The Right Honourable The Viscount Whitelaw KT CH MC PC DL |
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Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | |
In office 4 May 1979 – 10 January 1988 |
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Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher |
Preceded by | Rab Butler[a] |
Succeeded by | Sir Geoffrey Howe[b] |
Lord President of the Council | |
In office 11 June 1983 – 10 January 1988 |
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Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher |
Preceded by | John Biffen |
Succeeded by | John Wakeham |
In office 20 June 1970 – 7 April 1972 |
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Prime Minister | Edward Heath |
Preceded by | Fred Peart |
Succeeded by | Robert Carr |
Leader of the House of Lords | |
In office 11 June 1983 – 10 January 1988 |
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Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher |
Preceded by | Baroness Young |
Succeeded by | Lord Belstead |
Home Secretary | |
In office 4 May 1979 – 11 June 1983 |
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Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher |
Preceded by | Merlyn Rees |
Succeeded by | Leon Brittan |
Secretary of State for Employment | |
In office 2 December 1973 – 4 March 1974 |
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Prime Minister | Edward Heath |
Preceded by | Maurice Macmillan |
Succeeded by | Michael Foot |
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland | |
In office 24 March 1972 – 2 December 1973 |
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Prime Minister | Edward Heath |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Francis Pym |
Leader of the House of Commons | |
In office 20 June 1970 – 7 April 1972 |
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Prime Minister | Edward Heath |
Preceded by | Fred Peart |
Succeeded by | Robert Carr |
Member of Parliament for Penrith and The Border |
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In office 26 May 1955 – 11 June 1983 |
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Preceded by | Robert Scott |
Succeeded by | David Maclean |
Personal details | |
Born | 28 June 1918 Nairn, United Kingdom |
Died | 1 July 1999 Penrith, United Kingdom |
(aged 81)
Political party | Conservative |
Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Religion | Church of Scotland |
a. ^ Office vacant from 18 October 1963 to 4 May 1979. b. ^ Office vacant from 10 January 1988 to 24 July 1989. |
William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, KT, CH, MC, PC, DL (28 June 1918 – 1 July 1999), often known as Willie Whitelaw, was a British Conservative Party politician who served in a wide number of Cabinet positions, most notably as Home Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister.
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Whitelaw was born in Nairn, in northeast Scotland. He never knew his father, who was killed in the First World War when he was a baby. He was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he won a blue for golf and joined the Officer Training Corps.
By chance he was in a summer camp in 1939 on the outbreak of the Second World War and was granted a regular, not wartime, commission in the British Army, in the Scots Guards, later serving in the 6th Guards Tank Brigade, a separate unit from the Guards Armoured Division. He commanded Churchill tanks in Normandy during the Second World War and during Operation Bluecoat in late July 1944, his was the first Allied unit to encounter German Jagdpanther tank destroyers, being attacked by three out of the twelve of these vehicles which were in Normandy.
The battalion second-in-command was killed when his tank was hit in front of Whitelaw's eyes and Whitelaw succeeded to this position, holding it, with the rank of Major, throughout the advance through the Netherlands into Germany and until the end of the war. He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions at Caumont; a photograph of Field-Marshal Bernard Montgomery pinning the medal to his chest appears in his memoirs. After the end of the war in Europe, Whitelaw's unit was to have taken part in the invasion of Japan but the Pacific War ended before this. Instead he was posted to Palestine, before leaving the army in 1946 to take care of the family estates of Gartshore and Woodhall in Lanarkshire, which he inherited on the death of his grandfather.
After early defeats as a candidate for the constituency of East Dunbartonshire, he became Member of Parliament (MP) for Penrith and the Border at the 1955 general election, and represented that constituency for 28 years.[1] He held his first government posts under Harold Macmillan as a Lord of the Treasury (government whip) between 1961 and 1962 and under Macmillan and then Sir Alec Douglas-Home as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour between 1962 and 1964. In 1964 Douglas-Home appointed him as Opposition Chief Whip. He was sworn of the Privy Council in January 1967.[2]
When the Conservatives returned to power in 1970 under Edward Heath, Whitelaw was made Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons, with a seat in the cabinet.[3] He became the first Secretary of State for Northern Ireland after the imposition of direct rule in March 1972 and he served in that capacity until November 1973. During his time, in Northern Ireland he introduced Special Category Status for paramilitary prisoners.
