IT’S exactly a quarter of a century since Sir Charles Fletcher-Cooke said a rather sad farewell to politics after more than three decades as MP for Darwen.

Within the next couple of years Jake Berry will attempt to follow in his rather illustrious footsteps.

I hope he gets a little more consideration from the Tory big-wigs in the Darwen area than was accorded Sir Charles after a scandal in the mid 60s.

I knew him well. I called him “Charles” and he always called me “Dear Boy”.

I was only too happy, in his last few years as MP for the old Darwen constituency, to give him lifts now and again from the Whitehall Hotel or his Railway Road office to Preston for his train back to London.

But it was hardly the chauffeur-driven limo which he used to enjoy.

In the old days he would often stay in some style in a grand country house although he liked the Whitehall and was friendly with Joe and Audrey Whitehead.

An 18-year-old lad was caught speeding in London’s East End, a minor incident that halted Charles’ promising career or he would surely have made it to the Cabinet.

The lad was driving a rather smart Austin Princess – without a licence or insurance.

And the owner of the car was Charles Fletcher-Cooke.

It led to prurient speculation in the national Press about the nature of their relationship and he immediately resigned his ministerial post at the Home Office.

I was a local reporter covering the story in those days and I rather went out of my way to be supportive.

He worked hard for Darwen and I thought he was given an unnecessarily rough ride from the constituency party.

He got a vote of confidence from members at an emotional meeting above Hollins Grove Con Club but it was a close-run thing, I recall.

Charles continued as MP for Darwen for another 20 years but the damage was done.

He spent the time on the back benches but was always an excellent constituency MP.

He retired in the summer of 1983 and handed over to David, later Sir David, Trippier whose Rossendale constituency had merged with the Darwen division.

Charles had been knighted in 1981 and he died in 2001 aged 87.

Jake Berry is also a lawyer. He studied law at Sheffield University and Chester College.

He trained as a solicitor in London and moved to Manchester where he works in property finance and development.

Charles Fletcher-Cooke’s father died from wounds sustained at Gallipoli when he was a child and it left the family in what was known then as “reduced circumstances.”

However, he worked hard and won scholarships to Peterhouse, Cambridge.

In 1936 he was president of the Cambridge Union and editor of The Granta.

He got a first in his Finals and then a first in the Bar exam.

He built a successful practice and took Silk in 1958.

During the last War he served in naval intelligence.

It was a pity that his later years were overshadowed by the whiff of a scandal which never quite blew away.

And as for the new “Rossendale and Darwen” constituency which followed his tenure I still think it was a daft idea.

And so does everybody else in Darwen.