(STOCK BROKER)
(526)
Born in Leicester 21 August 1932 and educated at St John the Baptist School and Wyggeston Boys’ Grammar School. He obtained a State Scholarship and College Open Scholarship to Worcester College, Oxford (1950). Awarded Honours degree in Literae Humanities (‘Greats’) in 1955.
From 1955-59, he worked on The Stock Exchange, London and then from 1959 onwards he was member of The Stock Exchange and a partner in the Leicester firm of Stockbrokers, Wilshere, Baldwin and Company.
He married Miss Susan Jenifer Pollard of Leicester at St Denys Church, Evington on 23 April 1960. They had four children, Joanna, Oliver, Lucy and Edward.
Councillor Cufflin was a member of the Bow Group whilst in London and, upon returning to Leicester in 1959, he was active in the Spinney Hill Ward of the South East Leicester Conservative Association and was the Ward Chairman from 1963 to 1967. He was first elected to the City Council in 1967 as a representative for the Knighton Ward. Councillor Cufflin served on a number of the major Committees including Estates,
Establishment, Finance, Public Control and Fire Brigade, and the Policy and Resources Committee of which he was the Chairman. Councillor Cufflin was the Leader of the Conservative Group on the Leicester City Council from 1973-1984 and was Leader of the City Council from 1976-1979 during the period in which the Conservative Group on the City Council was the majority party.
He was a member of the National Local Government Advisory Committee from 1976 to 1984. Among Councillor Cufflin’s many activities and interests were the Leicester YMCA of which he was a Director. He was a Governor of five Leicester Schools and the founder Chairman of Leicester Grammar School, which opened in 1981. He was a member of the Leicester Rotary Club, The Leicestershire Club and the Leicester Tigers Rugby Football Club. Councillor Cufflin also served on the Committee of the Leicester Christmas Dinner Fund and was a member of the Friends of Leicester Cathedral and the Little Theatre. He was also a Board Member of the Haymarket Theatre for many years.
He was appointed High Bailiff of the City on 20 May 1976 for the year 1976-77.
Councillor Cufflin was elected to the office of Lord Mayor of the City on 17 May 1984. He chose his wife
Susan to be his Lady Mayoress. Mrs Cufflin was a J.P. and served as a Magistrate on the City Bench (Mondays and Juvenile Court). She made history in becoming the only lady to have been Lady Mayoress of Leicester to two different Lord Mayors, having previously been Lady Mayoress during the Year of Office of her mother Councillor Mrs Irene Pollard, CBE in 1974-75.
One of the earliest engagements of Councillor Cufflin’s Year of Office took place on 31 May 1984. The Lord Mayor gave a Civic Reception for the Veterans of the United States 82nd Airborne Division who came to the City on route to Normandy to mark the 40th Anniversary of D-Day. As young soldiers, stationed in Leicestershire, they were among the first of the Allied Airborne troops to land on French soil on 6 June 1944.
The City’s twinning links were strengthened with a five day Civic Visit by the Lord Mayor to Strasbourg, France in September 1984. During January 1985, Councillor Cufflin travelled to Krefeld for a four day visit to the German City. A Civic Delegation from Strasbourg paid a return visit to Leicester, headed by the Mayor, Monsieur Marcel Rudloff, in April 1985.
On 30 October 1984, Councillor Cufflin was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and received is award from Her Majesty the
Queen in an investiture at Buckingham Palace. The award was for political and public services and it is believed that he was the first Lord Mayor of Leicester to receive such an honour whilst in office.
Councillor Cufflin was delighted to receive His Eminence Cardinal George Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster when he made his first visit to Leicester on 24 February 1985. The Cardinal, who was received by the Lord Mayor at the Town Hall, was warmly welcomed to the City by very large numbers of people from Leicester’s Roman Catholic Churches who attended a Concelebrated Mass at De Monfort Hall.
Another memorable event for the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress was the celebration of the Silver Anniversary of their wedding on Sunday, 21 April 1985. Parish Eucharist at the Church of St John the Baptist in Clarendon Park Road, became a civic event with many guests from all walks of life joining family and friends for the occasion. A model of the Victorian church, which commemorated its centenary in 1985 was presented to Councillor and Mrs Cufflin.
Leicester’s links with the military forces were maintained when Councillor Cufflin paid a Civic Visit to the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Anglian Regiment at their Hyderabad Barracks, Colchester on 25 April 1985. The
Battalion, known as ‘The Poachers,’ included many Leicestershire men in their ranks, celebrated its Tercentenary during 1985.
The Lord Mayor attended a Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey on 8 May 1985 to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the ending of the Second World War.
An unusual and historic event occurred during Councillor Cufflin’s Year of Office when the civic pennant, from the Lord Mayor’s car ABC1 was taken into outer space by Dr Jeff Hoffman the NASA Astronaut who had spent some time in the Department of Space
Physics at Leicester University. Following the successful voyage of the space rocket Discovery, which was launched from Florida, the pennant was returned to the City to form part of Leicester’s history by becoming the first civic pennant to have circumnavigated the Earth.
Councillor Cufflin’s Mayoralty will be remembered for his Appeal for the Leicestershire Organisation for the Relief of Suffering (LOROS) which raised a total in excess of £1,000,000 towards the completion of the building of the Groby Road Hospice. This was the most successful Mayoral Appeal in the City’s History.
Councillor Cufflin’s Year of Office was concluded on 16 May 1985 whereupon he was appointed Deputy Lord Mayor for the year 1985-86.
Councillor Cufflin died in Leicester on 7 December 1998, aged 66 years.