He also attempted to negotiate with the Provisional Irish Republican Army with the then PIRA Chief of Staff Seán MacStiofáin in July 1972. The talks ended in an agreement to change from a seven day truce, to an open-ended truce. The truce did not survive Loyalist assassinations of Catholics and British Army failure to prevent Loyalist intimidation of Catholics in Lenadoon, West Belfast. As a briefing for prime minister Edward Heath later noted, Whitelaw "found the experience of meeting and talking to Mr Mac Stíofáin very unpleasant". MacStiofáin said that Whitelaw 's political career was supposed to have been built up on his social charm and his ability to get along with people. Once Whitelaw understood he was dealing with a very determined delegation united on a single policy, he wasted no time on that kind of thing. MacStiofáin also noted that Whitelaw was the only Englishman ever to pronounce his name in Irish correctly.[4]
He left Northern Ireland in 1973 to become Secretary of State for Employment shortly before the Sunningdale Agreement was reached, to confront the National Union of Mineworkers over pay demands. The dispute was followed by the Conservative party's losing the February 1974 general election. Also in 1974, Whitelaw became a Companion of Honour.[5]
Soon after Harold Wilson's Labour Party returned to government, Heath appointed Whitelaw as Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of the Conservative Party. After a second defeat in the October 1974 general election – during which Whitelaw had accused Harold Wilson of going "round and round the country stirring up apathy", Heath was forced to call a leadership election in 1975. Whitelaw loyally refused to run against Heath; however, and to widespread surprise, Margaret Thatcher narrowly defeated Heath in the first round. Despite standing, and losing convincingly, against Thatcher in the second round, Whitelaw managed to maintain his position as Deputy Leader until the 1979 general election, when he was appointed Home Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister in Thatcher's new government.
As Home Secretary, Whitelaw adopted a hard-line approach to law and order. He improved police pay and embarked upon a programme of extensive prison building. His four year tenure in office, however, was generally perceived as a troubled one. His much vaunted "short, sharp shock" policy, whereby convicted young offenders were detained in secure units and subjected to quasi-military discipline won approval from the public but proved expensive to implement and largely ineffectual in stemming burgeoning crime rates. Inner city decay, unemployment and the heavy-handed policing of ethnic minorities (notably the application of the notorious sus law) sparked major riots in London, Liverpool, Bristol and a spate of disturbances elsewhere. The Provisional IRA escalated its bombing campaign on England, and Whitelaw was personally embarrassed by the Michael Fagan incident, when a mentally ill man breached security at Buckingham Palace and gained access to the Queen's bed chamber.
Two days after the 1983 general election, Whitelaw received a hereditary peerage (the first created for 18 years) as Viscount Whitelaw, of Penrith in the County of Cumbria.[6] Thatcher appointed him Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords. Lord Whitelaw faced many challenges in attempting to manage the House of Lords, facing a major defeat over abolition of the Greater London Council within a year of taking over. However, his patrician and moderate style appealed to Conservative peers and his tenure is considered a success.
During his period as Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Lords, Margaret Thatcher relied on Whitelaw heavily, famously announcing that "every Prime Minister needs a Willie". He chaired the "star chamber" committee that settled the annual disputes between the limited resources made available by Treasury and the spending demands of other government departments. It was Whitelaw who managed to dissuade Thatcher in November 1980 from going to Leeds to take charge of the Yorkshire Ripper investigation personally.
After a stroke in December 1987, perhaps brought on by the strain of taking on five jobs at the same time, he was forced to resign. Some people - including Nicholas Ridley - have argued that Whitelaw's retirement was the beginning of the end of the Thatcher premiership, as he was no longer around as often to give sensible advice to moderate her stance on issues, or to maintain a consensus of support in her own Cabinet and Parliamentary Party.
During his retirement and up until his death Lord Whitelaw was the Chairman of the Board of Governors at St Bees School, Cumbria. He was appointed a Knight of the Thistle in 1990.[7] He died of natural causes, aged 81, in 1999, survived by his wife of 56 years, Cecilia, and their four daughters. Although Whitelaw was given a hereditary peerage, the title became extinct on his death as his daughters were unable to inherit. His home for many years was the mansion of Ennim just outside the village of Great Blencow near Penrith, Cumbria. On his death, he was buried at St. Andrew's Parish Church, Dacre, Cumbria.
“ | We Conservatives have always maintained the need for an experiment with a tougher regime for depriving young football hooligans of their leisure time. I can announce today that the experiment promised in our election manifesto is to begin in Surrey ... These will be no holiday camps. We will introduce on a regular basis drill, parades, and inspections ... from 6:45am 'til lights out at 9:30pm. Life will be conducted at a brisk tempo. | ” |
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