Reginald Patrick Ground (9 August 1932 – 7 April 2026) was a British Conservative politician and barrister. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Feltham and Heston from 1983 to 1992.
Political career Local level Ground served as a councillor on the London Borough of Hammersmith from 1968 to 1971, representing the Parson's Green ward. In April 2015, he was selected locally to take the ceremonial role of president of the Feltham and Heston Conservative Association."Former MP sworn in as president of Feltham and Heston Tories" Salina Patel, Get West London (Trinity Mirror Southern), 4 April 2015.
Parliamentary level Ground stood as the Conservative candidate for the Feltham and Heston seat seven times, a constituency made up of the western half of the London Borough of Hounslow, between February 1974 and 1997. He won the successive elections in 1983 and 1987, but lost in 1992 to Alan Keen, the Labour Co-operative candidate. A backbencher, Ground spoke often on subjects of local government and planning. He advocated collectivist social advancement, opposing greater direct redistribution of income and wealth. As such, in the House of Commons, he argued strongly against measuring poverty primarily in relative terms, saying:
Legal career His specialist area of advocacy was planning law and he was called to the Bar in 1960; he was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1981 (which became King's Counsel upon the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022). In 2015 he practised from his home address in Fulham.
Personal life and the Fulham Society Ground married Caroline Dugdale in 1964. In the 1980s, he chaired the cross-party Fulham Society, a residents' association and remained a vice-president into the 2010s decade with three others: a younger MP of his party, Andy Slaughter MP (Lab) and another former West London MP Lord Carrington.About the Society The Fulham Society. Accessed 29 January 2017.
Ground died on 7 April 2026, aged 93. His death was reported on 16 April, with the Conservative group leader on Hounslow Council paying tribute to him as a 'true gentleman who stayed in touch with his constituency'.
References
Sources The Times Guide to the House of Commons, Times Newspapers Ltd, 1997