CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Keith Stainton

British politician (1921-2001)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ6385054 ↗
Source-derived summary

Keith Monin Stainton (8 November 1921 – 3 November 2001) was a British Conservative politician and decorated World War II veteran.

Life and career

Stainton was born in Kendal, Westmorland on 8 November 1921, the son of a Kendal butcher father and a Belgian refugee mother who met during the First World War. He left school at 14 and worked as an insurance clerk from 1936 until military service.

In early 1940 he volunteered for the Navy and was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, into submarines and served on the famous French submarine Casabianca. Part French himself, he was awarded the Légion d'honneur, the Croix de Guerre avec Palme and a citation à l'ordre de L'Armée for his spy landings and torpedo actions in the Mediterranean.

After the war he read economics at Manchester University where he was founder chairman of the Manchester University Conservative Association. From 1949 to 1952, he was a leader writer for the Financial Times. He was also a founder member of the Bow Group and first chairman of Croydon East Conservative Association.

After working as a management consultant, he joined a major food manufacturing and distribution company and became managing director and chairman. He was a Lloyd's underwriter specialising in maritime and aviation reinsurance.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Keith Stainton” as british politician (1921-2001). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Keith, Stainton and British.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1921, 2001, 1936, 1940—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1921-11-08. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Keith, Stainton and British providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Keith Stainton”, the useful work is to connect “british politician (1921-2001)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

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 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6385054. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1921, 2001, 1936 and 1940.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. 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.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Keith Stainton”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Keith Stainton primary sources, Keith Stainton archive and Keith research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Keith Stainton”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Keith Stainton” 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.