The Lord Deedes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister without Portfolio | |
| In office 13 July 1962 – 16 October 1964 | |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | The Lord Mills |
| Succeeded by | Eric Fletcher |
| Parliamentary Secretary to theMinistry of Housing and Local Government | |
| In office 18 October 1954 – 20 December 1955 | |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | Ernest Marples |
| Succeeded by | Enoch Powell |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| In office 23 September 1986 – 17 August 2007 Life peerage | |
| Member of Parliament forAshford | |
| In office 23 February 1950 – 20 September 1974 | |
| Preceded by | Edward Percy Smith |
| Succeeded by | Keith Speed |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Francis Deedes (1913-06-01)1 June 1913 Hampstead, London, England |
| Died | 17 August 2007(2007-08-17) (aged 94) Aldington, Kent, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | Evelyn Branfort (died 2004) |
| Children | 5 |
| Relatives |
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| Education | Harrow School |
| Military career | |
| Branch |  British Army |
| Years of service | World War II |
| Rank | Major |
| Service number | 90126 |
| Awards |  Military Cross |
William Francis Deedes, Baron Deedes,KBE, MC, PC (1 June 1913 – 17 August 2007) was a BritishConservative politician, army officer and journalist. He was the first person in Britain to have been both a member of the Cabinet and the editor of a major daily newspaper,The Daily Telegraph.
Deedes was born inHampstead in 1913, the second child and only son of landowner Herbert William Deedes and his wife Melesina Gladys, daughter of Philip Francis Chenevix Trench.[1] His younger sister Margaret Melesina married the 21stBaron FitzWalter.[2] He was brought up in the family home ofSaltwood Castle until it was sold in 1925. He was educated atHarrow until after his father, who had struggled to manage the family's wealth for years, suffered heavy financial losses from theWall Street crash of 1929 which eradicated their remaining fortunes.[3]
Due to the lack of funds, Deedes was forced to leave school a year early and finish his exams with a tutor.[4] After failing to get into a university, Deedes began his career as a reporter on theMorning Post in 1931, joiningThe Daily Telegraph when it took over thePost in 1937. Between 1931 and the beginning of theSecond World War in 1939, he shared a home inBethnal Green, with his uncleWyndham Deedes.[1]
Deedes fought with theBritish Army in theSecond World War, being based initially atShrapnel Barracks inWoolwich[5] as anofficer in the 2nd Battalion,Queen's Westminsters, one of theTerritorial Army (TA) units of theKing's Royal Rifle Corps, into which he was commissioned in June 1939.[6]
He gained theMilitary Cross nearHengelo, theNetherlands in April 1945.[7] He rose to the rank ofmajor and was the only officer to serve in 12th King's Royal Rifle Corps (2nd Queen's Westminsters) for the duration of the war. His battalion served as themotorised battalion of8th Armoured Brigade in theNorth-west Europe campaign.[3]
Deedes came from a family with a tradition of public service. He was very proud of the fact that there had been a Deedes member of parliament in every century since 1600.[8]
Deedes was elected as theConservativeMember of Parliament (MP) forAshford in1950. First serving as ajunior minister underWinston Churchill for three years, he later enteredHarold Macmillan'sCabinet in 1962 asMinister without Portfolio. He left the Cabinet in 1964, asMinister of Information, and subsequently stood down as an MP at theOctober 1974 election.[8]
Deedes was editor ofThe Daily Telegraph from 1974 to 1986 and, after he was replaced byMax Hastings, continued his career as a journalist. His tenure was noted for battles with the print unions.[1]
After the1999 Australian republic referendum, Deedes wrote inThe Daily Telegraph: "I have rarely attended elections in any country, certainly not a democratic one, in which the newspapers have displayed more shameless bias. One and all, they determined that Australians should have a republic and they used every device towards that end."[9]
He continued to comment on social and political issues through his newspaper columns until his death. In his later years, he gained a cult fanbase after two memorable appearances onHave I Got News for You and was, at the age of 88, the oldest guest ever to have appeared on the programme until 2012, whenBaroness Trumpington appeared at the age of 90.
He was also a stalwart member of theCarlton Club and was appointed as an ambassador forUNICEF in 1998, running high-profile campaigns againstlandmines. In 2006, he wrote in an opinion piece forThe Daily Telegraph that Islam "is the only faith on Earth that persuades its followers to seek political power and impose a law –sharia – which shapes everyone's style of life" and added that Islam "forbids" Muslims from conforming with British society.[10] He continued to write into his 94th year, with his final article, published on 3 August 2007, aboutDarfur.[11]
Deedes was married to Evelyn Hilary Branfoot, who died in May 2004, by whom he had two sons and three daughters.[8] A convinced Christian like his father, he lived very unpretentiously on the edge ofRomney Marsh, Kent, where his wife, Hilary, kept a menagerie of farm animals. He was never particularly well-off, preferring to use public transport whenever possible.[8]
He was created alife peer on 23 September 1986, becomingBaron Deedes, ofAldington in theCounty of Kent,[12] but he always preferred to be addressed as "Bill", rather than "Lord Deedes".[4] He was the subject ofThis Is Your Life in 1998, when he was surprised byMichael Aspel.[13]
Deedes died frombronchopneumonia at his home in Aldington on 17 August 2007, at the age of 94.[1][14][15] There is a residential street named for him in the village, called Bill Deedes Way.
According to many sources, Deedes was the journalist used byEvelyn Waugh as the model and inspiration for the haplessWilliam Boot, protagonist of the satirical novelScoop. Deedes himself said he "spent part of my life brushing aside the charge", but admitted "that my inexperience and naivety as a reporter in Africa might have contributed a few bricks to the building of Boot."[16] The two had reported together in 1936, trying to cover theSecond Italo-Abyssinian War; Deedes arrived inAddis Ababa aged 22 with almost 600 pounds of luggage.[17] Berhanu Kebele, Ethiopian ambassador to London, pointed out that Deedes's sharp journalistic instincts ensured Italian excesses were kept in the public eye.[18]
Barring the question of age, a more appropriate model for Boot isWilliam Beach Thomas who, according toPeter Stothard, "was a quietly successful countryside columnist and literary gent who became a calamitousDaily Mail war correspondent" inWorld War I.[19]
Deedes was close toMargaret Thatcher and her husbandDenis. Thespoof letters "from" Mr. Thatcher which appeared in satirical magazinePrivate Eye throughout the Thatcher years were always addressed toDear Bill – the "Bill" in question was usually assumed to be Deedes; however some instalments (e.g. 16 May and 28 November 1986) would suggest otherwise. The two men regularly played golf together, with Deedes saying it was a public service to take the spouse of the Prime Minister away from the stress of being married to the country's head of government. TheEye also based its long-running editorial comment, "Shome mishtake shurely?", on Deedes' distinctive slur.[20]
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| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forAshford 1950–1974 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government 1954–1955 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister without Portfolio 1962–1964 | Succeeded by |
| Media offices | ||
| Preceded by | Editor ofThe Daily Telegraph 1974–1986 | Succeeded by |
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