William ("Bill") Rodgers was born in Liverpool in October 1928. He was educated at Quarry Bank High School and Magdalen College, Oxford. On leaving Oxford in 1951, he was appointed as Assistant Secretary to the Fabian Society and was its General Secretary, from 1953-60. He was a Labour member of the St. Marylebone Borough Council from 1958-62 and, in 1960, he also became the executive chairman of the Campaign for Democratic Socialism. Rodgers unsuccessfully contested a by-election at Bristol West in 1957, before being elected to Parliament at the Stockton-on-Tees by-election of 1962. He served as MP for Stockton-on-Tees from 1962-83. He was Minister of State at Defence from 1974-76 and served as Secretary of State for Transport, 1976-79. In 1981, Rodgers left the Labour Party to found the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He lost his Parliamentary seat in the subsequent General Election in 1983. He was Vice-President of the SDP from 1982-87. He was awarded a life peerage in 1992 and was leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords from 1998-2001. From 1987-94 he was Director General of the Royal Institute of British Architects and from 1995-2001 he acted as Chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority. His autobiography, entitled Fourth Among Equals, was published in 2000.