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The Lord Hurd of Westwell | |||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) Hurd in 2013 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 26 October 1989 – 5 July 1995 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | John Major | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Malcolm Rifkind | ||||||||||||||||||
| Home Secretary | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 2 September 1985 – 26 October 1989 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Leon Brittan | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | David Waddington | ||||||||||||||||||
| Secretary of State for Northern Ireland | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 27 September 1984 – 2 September 1985 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jim Prior | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Tom King | ||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of State for the Home Office[1] | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 9 June 1983 – 27 September 1984 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Patrick Mayhew | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Giles Shaw | ||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of State for Europe | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 4 May 1979 – 9 June 1983 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Office established | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Malcolm Rifkind | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Political Secretary to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 1970–1974 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Edward Heath | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Marcia Falkender | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Marcia Falkender | ||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Douglas Richard Hurd (1930-03-08)8 March 1930 (age 95) Marlborough, Wiltshire, England | ||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Conservative | ||||||||||||||||||
| Spouses | |||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 5, includingNick | ||||||||||||||||||
| Parent(s) | Anthony Hurd Stephanie Frances Corner | ||||||||||||||||||
| Relatives | Sir Percy Hurd (grandfather) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Education | Eton College | ||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge | ||||||||||||||||||
| Signature |  | ||||||||||||||||||
Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell (born 8 March 1930) is a BritishConservative Party politician and author who served in the governments ofMargaret Thatcher andJohn Major from 1979 to 1995.[2][3]
A career diplomat and political secretary to Prime MinisterEdward Heath, Hurd first entered Parliament inFebruary 1974 as MP for theMid Oxfordshire constituency (Witney from 1983). His first government post was asMinister for Europe from 1979 to 1983 (being that office's inaugural holder) and he served in several Cabinet roles from 1984 onwards, includingSecretary of State for Northern Ireland (1984–85),Home Secretary (1985–89) andForeign Secretary (1989–95). He stood unsuccessfully for theConservative Party leadership in 1990, and retired from frontline politics during aCabinet reshuffle in 1995.[4]
In 1997, Hurd was elevated to theHouse of Lords and is one of the Conservative Party's most senior elder statesmen. He is apatron of theTory Reform Group. Heretired from the Lords in 2016.
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Hurd was born in 1930 in themarket town ofMarlborough inWiltshire. His fatherAnthony Hurd (laterLord Hurd) and grandfatherSir Percy Hurd were alsoMembers of Parliament. Douglas attendedTwyford School andEton College, where he was aKing's Scholar and won theNewcastle Scholarship in 1947.[5] He was also captain of school (head boy).[6]
Following school Hurd didNational Service, which he did not particularly enjoy, at a time when theBerlin Blockade made aThird World War seem far from unlikely. He began in July 1948 with a compulsory period in the ranks of theRoyal Regiment of Artillery alongside young men of all social backgrounds. He later recorded that although living standards were no great shock after the spartan conditions at public school in those days, the petty dishonesty which he saw in the barrack room, and the waste of time which was so large a part of a conscript's experience, made him sceptical in later years of constituents' demands for a restoration of National Service.[7] He was selected for officer training, attendedMons Officer Cadet School, Aldershot; from November 1948, and was commissioned as asecond lieutenant in the5th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery (as it was then called) at the start of March 1949.[8] He was released from the Army in September 1949 to take up his place atCambridge University.[9] He trained for a few weeks each summer as a reserve officer until 1952.[10]
Hurd went up toTrinity College, Cambridge, in the autumn of 1949. He achieved an upper second (II:1) in his preliminary exams in summer 1950.[11] In March 1951 he was approached by an admiral to be recruited to British Intelligence. He attended a selection panel, but withdrew from the process because, he later wrote, he did not want a career which would have to be pursued in secret.[12] Hurd's brother Julian, who was on the officer training course at Aldershot at the time, committed suicide in June 1951.[13] In his third year, Hurd served as chairman of theCambridge University Conservative Association for Michaelmas (autumn) Term 1951 andpresident of theCambridge Union Society in Easter (summer) Term 1952. His special subject for study was theSecond French Republic.[14] He graduated in 1952 with a first-class degree (BA) inhistory.[15][16]
In 1952, Hurd joined theDiplomatic Service. He was posted toChina, the United States and Italy, before leaving the service in 1966 to enterpolitics as a member of the Conservative Party.
