“MR Eden’s nephew chosen for ‘West’,” ran the Echo’s front page headline on January 23 1954.

The news was that 28-year-old John Eden – whose uncle, Sir Anthony Eden, was the Foreign Secretary – had been chosen to fight the seat of Bournemouth West in a by-election.

Lord Eden of Winton, as he is now titled, recently marked 60 years in Parliament – 29 in the Commons and 31 in the Lords.

That Echo headline came a month after John Eden had fought a by-election in the Labour seat of North Paddington and had reason to attract the attention of Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.

“I had quite substantially reduced the then Labour majority and that had given a boost to Sir Winston Churchill, who was then engaged in a meeting with President Eisenhower in Bermuda,” he said.

“It was useful to him that he got a telegram indicating a positive swing back towards the Conservative government.”

His party was keen for him to contest the Paddington seat at the next general election. But John Eden was encouraged by his friend Sir Oliver Crosthwaite-Eyre, MP for the New Forest, to stand in Bournemouth West, which had become vacant after Viscount Cranborne inherited his seat in the Lords.

John Eden, educated at Eton and St Paul’s School, lived not far from the constituency at Fritham and had been active with the New Forest Young Conservatives.

“When I put my name forward they already had a long list of potential candidates submitted by Conservative Central Office. My name was written in pencil at the bottom,” said Lord Eden.

There had been some resistance to his selection as a candidate because of his youth and the fact that he was unmarried. On the other hand, he was the nephew of the popular Foreign Secretary and leader-in-waiting.

“Definitely it helped. It helped in so far as it opened the door but once the door was open and you went through, it was up to me,” said Lord Eden.

He won the by-election that February with a majority of 11,689 over Labour.

By May, he was attracting headlines by decrying a proposal to increase MPs’ pay, calling it a “tactical error of considerable magnitude which we in the Conservative Party will find it hard to live down”.

Less than a year after the by-election, Sir Anthony Eden became Prime Minister on the resignation of the ailing Churchill.

John Eden became a “Suez rebel”, advocating an uncompromising response during the confrontation with Egypt which overshadowed his uncle’s premiership. He believed the US should have supported the British government – and that if it had, President Nasser would not have remained in power.

When Ted Heath became Prime Minister in 1970, Sir John Eden – as he was now titled – was appointed a minister of state for industry.

“I didn’t know what was going to hit me,” he said.

It was an enormous brief, at a time when the government ran British Steel, the National Coal Board, gas, electricity, atomic power, large parts of the car industry and even the Pickfords removals chain.

Industrial relations were not good – and would worsen to the stage that three-day weeks and power cuts would help bring down Heath’s government in 1974.

“What we had to achieve was better output per man – in other words, an improvement in productivity,” Lord Eden recalled.

“There was an inertia which came built into the system. The attitude was much more ‘Well, they can look after it, can’t they?’ rather than ‘What can I do to contribute?’”

From 1972-74, he became minister of posts and communications – overseeing ITV franchises, the arrival of cable television, more independent radio stations and new switching systems which were a big step forward for the phone system.

When the Conservatives returned to government under Margaret Thatcher in 1979, Sir John Eden became chairman of the energy select committee.

He recalled of Mrs Thatcher: “She was very decisive and always positive. She would often be lampooned a bit as forging ahead without listening but she was a great listener, provided you knew what you wanted to say. She didn’t have any time for waffle and wasting time.”

On retirement from the Commons in 1983, he was sent to the Lords taking the title Lord Eden of Winton.

He remains busy in the Lords, travelling between London and the Dorset home where he is a tenant of the current Earl of Shaftesbury.

He says of the House of Lords: “It’s ridiculously overlooked by most commentators and most people.

“It’s a very important revising chamber, it does a very significant work in improving legislation out of all recognition. It represents the people often more effectively than does the House of Commons.

“I often find myself popping into the House of Lords, not intending to stay very long, and sitting in the chamber and becoming immersed in the quality of the debate and I stay there for hours listening.”

Current Bournemouth West MP Conor Burns still runs the 66 Club, a gathering of Conservative-supporting business people which John Eden established in 1966.

Mr Burns said: “It’s amazing when I think that he had already been 18 years in parliament when I was born and that I can still pop up to the other end of the Palace of Westminster and pick his brains.

“To be able to get advice and counsel from someone who has served in Parliament for 60 years is remarkable.”

John Eden – some stories from the archives

1954: Wins the Bournemouth West by-election for the Conservatives.

1955: Re-elected at the general election with an increased majority.

1956: Pictured welcoming two big stars to the Commons – Liberace (with his mother) and, on another occasion, Eartha Kitt.

1958: On a month-long lecture tour of the US, criticises America’s Middle Eastern policy, saying the US should have supported the British in Suez.

Visits the Echo presses and tries setting news into hot metal on a Linotype machine.

1961: Startles members of the Bournemouth and District Licensed Hotels and Restaurants Association at their annual banquet with his comments about British hotel food. “Not only is the quality low, but the food is also appallingly served, as anyone who has travelled abroad will know.”

1970-72: Minister for industry, dealing with some of the weightiest issues of the day.

1972-74: Minister for posts and communications, although he admits it is his children who keep him up to date about television. “I have had very little time over the past two years to watch television,” he said.

1975: Tells parliament of the “chaos and anguish” in Springbourne, where the Wessex Way is cutting a community in two.

1977: Marries for the second time, to Margaret Ann Gordon. His uncle, the former Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden, dies while the couple are on honeymoon.

1979: Receives a ceremonial sword from Mrs Thatcher for his efforts in a parliamentary swim for the Association of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. He manages 50 lengths of an 84ft pool.

1986: Becomes responsible for 3,771 guns, bows, pikes swords and assorted armour after being appointed chairman of the board of trustees of the Royal Armouries at the Tower of London.

2010: Turns out at the age of 84 to support his successor Conor Burns’ election campaign.