Christopher Montague Woodhouse, 5th Baron Terrington DSO, OBE (11 May 1917 – 13 February 2001), also known as C.M. Woodhouse and Monty Woodhouse, was a Conservative politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford from 1959 to 1966 and again from 1970 to 1974.
He was also a visiting Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford from 1956 to 1964. Woodhouse was an expert on Greek affairs.
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Woodhouse was the son of Horace Martin Woodhouse, 3rd Baron Terrington and Valerie Phillips, and was educated at Winchester College and then at New College, Oxford, where he took a double first in Classics. After completing his education, Woodhouse enlisted in the Royal Artillery in 1939 and served for the duration of World War II, being commissioned as an officer in 1940 and rising to the rank of Colonel by 1943. He was awarded a DSO and appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1944. He served most of his time in the War in Greece where his love for this country grew strong. (His writings provide ample evidence of those feelings). In 1941 he was one of the SOE officers sent to Crete to organize the resistance forces behind enemy lines.
In September 1942 he was parachuted to mainland Greece as the Second-in-Command of the Harling Force, headed by E. C. W. "Eddie" Myers, whose task was to blow up the Gorgopotamos bridge. Following the success of this operation Myers and Woodhouse were ordered by SOE Cairo to stay on in mainland Greece and form the British Military Mission. Initially their presence had only been intended for Operation Harling. Woodhouse one of only a few British officers on the mission who could speak Greek was often sent off alone to make contact with political elements in Athens. Due to his imposing appearance of being tall with burning ginger beard this was no mean feat, but Woodhouse succeeded in numerous trips into the Athenian suburbs often still wearing British Army uniform. After Myers' dismissal at the request of the Foreign Office in July 1943, Woodhouse became the head of the British Military Mission.
In August 1945, Woodhouse married Lady Davina Katharine Cynthia Mary Millicent Lytton, the widow of John Crichton, 5th Earl Erne. They had two sons and one daughter.
After the conclusion of World War II, Woodhouse served as Second Secretary at the British Embassy in Athens, Greece until 1946, whereupon he returned to Britain, and served in a variety of industrial and academic appointments. In 1951, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
From 1951 to 1952, he worked at the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran. In 1952 and 1953 Woodhouse was involved in organising British aspects of the U.S./UK organised 1953 Iranian coup d'état.[1][2] From 1952 to 1955 was the Director General at the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
Following the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran of 1941, Britain then helped the Americans overthrow Iran's democratically elected leader Mohammed Mossadegh after he nationalised Britain's oil possessions in 1953. The CIA called this conspiracy to overthrow Mossadegh Operation Ajax, the British named it Operation Boot. Colonel Woodhouse was MI6's agent in Tehran for the operation. Woodhouse brought weapons into Iran for a still non-existent "resistance" movement and he supported the CIA's project to fund the "bazaaris" of Tehran to stage demonstrations (in which hundreds, perhaps thousands, died) to overthrow Mossadegh.[3]
Woodhouse entered Parliament in 1959 and later served in the Conservative governments of Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home as Parliamentary Secretary for Aviation from 1961 to 1962 and then Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from 1962 to 1964.
Woodhouse was defeated by Evan Luard in the 1966 Labour landslide and then worked at the Confederation of British Industry until 1970 when he was once again returned to Parliament for Oxford. He retained his seat in the February 1974 general election, but lost it (again to Evan Luard) in October.
In 1945, Woodhouse married Lady Davidema Katharine Cynthia Mary Millicent Bulwer-Lytton, the widow of John Crichton, 5th Earl Erne. She died in 1995. They had three children, Christopher, now the 6th Baron Terrington, Nicholas, and Emma [4].
Woodhouse succeeded to become Baron Terrington on the death of his brother David Woodhouse in 1998, who died without any male heirs. Three years later, he was succeeded by his eldest son Christopher Richard James Woodhouse, 6th Baron Terrington upon his own death.
Woodhouse was the author of several books, including:
Shortly before his death, Woodhouse completed the translation into English of the 10-volume "History Of The European Spirit", by his friend, the former Prime Minister of Greece,Panayiotis Kanellopoulos [5].
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Lawrence Turner |
Member of Parliament for Oxford 1959–1966 |
Succeeded by Evan Luard |
| Preceded by Evan Luard |
Member of Parliament for Oxford 1970–1974 |
Succeeded by Evan Luard |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Geoffrey Rippon |
Parliamentary Secretary for Aviation 1961–1962 |
Succeeded by Basil de Ferranti |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by David Woodhouse |
Baron Terrington 1998–2001 |
Succeeded by Christopher Woodhouse |