Hurd became private secretary (a political appointment, his salary paid by the Conservative Party) to Conservative Prime MinisterEdward Heath, and was first elected to Parliament in February 1974 to represent the constituency ofMid Oxfordshire. Following his election, he was made aCommander of the Order of the British Empire in theFebruary 1974 Dissolution Honours, gazetted on 2 April 1974.[17] At the1983 general election the seat was replaced byWitney and he remained MP for that seat until his retirement from theHouse of Commons in1997 having served 23 years in Parliament. His immediate successor wasShaun Woodward, who defected toLabour in 1999, and moved in 2001 to a safe Labour seat, before serving asNorthern Ireland Secretary, a position Hurd once held. From 2001 to 2016, Hurd's former constituency was represented by the former Leader of theConservative Party and former British prime minister,David Cameron.[18]
Hurd was appointedMinister of State at theForeign & Commonwealth Office upon the Conservative victory in the1979 general election and remained in that post for the duration of the Parliament.[19] Following the 1983 election Thatcher moved Hurd to theHome Office, but just over a year later he was promoted toCabinet rank, succeedingJim Prior asSecretary of State for Northern Ireland.[19] In this position, his diplomatic skills paved the way for the signing of theAnglo-Irish Agreement on the future ofNorthern Ireland, which marked a turning point in British-Irish co-operation on thepolitical situation in the troubled region. A month before the agreement was signed, however, Hurd returned to the Home Office, this time asHome Secretary, following the demotion ofLeon Brittan to theDepartment of Trade and Industry.
Widely seen as a "safe pair of hands" and a solid, loyal member of the Cabinet, Hurd's tenure as Home Secretary was largely uncontroversial, although he was notably of the view thatHer Majesty's Prison Service did not work effectively and argued for morerehabilitation of offenders and alternative sentencing.[18]
Hurd brought in thePublic Order Act, 1986, which created the crime ofhate speech for speech which is "threatening, abusive or insulting" and which is spoken in public, with intent or likely to "stir up" racial hatred.[20]
Hurd's Cabinet career progressed further during the turbulent final months ofMargaret Thatcher's prime ministership. On 26 October 1989, Hurd movedto the Foreign Office, succeedingJohn Major, whose rapid rise through the Cabinet saw him becomeChancellor of the Exchequer in the wake ofNigel Lawson's resignation.
In mid-November 1990, Hurd supported Margaret Thatcher's candidature as Conservative Party leader against challengerMichael Heseltine, but on her withdrawal from the second round ofthe contest on 22 November, Hurd decided to enter the race as a moderate centre-right candidate, drawing on his reputation as a successful 'law-and-order' Home Secretary. He was endorsed by former Prime Minister and Conservative Party LeaderEdward Heath.[21] He was seen as an outsider, lagging behind the more charismatic Heseltine and the eventual winner, John Major, who shared the moderate centre-right political ground with Hurd but had the added advantages of youth and political momentum. Hurd's Etonian education may have also been a disadvantage. Years later, Hurd expressed frustration that his privileged background counted against him in the leadership election, commenting in an interview that "I should have said I am standing for leadership of the Tory party and not for some demented Marxist outfit".[22] He came third, winning 56 of the 372 votes cast and, together with Heseltine, conceded defeat to allow Major, who had fallen just three votes short of an outright majority, to return unopposed and take over as prime minister on 27 November 1990. Hurd was gracious in defeat and, on the formation of Major's first Cabinet, was returned to his position as Foreign Secretary.[23][24]
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Hurd was widely regarded as astatesmanlike British Foreign Secretary, his tenure having been particularly eventful.[19] He oversaw Britain's diplomatic responses to the end of theCold War and thecollapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, as well as the firstGulf War to driveBa'athist Iraqi troops out ofKuwait.[19] Hurd cultivated good relations with the United States under PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush, and sought a more conciliatory approach to other members of theEuropean Community, repairing relationships damaged during the increasinglyEurosceptic tone of Margaret Thatcher's final years. Hurd was a signatory of theMaastricht Treaty establishing theEuropean Union in 1992. Hurd welcomed areunified Germany into the European political community in 1990.[25]
One of the defining features of Hurd's tenure as Foreign Secretary was the British reaction to theYugoslav Wars. During theBosnian War, Hurd was seen as a leading voice among European politicians arguing against sending military aid to theBosniaks and for maintaining the armsembargo, in defiance of the line taken by US PresidentBill Clinton, and arguing that such a move would only create a 'level killing field' and prolong the conflict unduly. Hurd also resisted pressure to allowBosnian refugees to enter into Britain arguing that to do so would reduce pressure on theRepublic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to sue for peace.[26] Hurd described his and British policy during that time as 'realist'.[27]
Shortly after his withdrawal from frontline politics, Hurd travelled toSerbia and Montenegro to meetSlobodan Milošević on behalf of the British bankNatWest (see below), fuelling some speculation that Hurd had taken a pro-Serbian line. There has been criticism[28][29] of Hurd's policies in relation to the war. The Bosnian government even threatened to charge Hurd as an accomplice to theBosnian genocide before the War Tribunal atThe Hague, though this came to nothing. In 2010 Hurd told a reporter that he was troubled by his Bosnia policy but still doubted that intervention would have brought about an earlier end to the war.[30]
