Victor Cazalet

Victor Cazalet (L) receiving Polish government documents in London from Stanislaw Grabski, May 24, 1943, six weeks before Cazalet died

Colonel Victor Alexander Cazalet, MC (27 December 1896 – 4 July 1943) was a British Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP).

Life and career

Cazalet was commissioned into the Queen's Own West Kent Yeomanry in 1915 and reached the rank of Captain, winning the Military Cross in 1917. He was first elected at the 1924 general election, serving as MP for the Chippenham constituency in Wiltshire until his death. His sister, Thelma Cazalet-Keir was a noted feminist and also a Conservative MP. Cazalet was a Christian Scientist and a member of Ninth Church of Christ, Scientist, London.^[1] Cazalet's brother, Peter, was a notable racehorse trainer who was British jump racing Champion Trainer three times and trained Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's racehorses.

During the Spanish Civil War, he was a strong supporter of General Franco and the fascists,^[2] serving on the 'Friends of National Spain' committee. However, before World War II, he opposed, with Winston Churchill, the appeasement of Adolf Hitler by Neville Chamberlain's government.^[3]

He was killed in 1943 when his plane from Gibraltar to Britain crashed seconds after take off. The B-24 Liberator II LB-30 AL523 was also carrying the Polish General Władysław Sikorski and fellow Conservative MP Brigadier John Whiteley; Sikorski, Whiteley and everyone else on board (but first pilot Eduard Prchal) — 16 in all — died in the crash.

Cazalet was the godfather of the actress Elizabeth Taylor.

Biography

• James, Robert Rhodes (1976). Victor Cazalet: a portrait. London: Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-89405-0. 

Notes

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
• CricketArchive profile for Victor Cazelet
  • Daily Telegraph [London] 23MAR2011.

External links

• Wikimedia Commons has media related to Victor Cazalet.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Victor Cazalet