Timothy Raison


Sir Timothy Hugh Francis Raison was a British Conservative politician.

Early life and education

The son of publisher and editor Maxwell Raison, general manager of Picture Post, and his wife Celia, Raison was educated, through being a scholarship boy, at two independent schools: at Dragon School in Oxford, where he became Head of School. From there he got a scholarship to Eton College near Windsor, Berkshire, then to Christ Church at the University of Oxford, to which he also attained a scholarship.

Career

Raison began his career as a journalist, first working on Picture Post, then New Scientist. Whilst at New Scientist he also edited Crossbow, journal of the Bow Group.
In 1960 he received The Nansen Refugee Award, which is given annually by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in recognition of outstanding service to the cause of refugees. He edited the social science magazine New Society from 1962 until 1968 and was MP for Aylesbury from 1970 until his retirement in 1992. He served as a junior Education and Science Minister.
Raison served as an Home Office minister from 1979 to 1983, under then Home Secretary William Whitelaw,.
In 1956 Raison married violin teacher Veldes Julia, daughter of John Arthur Pepys Charrington, of Netherton, Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire, president of the Charrington Brewery and Master of the Worshipful Company of Brewers in 1952, of that landed gentry family of Cherry Orchard, Shaftesbury, Dorset; they had a son and three daughters.