Marcia Falkender, Baroness Falkender
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Marcia Matilda Falkender, Baroness Falkender CBE (born March 10, 1932), formerly Marcia Williams, previously Marcia Field, is a British Labour politician, being first the private secretary for, and then the political secretary and head of political office to, Harold Wilson. She is thought to have been one of the principal sources of true stories behind the Yes Minister series.
Williams was educated at Northampton High School for Girls and read for a BA in History at Queen Mary College of the University of London. After graduating she became secretary to the General Secretary of the Labour Party in 1955; a year later, in 1956, she became Harold Wilson's private secretary, a position she retained until 1964, when she rose to be his political secretary and head of the political office in his position as Leader of the Labour Party and as Prime Minister from 1964 until 1970 and again from 1974 to 1976.
When Wilson resigned, Joe Haines, Wilson's acerbic press secretary, accused Marcia Williams of writing the first draft of his Prime Minister's Resignation Honours on lavender paper which Haines styled as the "Lavender List". However as Professor Ben Pimlott observed in his biography of Wilson, secretaries often write down lists at the instructions of their employer and that the list was pink does not itself prove anything. Both Lady Falkender and Harold Wilson maintained that the list was Wilson's.
The Lavender List by journalist and writer Francis Wheen was a BBC Four docudrama, with Gina McKee as Williams and Kenneth Cranham as Wilson which depicted alleged events leading up to the drafting of the document. The BBC subsequently paid Falkender £75,000 and an estimated £200,000 costs in an out of court settlement over claims in the programme.[1] and is committed to not repeating the programme.[2]
She was elevated to the Peerage as Baroness Falkender, of West Haddon in the County of Northamptonshire on July 11, 1974. As a result, Private Eye often referred to her as "Forkbender". Although she attends sittings in the House of Lords, she has yet to make her maiden speech.
She has written two books about her time in Downing Street: Inside Number 10 on the period 1964-1970 and Downing Street in Perspective on Wilson's third term as Prime Minister 1974-1976. After retiring from working in Downing Street, she worked as a columnist for the Mail on Sunday from 1983 to 1988 . She continued to work for Lord Wilson handling his private business from the time of his resignation in 1976 until his death in 1995.
She was also one of the founder members of the Silver Trust, a charity which sponsored British silversmiths to provide a silver service for 10 Downing Street. Prior to the Silver Trust Downing Street had no silver of its own it was provided on loan from other government offices.[3]
Marcia Falkender married George Edmund Charles Williams in 1955, but they were divorced in 1961; she continued to be known as Marcia Williams in her professional life.
Eddie Williams, a Conservative and also a graduate of the University of London, emigrated to the United States to become an engineer with the Boeing company in Seattle and later returned to live in Europe.
[edit] References
- ^ "Wilson aide wins BBC libel payout", BBC News 4 April 2007. Retrieved on 4 April 2007.
- ^ "BBC pays out over Wilson drama" by Chris Tryhorn, The Guardian website, 4 April 2007. Retrieved on 4 April 2007.
- ^ Silver Trust Website
