After Dinner Speakers
The Rt. Hon. David Mellor QC is a Former MP, Broadcaster, Journalist and After-Dinner Speaker.
David Mellor was born in Wareham, Dorset in 1949. He was educated at Swanage Grammar School, Christ’s College Cambridge and the Inns of Court School of Law.
Mellor was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1972, and became a Queen’s Counsel in 1987.
He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1990.
Mellor won the marginal seat of Putney from Labour in 1979, and increased his majority at three successive elections, until his defeat in the Labour landslide of 1997, when the swing to Labour in Putney was one of the three lowest in Greater London.
David Mellor joined Mrs Thatcher’s Government in 1981, and was for four years her youngest Minister.
Between 1981 and 1992 he served in six different Departments of State, including each of the big three – The Home Office, where he was Minister of State responsible for criminal justice policy for 5 years, the Foreign Office – where he was responsible for East-West relations and the Middle East, and the Treasury.
He joined the Cabinet in 1990 as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, in charge of overall Government expenditure, and in May 1992 became founding Secretary of State at the department of National Heritage.
Since leaving the Government David Mellor has pursued a multi-faceted career as a Businessman, Broadcaster and Journalist.
Mellor has presented more than 400 programmes for BBC National Radio, on four of the BBC’s five national networks. For over 8 years he presented Radio 5’s cult football show, 6.0.6., first on Saturdays, and then on Wednesday evenings. In his nine seasons with the Saturday show, he increased the audience by 250% and was elected BBC Radio Personality of 1994 by The Variety Club.
An avid music collector and broadcaster, David joined Classic FM in 1997 and has been a regular fixture at the weekends ever since. He also presents a Saturday morning programme for Classic FM’s sister station LBC.
On television, David Mellor hosted two seasons of BBC2’s The Midnight Hour.
As a writer, David has written regular columns for many newspapers including The Evening Standard, The Guardian and The People on sport and the arts.