Edward McMillan-Scott was born in Cambridge the third of seven children in 1949. He comes from a farming and professional background and he was educated privately by the Dominican friars. At school he ran the debating society. Edward and Henrietta (c) and their daughters Arabella (l) and Lucy (r) with their daughters As a young man he was a tour director with a US company, taking groups across Europe, the former Soviet Union - where he was briefly arrested for straying off the tourist path in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) - as well as Africa. His parents (above) were active Conservatives and in 1967 he joined the Party. He was a busy branch member, and later became a branch chairman up to and through the 1983 General Election. In 1972 he married Henrietta (below in communist Leipzig), from a branch of the same family: she became a solicitor and is a member of the Law Society's Childrens Panel. They have two daughters - Lucinda born in 1973 and Arabella born in 1976 - and two grand-daughters. In 1983 he set up his own Whitehall public affairs consultancy: he then represented the Falkand Islands Government and a number of commercial clients. In 1984 he was elected to the European Parliament to represent the York Euro-constituency, which included most of the county of North Yorkshire and parts of North Lincolnshire. He was re-elected in 1989, 1994, 1999 and 2004. From 1997 - 2001 he was leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament and sat on the Europe committee of the Shadow Cabinet, which he also attended. His hobbies are reading, classical music, conservation and modern art. Personal snapshots Public service is in Edward's genes. One great-uncle was a co-founder of the East End's Toynbee Hall, another Father Hudson, opened the famous orphanage. His great-aunt was social worker Blessed Margaret McMillan. Edward is a trustee of the Hudson Trust, which provides homes for disabled soldiers Edward's daughter Lucy carries the first officer VC, awarded to her great-great grandfather Major General Edward Bell for capturing a Russian gun in the Crimea, at the 150th anniversary dedication Edward and Henrietta's constituency home is in a historic house near Wetherby Edward's family still has the same farmland in Scotland as nearly 500 years ago Edward's former PPS Lord Stockton - grandson of Harold Macmillan - with Yorkshire Tory agents at a Crayke Castle fundraisingProfile of Edward McMillan-Scott 
On the Countryside March
In 1975 he joined a large public relations firm and from 1976 specialised in governmental and parliamentary relations. Among his clients was the Falkland Islands Committee, set up to represent the islanders in the UK, which he worked for throughout the 1982 Argentine invasion.
Edward's 1984 Election picture
