's expulsion
- telegraph.co.uk "Expelled Tory laments 'one silly mistake'"
- guardian.co.uk "Duncan Smith sacks backer with BNP link"
- BBC: Edgar Griffin Interview in full
References
- Under the skin of the BNP, BBC News, 2006-11-10, retrieved 2009-02-27
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1507390.stm
- Master Masons of North Wales "A double presentation to our longest serving Brother"
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