Peter Pilkington, Baron Pilkington of Oxenford

Pilkington was educated at Dame Allan's School, Newcastle, where he became religious and developed both his love of scholarship and his combative personality.

In 1952 he went up to Jesus College, Cambridge and read history, being influenced by Conservative-minded figures such as Maurice Cowling, Herbert Butterfield and Michael Oakeshott.

[3] Pilkington trained for ordination at Westcott House, Cambridge, and was ordained as a deacon in the Diocese of Derby in 1959, and as a priest the following year.

[5] He also assisted in retirement as an honorary curate of St Mary's, Bourne Street, a prominent Anglo-Catholic church in Pimlico, where he served from 1992 to 2005.

[3] Although his entire teaching career was spent in the private sector, Pilkington was a vociferous supporter of selective state education.