Conservative politician; Born September 11, 1935; Died November 21, 2008.

ANDREW ROWE, who has died of cancer aged 73, was a free-spirited, left-leaning Conservative MP who began his career as a civil servant at the Scottish Office in Edinburgh.

Rowe joined St Andrews House as a principal in the field of social services in 1962. There, he helped establish a system of children's hearing panels to deal with underage offenders, an innovation later replicated all over the world.

In 1968, he moved to Edinburgh University as a lecturer in social policy and was later seconded to the Voluntary Services Unit. Rowe also got involved in the city's political life, standing for election to the old Edinburgh Corporation in 1972.

Rowe's experience of Scottish affairs allowed him to criticise Labour's devolution proposals from an informed perspective when they were debated by parliament in 1998. He argued that England should receive proportionate rights and branded the establishment of the Welsh Assembly a mess.

Andrew John Bernard Rowe was the son of stockbroker John Rowe and the former Katharine Storr. An Old Etonian, he did National Service in the RNVR before going to Merton College, Oxford.

After spells teaching at Eton and working at the Scottish Office, Rowe was appointed to Conservative Central Office in 1975. Weeks later, Margaret Thatcher became leader and he found himself responsible for myriad duties, including the Young Conservatives and establishing a Small Business Bureau.

Rowe worked as a freelance consultant and journalist in the run-up to the 1983 General Election when he was voted to represent Mid Kent (renamed Faversham and Mid Kent after 1997). In the Commons, he campaigned against aspects of the Channel Tunnel rail link which affected his constituency, and in 1995 introduced a Bill to abolish the House of Commons, arguing that it was no longer fit for purpose.

Pro-European, Rowe campaigned to encourage volunteering and rebelled over issues such as the US bombing of Libya. Perhaps as a result, the closest he got to ministerial office was eight years as parliamentary private secretary to Edward Heath, Richard Needham and Earl Ferrers.

He is survived by his second wife, Professor Sheila Wirz, a son (the actor Nicholas Rowe) from his first marriage to Alison Boy and two step-daughters from his second. BY DAVID TORRANCE