It was Jean Lucas , his guardian in Lambeth who , playing pop on his behalf , again came to the rescue of his career .sx A force in South London , she wanted to know of Putney Association why her boy had not been listed and was told he was not well enough qualified .sx Looking at the forms , she had the blinding experience of seeing that the credentials given were not his credentials .sx There was another John Major , a GLC member with only a tenuous interest in a Commons career who had not amassed the various Brownie badges of chairman of this , political officer of that , not to say two parliamentary candidacies , of our John Major .sx Central Office with a genius out of farce had , by confusing the two , helped to indicate a future Prime Minister as not worth the preliminary interview .sx Central Office having been sorted out , Major was indeed invited to Putney and shortlisted there , meeting for the first time the eventual winner and MP , David Mellor , now Chief Secretary , who has been a close friend ever since .sx But he decided to forgo it , preferring his chances at the by-election-pending seat of Carshalton which would be taken in fact by Nigel Forman .sx But two months later he would face selection at Huntingdon where Norma Major was certain he would win .sx She had been brought up not far from there and it was , as she remembered and John did not , the anniversary of his selection five years before at St Pancras .sx She felt in her bones that he was going to win .sx Logically , you could find faults in her reasoning , but she was dead right .sx Huntingdon A group of Conservative activists in Huntingdon was far from happy at the prospective candidate their local association had finally chosen in 1976 to fight the next election .sx When he emerged from the room in which the members of the shortlist had effectively been detained , a prominent lady member of the committee actually avoided shaking hands with him , saving herself the humiliation of expressing public congratulations .sx This was still Huntingdonshire .sx It would not become mere Huntingdon until a later re-drawing of boundaries - and this faction had distinct ideas about the sort of candidate it wanted .sx The collective heart of the faction was set on the Marquess of Douro , heir of the Duke of Wellington .sx The tradition of Huntingdonshire as they saw it , was that of a county seat which should be represented by a county person .sx Charles Douro ( later for a term a member of the European Parliament at Strasbourg ) was happy to function as a working politician and was not to blame for other people's social aspirations .sx He was , however , perfectly equipped to meet them .sx A descendant of the Iron Duke and heir to the Duchy of Wellington , he awaited the titles of Viscount Wellesley in Ireland and 12th Earl of Mornington ( England ) , both dating from 1760 , and 13th Baron Mornington , created in 1746 , Prince of Waterloo , Duque de Victoria , Marquess De Torres Vedras , Conde de Vimeiro - all in the peerage of Portugal ; while the Spanish exertions of the first Duke had reserved to him the rank of Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo from 1812 and left him a Grandee of Spain ( First Class) .sx The Marquess , also the patron of four livings in the Church of England , had been created for a committee lady's happiness and the Hunts Conservatives had chosen a man with a south London accent and a job in a bank .sx This is perhaps the point to publish the actual application made by John Major and submitted by him to Huntingdonshire constituency :sx John Roy Major , Associate of the Institute of Bankers of 26 West Oak Avenue Beckenham Bromley ; born 29 March 1943 , married Norma Johnson , one daughter one son , Elizabeth and James , education Cheam Primary , scholarship to Rutlish Grammar , Associate of Institute of Bankers , Member National Union of Bank Employees .sx Previous employment :sx 1959-64 Industrial sculptor , '64 entered international banking , '67 seconded to Nigeria during Biafran war , '68-9 Foreign exchange dealer , '70-72 senior officer business development Africa responsible for advising on trade and economic conditions and capital investment overseas , '75 appointed senior business development executive Standard Charter Bank Britain's largest Overseas Bank .sx Lectures frequently at Chambers of commerce CBI seminars , widely travelled throughout Far East and Africa .sx Voluntary work :sx member management board , warden housing association and warden second housing association .sx '75 President Fulham Taverners Cricket .sx '68-70 , a school governorship .sx '69-70 member a Housing Centre Trust .sx Parliamentary ; '71-4 candidate St Pancras North .sx Feb and October '74 contested unsuccessfully St Pancras North .sx As candidate '71-4 held weekly advice bureaux throughout constituency , held periodic public meetings , spoke at many organisations and schools .sx Established contacts with tenants and residents associations and other interest groups , contributed guest column to local newspaper .sx '64 contested borough council in Lambeth , '68 elected councillor Lambeth , member Housing committee , Chairman accounts committee , vice-chairman Housing committee .sx '69 chairman Housing Committee , youngest in living memory in Lambeth .sx As Chairman presided over pioneer housing advice centre since copied throughout the UK .sx Initiated the policy of selling council houses and new homes to occupiers displaced in council redevelopments .sx Initiated public meetings at which councillors and officers answered electors' questions .sx Constituency :sx Joined Tory party 1960 .sx '60-64 Treasurer , Vice Chairman , Political officer , chairman Brixton Young Conservatives , '65 founder chairman Lambeth Borough YCs .sx '65-7 Chairman Association CPC committee .sx '68 constituency Treasurer , '69 constituency vice chairman , '70-71 Constituency Chairman to dissolution of association following Boundary Commissioners' report '75 branch-chairman Beckenham constituency association .sx Miscellaneous :sx '68 member Central Office Speakers Panel , author :sx contributed to Conservative Party publications on Social Security and Housing .sx Has travelled extensively covering housing and other problems notably USSR , Finland and Holland .sx Secondary points added .sx In 1976 attended IMF conference as personal assistant to Lord Barber .sx Interests :sx reading , cricket , music especially opera .sx .sx Despite the last throw with Lord Barber's patronage and a decent interest in Opera , this catalogue of solid , useful , socially applied , busy concern and activity is as remote from the less strenuous life pattern of most people as it is from that of Lord Renton or indeed the Marquess of Douro .sx It is , despite Major's esteem for Mrs Thatcher , not quite her style either .sx The selectors of Huntingdonshire were being offered someone who did believe that there was such a thing as society , and whose two shining passions , evident here , were housing and consultation with the general public .sx The tone of the outline is post-Beveridge and in specifically Tory terms , post-Macleod .sx It shows no chips of resentment , makes no self-made-man boasts though he is precisely self-made .sx It suggests , along with social concern , a singularity of purpose in filling every inconsequential job in the local hierarchy of his party .sx As for roots , they are not even snubbable until that last flicker in Beckenham as 'suburban' .sx Many things can be said about Brixton and Lambeth but 'suburban' is not one of them !sx .sx To those who yearned for a county member with a sense of what was due to the ruling class and a regard for authority , it was not encouraging .sx Lord Willoughby De Broke in his memoirs The Passing Years describes the very different order which had held " undisputed and comfortable sway " in his Victorian youth .sx In descending importance it constituted the Lord Lieutenant , the Master of Foxhounds , the agricultural landlords , the Bishop , the MPs , the Dean , the Archdeacon , the Justices of the Peace , the lesser clergy and the larger farmers .sx The Conservative Party had served one order , it now served another and would be represented in Parliament by a former London borough councillor with no social connections of any kind but a steady job in a bank and a proven dedication to social problems .sx We do in our way have revolutions .sx Prejudice was not perhaps all on one side :sx " I wasn't having the Marquess at any price whatever his ability , " remarks one fiercely democratic lady , active in the Association .sx The appeal of Mr Major on that occasion lay for his experience in the non-armigerous world of local government .sx " We were , " says one official of the time , " very impressed that he had been chairman of housing in Lambeth at twenty-six " .sx Another colleague adds that " Ten or fifteen years ago someone like that wouldn't even have been considered .sx " .sx The constituency was changing out of all recognition .sx It would not be a shire much longer .sx The business overflow from the Cambridge high tech labs was already on flow , the twenty years from 1970 would see twenty-five business parks established .sx Huntingdon was attracting population overflow from London , and smaller local sources .sx The numbers were going up .sx The constituency had 39,000 members shortly after the war , by the time of the 1982 redrawing of boundaries it had 102,000 and had to be drastically cut down losing St Neots , proceeding thereafter to continue cheerfully increasing its numbers within the narrower boundaries .sx The three key towns of St Ives , Godmanchester and Huntingdon itself contained everything from highly traditional silver-smithing and Chivers Jams to Brights , makers of the most sophisticated medical instruments , to the latest remarkable thing clever chaps can do with silicon .sx It also contained , ironically for its future MP and member of a watchdog organization against abuse of vivisection , Huntingdon Laboratories , the largest medical researchers by way of animal testing in Europe .sx But these statistical facts understate the Montague-Capulet nature of relations inside the constituency .sx Incomers and local residents were divided roughly fifty fifty .sx One eyewitness speaks of bright , sharp youngsters from London confronted by country people with a county leadership in which Commander Archie Gray , Chairman in the year of Major's selection , and his wife were joined by Sir Peter Crossman and other landowners .sx Sherry parties given by the Grays constituted a thin bridgehead between the groups , and in a very British way , the sort of bridgehead from which many people felt excluded .sx Andrew Thompson who had lately come to the town , a man who would also see service as Margaret Thatcher's agent in Finchley , speaks of the great need in the town for reconciliation , healing even .sx Huntingdon was in the process of becoming a New Town almost under the meaning of the act , worried about jobs in the early 1970s but destined , as the jobs came , to worry more about housing and expansion .sx It was not the seat David Renton had inherited at the end of the War .sx Lord Renton , as he became , had been a good member , concerned with such matters as mental health and trade union law .sx His career which had not taken him above Minister of State level , was thought by friendly judges to have understated his abilities , the cards simply turning unluckily .sx Renton had lately in the mid-seventies become depressed by the House of Commons .sx He particularly disliked the raucous hard left , notably Dennis Skinner and had grown weary .sx His conduct throughout proceedings to find a successor was strictly correct .sx He indicated no preferences , attempted to pull no strings , but was keen to act to his successor as studio master to apprentice .sx The relationship was to be a useful one with the young man from the Standard Charter Bank attending a wide range of functions and helping with many duties .sx However , that said , whatever his merits , Renton , first elected in 1945 , belonged comprehensively to an elder generation .sx His final speech in the constituency as retiring member , as reported by the Hunts Post , reads like a parody of the knighted backbencher as seen through the eyes of John Wells .sx Lower moral standards , the growth of crime and divorce and the permissive society caused more unhappiness than fulfilment .sx There was less censorship and a decline in religion , loyalty did not seem to be as important as it was , which he regretted very much .sx Worst of all , egalitarianism had produced a contempt for authority .sx There must be a respect for leadership and indeed more leadership in a stable society .sx He would be happy if we saw a sign of the revival of national greatness .sx We had lost an empire and our economic fortunes had declined .sx They would not revive until we stopped bickering and restored respect for authority and stopped trying to get higher incomes than we were prepared to work for .sx