Kenneth Carlisle


Sir Kenneth Melville Carlisle is a politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Lincoln from 1979 to 1997.

Early life

Born in Hiraethog, Denbighshire, Wales, he is the son of Kenneth Ralph Malcolm Peter Carlisle and Elizabeth Mary McLaren. His father was a Director then Chairman of Liebig Extract of Meat Company which owned the brands of Oxo and Fray Bentos. The company was bought by Brooke Bond in 1970 and Unilever in 1984, and Kenneth Carlisle later worked at the company for eight years from 1966–74. He was educated at Harrow School and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he gained a BA in Law. He became a barrister at the Inner Temple in 1965. In 1974, he took over running of an arable farm on his father's Wyken estate near Stanton in Suffolk.

Parliamentary career

He was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence from October 1990 - March 1992 and the Minister for Roads and Traffic at the Department of Transport from May 1992 - May 1993. He is on the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society.

Farming

His farm has a vineyard, shop and the Leaping Hare restaurant. The vineyard which has the Bacchus grape produces about 14,000 bottles of wine a year.
He is interested in conservation via the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, notably that of the grey partridge.

Personal life

He married Carla from Mississippi in 1986. They have a son, Sam. From 1996-8 and 2000–12, his wife wrote the weekly Spectator column for Country Life magazine.