He held the safe Conservative seat until his retirement at the 1987 general election, when his successor was the future minister Ann Widdecombe.

Throughout his period as a Member of Parliament, Wells was a strong supporter of country interests and the local economy, on one occasion riding his horse through the streets of Westminster and on another loudly eating a Kentish apple during a speech by a Labour Minister of Agriculture, as a protest against the import of cheap, subsidised and, in his opinion, inferior imports from France.

Wells married in 1948, Lucinda, eldest daughter of Francis R Meath Baker, of Hasfield Court, Gloucestershire.

[1] The Wells family have themselves had a long association with West Kent dating back to at least the 16th century, and were mentioned by Samuel Pepys in his famous diary as owners of a successful shipbuilders on the Thames.

[1] Together the Wellses had two sons (WA Andrew, High Sheriff of Kent in 2005–06,[2] and Oliver) and two daughters (the late Julia, Mrs James Luard, and Henrietta, homeopathic practitioner and author).