Ronald Henry Atkins (13 June 1916 – 30 December 2020) was a British Labour politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Preston North for two terms: from 1966 until 1970, and from February 1974 until 1979. His career in British politics spanned nearly sixty years, from 1951 to 2010, including several decades as a councillor in local government, and nine as a Member of Parliament. A member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Atkins took part in the Aldermaston marches, opposed the American war in Vietnam, and was a member of the Tribune group of left-wing Labour MPs. He also supported the campaigns by Tony Benn and Jeremy Corbyn to lead the Labour Party. In the course of his career, Atkins helped bring a polytechnic educational facility to Preston, which later became the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). From 2018 until his death, he was the oldest living former MP. He also became the longest-lived British MP with a registered date of birth, surviving to the age of 104. Early life and career Atkins was born into a large Noncomformist family on 13 June 1916 in Barry, Glamorgan, the son of Frank Atkins, a master butcher, and his wife Elizabeth (nee Bryant). He grew up on a smallholding, and was educated at Barry Grammar School. Atkins suffered greatly from psoriasis, which led him to start working rather than going to university. He attended Southampton University, but his studies were interrupted by the Second World War, as well as his condition. He tried to improve his health in order to enter the armed forces by eating a carrot-only diet for more than a month. Eventually, he volunteered for industrial war work as a chief greaser with a chemical company in Barry, where he organised the company's first trade union branch. The poverty he saw in the port town inspired him to join the Labour Party. He later said "I've been a union man and a socialist all my life." Atkins worked as a teacher from 1949 onwards. Having qualified as a teacher at Birkbeck College, University of London, he taught at a college of further education. Atkins also became a tutor and lecturer for the National Council of Labour Colleges. He was head of English at Halstead secondary school in Braintree, Essex. Whilst in Essex, Atkins became a councillor on Braintree Rural District Council, serving from 1952 to 1961.