Ian Percival
British politician (1921-1998)
Sir Walter Ian Percival QC (11 May 1921 – 4 April 1998) was a British Conservative Party politician.
Background
Percival was educated at Latymer Upper School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he read law. He was commissioned from Sandhurst into The Buffs in 1941 and served in the Second World War in North Africa and Burma, attaining the rank of Major. He became a barrister, was called to the Bar from the Inner Temple in 1948, and also worked as a part-time economics professor. He served as a councillor on Kensington Borough Council (1952–59). He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1963, and was knighted in 1979.
Political career
He first stood unsuccessfully in the Battersea North constituency at the 1951 general election and again at the 1955 election. He was elected as member of parliament for Southport at the 1959 general election, holding the seat until he retired at the 1987 election. Although coveting a Ministerial post, he was overlooked for the position he wanted in 1979 when Margaret Thatcher came to power, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Instead, he served as Solicitor General from 1979 to 1983.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Ian Percival” as british politician (1921-1998). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as british politician (1921-1998). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
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 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5982587. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1921, 1998, 1941 and 1948.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ian Percival” 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.