James Allason

Lieutenant Colonel James Harry Allason, OBE (6 September 1912 – 16 June 2011) was a British Conservative Party politician, sportsman, and former military planner who worked with Lord Mountbatten and Winston Churchill.

He served as an officer in the British Army for 24 years from 1930 to 1954, including in India, Ceylon and Burma, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

He was Member of Parliament for Hemel Hempstead (after defeating Margaret Thatcher for the Conservative nomination) from 1959 to 1974, when, following boundary changes, he narrowly lost the seat in the October election of that year to Labour's Robin Corbett.

After leaving parliament he continued to exercise a rational influence on environmental policy from positions on the executive of the Town and Country Planning Association and the Environment Council's Transport Committee.

After the deaths of Patrick Maitland, 17th Earl of Lauderdale, in December 2008 and Bert Hazell in January 2009, Allason became the oldest living former British Member of Parliament.

[3] As a sportsman Allason raced Bentleys at Brooklands, played polo with maharajahs in India, skied and sailed in international competition, and represented the House of Commons in five sports.