- Patrick Donner
Sir Patrick William Donner (
4 December 1904 –19 August 1988 ) was a BritishMember of Parliament and a member of the influentialFinland-Swedish Donner family .His family moved from
Helsinki ,Finland toLondon ,England in 1919. His mother was Violet McHutchen ofEdinburgh and his fatherOssian Donner , headedFinland 's first Diplomatic Mission in London 1919-1925. The family later settled inEngland for good and his father became a British citizen.Donner studied
English literature atExeter College, Oxford and later entered business. He was elected at the 1931 election as Conservative MP for Islington West. This seat being marginal, Donner was selected for the safe Conservative seat of Basingstoke for the 1935 election, against the wishes ofConservative Central Office who preferred Sir Francis Lindley.In Parliament, Donner was active on
British Empire andIndia n policy, playing an important part in theIndia Defence League . He served in theRoyal Air Force duringWorld War II and was knighted in 1953. He served as Basingstoke's MP for 20 years, stepping down at the 1955 election.Donner's
memoirs , "Crusade: A Life Against the Calamitous Twentieth Century", were released in 1984.
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