Nicholas Henry Bourne, Baron Bourne of Aberystwyth (born 1 January 1952) is a Conservative Party politician who served as Leader of the Welsh Conservative Party and Member of the Senedd for Mid and West Wales from August 1999 until May 2011. During the 2011 Senedd election he unexpectedly lost his regional list seat, due to Conservative gains at constituency level. He was elevated to the House of Lords in September 2013, and the following year, became a government whip. Education Bourne was the first of two children of John Morgan Bourne and his wife, Joan Edith Mary Bourne. He was educated at King Edward VI School, Chelmsford; University of Wales, Aberystwyth; and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was President of Cambridge University Lawyers and Treasurer of Cambridge University Conservative Association. He is the Honorary President of Aberystwyth University Conservative Future. He obtained the bachelor of laws (First Class Honours) and LLM from University of Wales and the LLM from Trinity College, Cambridge. He was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of Grays Inn. Professional career A former professor of law, Bourne has been Assistant Principal of Swansea Institute of Higher Education, and was a visiting lecturer at Hong Kong University and an author of various legal textbooks on Commercial and Company Law. In 2015, Bourne was made a fellow of Aberystwyth University and in 2018, he received the Honorary degree of LLD from the University of Wales, Trinity St David. Political career Bourne was the Conservative Party candidate in the 1984 Chesterfield by-election, having stood in the same constituency at the previous year's general election. He fought the Worcester constituency in the 1997 general election. He was the Conservatives' chief spokesman in Wales, and led the unsuccessful "Just Say NO" campaign against Welsh devolution, during the 1997 referendum. After the referendum. he served on the National Assembly Advisory Group, the body that set up the institution's working arrangements. First elected to the National Assembly for Wales in 1999, and re-elected in 2003 and 2007. Bourne headed the regional list for the Conservatives for the entire period that he was in the National Assembly. Bourne sat on the Assembly's European and External Affairs committee and was the party's spokesman on constitutional matters. He was the leader of the Welsh Conservatives from August 1999, and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly from July 2007. Following a minor reshuffle