Hurd was involved ina public scandal concerning Britain's funding of a hydroelectric dam on the Pergau River in Malaysia, near theThai border. Building work began in 1991 with money from the British foreign aid budget. Concurrently, the Malaysian government bought around £1 billion's worth of British-made arms. The suggested linkage of arms deals to aid became the subject of a UK Government inquiry from March 1994. In November 1994, after an application forjudicial review brought by theWorld Development Movement, theHigh Court held that Hurd's actions as Foreign Secretary, in allocating £234 million towards the funding of thedam, wereultra vires [outside his legal powers and therefore unlawful], on the grounds that the legislation only empowered him to fund economically sound projects.[31]
In 1997, the administration of the UK's aid budget was removed from the Foreign Secretary's remit (previously theOverseas Development Administration had been under the supervision of theForeign and Commonwealth Office).[32] The new department, theDepartment for International Development (DfID), had its ownSecretary of state who was a member of theCabinet. In 1995, during the Cabinet reshuffle widely seen as setting up the Conservative team which would contest the next election, Hurd retired from frontline politics after 11 years in the Cabinet and was replaced byMalcolm Rifkind.[32]
After his retirement as foreign secretary, Hurd remained a key supporter of John Major, and kept a range of active political involvements as well as taking on some business appointments, most notably as a deputy chairman ofNatWest Markets and a board director of NatWest Group, posts he held from October 1995–99.[citation needed]
Hurd left theHouse of Commons at the 1997 general election, and on 13 June 1997 was createdBaron Hurd of Westwell, ofWestwell in theCounty of Oxfordshire,[33] which enabled him to continue sitting in Parliament as a member of theHouse of Lords. He retired from the Lords on 9 June 2016.[34]
In December 1997, Hurd was appointed chairman of British Invisibles (now renamedInternational Financial Services London or IFSL). He was chairman of the judging panel for the 1998Booker Prize for Fiction. He became a member of the Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords in February 1999, and in September 1999 he was appointedHigh Steward of Westminster Abbey, reflecting his long active membership of theChurch of England. He later went on to chair the Hurd Commission which produced a review of the roles and functions of theArchbishop of Canterbury.[35]
Hurd is chairman of the advisory council at FIRST,[36] an international affairs organisation. Hurd was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire in 1974 andMember of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the 1996 New Year Honours.[37] He was formerly aVisiting Fellow ofNuffield College, Oxford andChairman of the German British Forum. On 17 July 2009, he received thehonorary degree ofDoctor of Letters (Hon DLitt) fromAston University at its Degree Congregation.[citation needed]
Hurd is a member of theTop Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, established in October 2009.[38]
Hurd has married twice. In 1960, he married his first wife Tatiana, daughter of Major Arthur Eyre MBE, and their union produced three sons. The couple separated in 1976, and divorced in 1982. Tatiana Hurd cited her husband's career as the reason for their separation, saying, "Really, politics don't mix with marriage". In 1982 Hurd married Judy Smart, his former parliamentary secretary, who was 19 years his junior. They had two children, a boy and a girl.[39] Judy Hurd died ofleukaemia on 22 November 2008 in anOxford hospital, aged 58.[40]
Hurd's eldest son,Nick Hurd, was ConservativeMember of Parliament forRuislip Northwood and Pinner from May 2005 to December 2019. In 2010, he was appointed Minister for Civil Society[41] and married Lady Clare Kerr, daughter ofthe Marquess of Lothian.
Hurd's second son, Thomas, joined the diplomatic service. His name appeared on a list of suspectedMI6 operatives which was published on the Internet, along with the name of Douglas himself.The Hon. Thomas Hurd was appointedOBE in 2006, and is married with five children. His wife, Catherine, known as Sian, died on 21 May 2011, after falling from the roof of the building where they lived on East 84th Street inNew York City.[42]
In 1988, Hurd set up the charityCrime Concern.[43] Crime Concern worked to reduce crime, anti-social behaviour and the fear of crime, by working with young people, their families and adult offenders, offering opportunities through training and employment. Crime Concern merged with young people's charityRainer in 2008 to becomeCatch22.[44] Hurd is fluent inMandarin,French, andItalian.[45]
Hurd is a writer of political thrillers including:
His non-fiction works include:
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| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Political Secretary to the Prime Minister 1970–1974 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forMid Oxfordshire 1974–1983 | Constituency abolished |
| Member of Parliament forWitney 1983–1997 | Succeeded by | |
| Political offices | ||
| New title | Minister for Europe 1979–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 1984–1985 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Home Secretary 1985–1989 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Foreign Secretary 1989–1995 | Succeeded by |
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Hurd of Westwell | Followed by |
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