Date of birth
12 February 1948
Political profile
Nicholas Soames was first elected to the Commons in 1983.
In becoming a politician, he was following in extremely distinguished family footsteps - he is the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill and his father, Christopher Soames, was governor of Rhodesia and leader of the House of Lords.
An Old Etonian, Mr Soames is a hunting, shooting and fishing country gentlemen who is a close friend of the Prince of Wales and is strongly constitutionally conservative.
He is also very interested in military matters as a former officer who served as minister for the armed forces for three years under John Major.
However, he eschews the right-wing Eurosceptic monetarism of some of his Tory colleagues in favour of "One Nation" Conservatism.
Mr Soames refused a place on the front bench under William Hague and backed Michael Portillo's leadership campaign.
In November 2003, he returned to the frontbench as shadow secretary of state for defence. In Howard's third reshuffle, he retained this role but was promoted to shadow cabinet status.
Contact
soamesn@parliament.uk
Constituency office 01444 452590
~RS~a~RS~International~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~37~RS~)