Sir Raymond William Whitney, known as Ray Whitney, OBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

, (born 28 November 1930) is a retired Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 politician in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

Whitney was elected as Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Wycombe

Wycombe (UK Parliament constituency)

Wycombe is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It currently elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of elections....

 at a by-election in 1978

Wycombe by-election, 1978

The Wycombe by-election of 27 April 1978 was held after the death of Conservative Member of Parliament John Hall. The Conservatives held on to the seat in the by-election.-Results:...

 and stepped down at the 2001 general election

United Kingdom general election, 2001

The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...

 when he was replaced by Paul Goodman

Paul Alexander Cyril Goodman

Paul Alexander Cyril Goodman is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Wycombe from 2001 to 2010, during which time he was a Shadow Minister shadowing the Department for Communities and Local Government...

.

Whitney was educated at Wellingborough School

Wellingborough School

Wellingborough School is an independent fee-paying day school in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England. It was established in 1595 and is one of the oldest schools in the country.-History:...

. Before being elected to parliament, he was head of the Information Research Department

Information Research Department

The Information Research Department, founded in 1948 by Christopher Mayhew MP, was a department of the British Foreign Office set up to counter Russian propaganda and infiltration, particularly amongst the western labour movement....

, the Foreign Office

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...

's counter-propaganda department. He was a junior minister in the Department of Health and Social Security

Department of Health and Social Security

The Department of Health and Social Security was a ministry of the British government in existence for twenty years from 1968 until 1988, and was headed by the Secretary of State for Social Services.-History:...

as well as a junior Foreign Office Minister. He is a keen sportsman and in his retirement plays a lot of golf.