Sir Anthony Meyer | |
|---|---|
 Meyer in 1941 | |
| Member of Parliament | |
| In office 18 June 1970 – 16 March 1992 | |
| Preceded by | Nigel Birch |
| Succeeded by | Rod Richards |
| Constituency | West Flintshire (1970–1983) Clwyd North West (1983–1992) |
| In office 15 October 1964 – 10 March 1966 | |
| Preceded by | Fenner Brockway |
| Succeeded by | Joan Lestor |
| Constituency | Eton and Slough |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Anthony John Charles Meyer (1920-10-27)27 October 1920 London, England |
| Died | 24 December 2004(2004-12-24) (aged 84) London, England |
| Party |
|
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Parent | Sir Frank Meyer (father) |
| Relatives | Sir Carl Meyer (grandfather) |
| Education | Eton College |
| Alma mater | New College, Oxford |
| Profession |
|
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch/service |  British Army |
| Unit | Scots Guards |
Sir Anthony John Charles Meyer, 3rd Baronet (27 October 1920 – 24 December 2004) was a British soldier, diplomat, andConservativeMP, best known for standing againstMargaret Thatcher for theparty leadership in 1989. In spite of his staunch conservative views on economic policy,[citation needed] his passionate support of increased British integration into theEuropean Union led to him becoming increasingly marginalised in Thatcher's Conservative Party.
After being deselected as a Conservative parliamentary candidate for the 1992 general election, Meyer became policy director of theEuropean Movement, and in 1998 he joined thePro-Euro Conservative Party. After that disbanded in 2001, he became a member of theLiberal Democrats.
Meyer was born in London on 27 October 1920, the son of Marjorie Amy Georgina (née Seeley) andSir Frank Cecil Meyer.[1] His father was vice-chairman of theDe Beers diamond company, and from 1924 to 1929 he was Conservative Member of Parliament forGreat Yarmouth, Norfolk. His father was from a Jewish family. His grandfather,Sir Carl Meyer, 1st Baronet, was born inHamburg, Germany; he migrated to Britain in the late 19th century, when he worked for theRothschilds, and later for De Beers; he eventually became Governor of theNational Bank of Egypt and was given abaronetcy for the large donations he made to found a National Theatre in Britain.[1]
Meyer was educated atSandroyd School in Surrey before winning a scholarship toEton College. He inherited the baronetcy when his father died in a hunting accident on 19 October 1935.[1] Like his father, he also attendedNew College, Oxford, but after one year he joined theScots Guards in 1941, the same year he married Barbadee Knight; they had one son and three daughters.[1] During thebattle for Caen, in the break-out from theNormandy invasion beaches he was seriously wounded when the tank he was travelling in was hit, and he spent the next nine months on his back in hospital.[1] During this time he read extensively to make up for his lost years at Oxford, but decided not to return to university. Instead, he joinedHM Treasury where he mostly worked on winding up the affairs of thePolish government-in-exile.
In 1946 Meyer passed theForeign Service examinations, and from 1951 to 1956 he was appointed to the British Embassy in Paris, where he became First Secretary in 1953. The subsequent appointment to the embassy in Moscow was not so enjoyable – he did not speak the language, and confined to the "diplomatic ghetto" through the Soviet government's ban on foreign contacts with its citizens, he said he did not have a job to do. He was rescued by a Soviet attempt to compromise him – he reported an attempt to lure him into a cab by a woman agent to the ambassador, who put Meyer and his family on the next plane home. Between 1958 and 1962, he worked at theForeign Office on European political problems, at a time when the Office was changing its policy from being against the "Common Market" to in favour of Britain's joining it.[1]
The death of his mother in 1962 provided Meyer with the family's wealth, and he decided to enter politics to support his pro-European views. That year, he resigned from the Foreign Office to work unpaid for theCommon Market Campaign led byLiberal peerGladwyn Jebb.[2] He later said that he was initially undecided whether to stand for the Conservatives or the Liberals, but his admiration for the Conservative prime ministerHarold Macmillan swung his choice.
