FORMER Basingstoke MP Denzil Freeth – who represented the town for nearly a decade – has died aged 85.

The stockbroker, whose funeral took place on Wednesday, won the Basingstoke seat as a 30-year-old at the first attempt in 1955.

He went on to serve as Parliamentary Secretary for Science before stepping down in 1964 – two years after his health problems led to a hospital visit and an appearance before magistrates.

Born on July 10, 1924, Mr Freeth was educated at Highfield School, Liphook, Sherborne School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

He served in the RAF as a pilot between 1943 and 1946, before returning to Cambridge, where he became president of the Union Society and chairman of the university Conservative Association.

After Cambridge, Mr Freeth became a stockbroker’s clerk in the City and joined the Stock Exchange in 1959. By then he was MP for Basingstoke.

He succeeded Sir Patrick Donner in 1955, winning the Basingstoke seat with a majority of 6,290.

During an early foray in the Commons, he advocated extension of the death penalty to rapists. Contrary to the opinions of many in his party at that time, he supported legalisation of homosexuality.

At a time when Basingstoke was preparing to expanded to take in London overspill, Mr Freeth preferred private finance for rented housing over subsidised new towns and estates.

After being appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Science in 1961, Mr Freeth, who never married, was frequently quizzed in the Commons about topics such as Britain’s space and atomic programmes. In May 1963, he told Parliament the Government would not shed jobs at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston even though work for the scientists there subsequently dried up.