Richard Balfe
British politician
Richard Andrew Balfe, Baron Balfe (born 14 May 1944) is a British politician and life peer. He was a Labour Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1979 but joined the Conservative Party in 2002, before standing down in 2004.
Early life and career
Born in Barton Mills, Mildenhall, Suffolk, Balfe spent time in a children's home in Sheffield, and was educated at Brook Secondary School in the city. He began working in a bakery in 1960 and joined USDAW. The following year, he moved to London and worked first for the Crown Agents for Overseas Governments, then at the Foreign Office, before studying as a mature student at the London School of Economics, graduating BSc Hons. in 1971.
Political career
In the 1970 general election, while a student, Balfe stood as the Labour Party candidate in Paddington South. He was unsuccessful, and instead became the Research Officer for the Finer Committee on One-Parent Families.
At the 1973 Greater London Council election, Balfe was elected as the member for Dulwich, serving until 1977. From 1975 until 1977 he was a member of the GLC Housing Committee. During this period, he was also political secretary (later director) of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society and chairman of the Thamesmead New Town Committee.
“Richard Balfe” enters the record as british politician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Richard, Balfe and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Richard Balfe” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Richard, Balfe and British provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3915820. VIAF identifies the subject as 191594017. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944, 1979, 2002 and 2004.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Richard Balfe”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Richard Balfe primary sources, Richard Balfe archive and Richard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Richard Balfe”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Richard Balfe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.