In 1963, Meyer was selected to fight the constituency ofEton and Slough, then held by Labour's leftwing internationalistFenner Brockway.[1] In the1964 General Election, Meyer won the seat by 11 votes, gaining respect by ignoring his constituency party's advice to campaign on the race issue, which could have swung a number of votes in that constituency at the time. His was one of only four Conservative gains in that election. Recognising that he would only be in the seat temporarily, Meyer made the most of his time in Parliament, advocating Britain's joining the Common Market and strengthening the United Nations. He also established himself on the liberal wing of the party: voting to abolish capital punishment and for sanctions againstRhodesia.[2] In the1966 General Election he lost his seat to Labour'sJoan Lestor by 4,663 votes.[1]
His liberalism made him almost untouchable in the Conservative Party, and his applications to stand in six constituencies (includingWindsor, where he lived) were rejected, but eventually fellowOld EtonianNigel Birch recommended Meyer to replace him in the constituency ofWest Flintshire, in north-eastern Wales.[1] He returned to parliament at the1970 general election.[1]
Meyer became a popular MP in his new constituency, gaining a reputation for putting the interests of his constituency ahead of Conservative government policy, for example by voting against the closure of theShotton steelworks, supporting theAirbus A300B whose wings some of his constituents built, against its all-British rival theBAC 3-11, while insisting on the importance of an effective pan-European technology. AfterLabour's return to power in 1974, he opposed continued sanctions against the white minority government in Rhodesia, claiming that it was intended to transfer power "forcibly to a violent minority".
When the Conservative party returned to power underMargaret Thatcher in 1979, Meyer's type of pro-Europeanism was at odds with theEuroscepticism of the bulk of the party. When his Flintshire West constituency's boundaries were expanded and redrawn to form theClwyd North West constituency in 1983, there was an attempt by local party activists to replace him with the more ThatcheriteMEP,Beata Brookes, whom Meyer managed to defeat.
On 23 November 1989, at a time of both Thatcher's and the Conservative Party's waning popularity and shortly afterNigel Lawson's resignation as chancellor, 69-year-old Meyer put himself forward as the pro-Europeanstalking horse for the leadership of the Conservative Party.[1] Meyer fully expected that one of the more prominent pro-Europeans such asIan Gilmour orMichael Heseltine would take over the role; in the event, none of them did so, and Meyer had no illusions that he had any chance of success.[3] He was derided as "Sir Anthony Whats'isname" by the pro-ThatcherSun newspaper, who reported that he was the only Conservative MP to oppose the use of force to win back theFalkland Islands following theArgentine invasion of 1982 and had backed a number ofLabour policies, including votes against Tory-led welfare benefit cuts and immigration issues. He was also slammed by theDaily Express as "Sir Nobody".[4]
In the1989 leadership election on 5 December, Meyer was defeated by 314 votes to 33, but whenspoilt votes and abstentions were added it was discovered that 60 MPs out of 374 had failed to support Thatcher. Meyer said that "people started to think the unthinkable", and Thatcher was ousted in November 1990 to be succeeded byJohn Major.[5] Michael Heseltine, who would challenge Thatcherthe following year, was reported byThe Glasgow Herald as being believed to be one of the three MPs who did not vote in the contest. The same newspaper also reported that in the aftermath of the vote Heseltine's supporters argued the result showed that unless Mrs Thatcher changed "her style of leadership", she would "be on her way out next year".[6]
On 19 January 1990, Meyer was deselected as a candidate for the1992 general election by the Clwyd North West constituency party for his "treachery", by a 2–1 majority. The deselection campaign was enlivened by a tabloid newspaper's revelation that Meyer had for 26 years had an affair with Simone Washington, a former model and blues singer.[7]
Following his forced career change in 1992 Meyer became policy director for theEuropean Movement, and in 1998 he defected to thePro-Euro Conservative Party before becoming a member of theLiberal Democrats.[1] In 1999 he stood unsuccessfully, during the European Parliament elections, for theLondon seat.[1] After 1999 he became a lecturer on European affairs until his death.
Meyer died fromcolorectal cancer at his home inChelsea, London, on 24 December 2004, at the age of 84.[1] His son, Anthony Ashley Frank Meyer (born 1944), succeeded him in the baronetcy.[1]
Meyer was portrayed byGeoffrey Wilkinson in the 2002BBC production ofIan Curteis' controversialThe Falklands Play.
 |
|
(German: I rest, I rust)
The Papers of Sir Anthony Meyer are housed at theBritish Library. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.[9]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forEton and Slough 1964–1966 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forWest Flintshire 1970–1983 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forClwyd North West 1983–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Baronet (of Shortgrove) 1935–2004 | Succeeded by Anthony Meyer |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |