Charles Longbottom
British barrister, businessman and politician (1930-2013)

Charles Brooke Longbottom (22 July 1930 – 5 February 2013) was a British barrister, businessman and Conservative politician. In his later years his interest turned to Christian healing and education.
He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for public and charitable services.
Early career
Longbottom was educated at Uppingham School, and then read for the Bar, being called in 1958 by the Inner Temple. He was interested in politics from an early age and was Vice Chairman of the Young Conservatives Advisory Committee in 1953–54; while a student he was part of the United Kingdom delegation to the World Assembly of Youth Services in Genval, Belgium.
Parliament
After fighting Stockton-on-Tees in the 1955 general election, Longbottom was selected for York and won the seat in the 1959 general election. Iain Macleod, the Leader of the House of Commons, picked him as his Parliamentary Private Secretary in 1961; he served until Macleod went out of office in 1963.
Maritime business career
After losing his seat at the 1966 general election, Longbottom went into the shipbuilding business. He was chairman of Austin & Pickersgill shipbuilders (based in Sunderland) from 1966 to 1972, and of A&P Appledore International Ltd from 1970 to 1979. He joined Seascope in 1970 and was chairman of several subsidiary companies.
The public source identifies “Charles Longbottom” as british barrister, businessman and politician (1930-2013). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Charles, Longbottom and British.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5080329. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1930, 2013, 2012 and 1958.
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This entry incorporates text from “Charles Longbottom” 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.