How old is lord carrington

Former Prime Minister David Cameron was among the politicians paying tribute, describing him as a "lovely man and a great public servant". I not only feel proud to have known him, I feel immensely privileged. Mrs May added: "There can be few people who have served our country for as long, and with such dedication, as Lord Carrington did - from his gallantry as a tank commander in the Second World War, for which he was awarded the Military Cross, to his service in government under two monarchs and six prime ministers, dating back to Winston Churchill.

Former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine said his late colleague and friend was a "great patriot" who represented the "essence of One Nation Conservatism".

He paid tribute to his integrity in taking personal responsibility for the failure to anticipate the Falklands invasion. I think history will show it was not quite as simple as that. He is remembered for believing the collective failure of the Foreign Office to foresee the disastrous blow to British prestige required him to leave the government.

Kindness and brilliance in equal measure; he'll be deeply missed. My deep sympathy to his family. After turning to politics, he was appointed high commissioner to Australia in , a post he held for three years before returning to Britain and an appointment as first lord of the Admiralty under Harold MacMillan. We have noticed that there is an issue with your subscription billing details.

Please update your billing details here. Please update your billing information. The subscription details associated with this account need to be updated. His son, also Rupert, who became the 5th Baron, was born in Australia, coming to Britain in time to join the 5th Dragoon Guards and the Grenadiers and to see service in the first world war, in which he was wounded twice.

He remained in the army until retirement, having married Sibyl Colville, the daughter of Lord Colville of Culross, in Peter was their second child, following a daughter, Elizabeth. He saw a great deal of action during the second world war in north-west Europe, greatly enjoyed the army and won the Military Cross in as a major, for his role in an incident crossing the Rhine. He decided before the end of hostilities that he wanted a political career.

He would later say that he would have liked to stand for election to the Commons and was aware of the inhibitions of being an active party politician in the Lords.

But he was interested by the possibilities, and as well as taking his seat in the Lords in , he was elected to Buckinghamshire county council, became treasurer of the Wycombe Conservative Association , in an area that many of his forebears had represented in parliament, and was appointed as a magistrate.

He was an opposition whip during the postwar Labour government and was one of the youngest members of the government when Churchill appointed him to Agriculture in Despite Crichel Down, which arose from a failure to return requisitioned Dorset farmland to its owners,his upward political progress in the party was unimpeded and he moved to the Ministry of Defence in , embarking upon an association with defence and foreign policy that lasted for most of his life.

He had a lively couple of years, dealing with the development of Nato of which, 30 years later, in , he would become secretary general for four years , the growing anxiety about east-west relations, the Malaya emergency, the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya, and trouble over the canal zone in Egypt.

He did not hesitate, returning to the defence policy interests he had already nurtured. He was in favour of the moves towards reform of the Lords proposed by Richard Crossman in , which might have enhanced his own political career prospects, but the changes were rejected by a cross-bench alliance in the Commons.

When the Blair government moved to remove hereditary peers from the Lords 30 years later, Carrington — in common with all other former leaders of the Lords — was given a life peerage, which he took as Baron Carington of Upton, reverting to the traditional spelling of the family surname.

In , Edward Heath made him secretary of state for defence. It was a crucial period: the Conservatives had made a commitment to maintain an independent nuclear deterrent, there was continuing interest in the role of Nato, and in US-UK relations, with Britain joining the then Common Market. Heath thought he was the man to restore party morale at a difficult time, despite the protestations of the defence secretary that he had a rather busy day job.

Things became even more difficult after the Arab-Israeli war broke out, oil supplies were reduced and it was decided to start a new Ministry of Energy with Carrington at its head.