Christopher Soames

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PC
Soames, 45, in a monochrome photograph
Soames in 1966
Governor of Southern Rhodesia
In office
11 December 1979 – 18 April 1980
MonarchElizabeth II
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Her Majesty's Ambassador to France
In office
September 1968 – 27 October 1972
Preceded byPatrick Reilly
Succeeded byEdward Tomkins
Ministerial offices
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Air
In office
6 April 1955 – 9 January 1957
Prime MinisterAnthony Eden
Preceded byGeorge Ward
Succeeded byIan Orr-Ewing
Parliamentary offices
Member of the House of Lords
Life peerage
19 April 1978 – 16 September 1987
Member of Parliament
for Bedford
In office
23 February 1950 – 10 March 1966
Preceded byThomas Skeffington-Lodge
Succeeded byBrian Parkyn
Personal details
Born
Arthur Christopher John Soames

(1920-10-12)12 October 1920
Penn, Buckinghamshire, England
Died16 September 1987(1987-09-16) (aged 66)
Odiham, Hampshire, England
Resting placeSt Martin's Church, Bladon
Political partyConservative
Spouse
​
(m. 1947)​
Children5, including Nicholas, Emma and Rupert
ParentArthur Granville Soames (father)
RelativesWinston Churchill (father‑in‑law)
EducationEton College
Alma materRoyal Military College, Sandhurst

Arthur Christopher John Soames, Baron Soames,

British Conservative politician who served as a European Commissioner and the last Governor of Southern Rhodesia. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Bedford
from 1950 to 1966. He held several government posts and attained Cabinet rank.

Early life and education

Soames was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, England, the son of Captain Arthur Granville Soames (the brother of Olave Baden-Powell, World Chief Guide, both descendants of a brewing family who had joined the landed gentry) by his marriage to Hope Mary Woodbine Parish. His parents divorced while he was a boy, and his mother married her second husband Charles Rhys (later 8th Baron Dynevor), by whom she had further children including Richard Rhys, 9th Baron Dynevor.

Soames was educated at

Royal Military College at Sandhurst.[1] He obtained a commission as an officer in the Coldstream Guards just before World War II broke out. During the war, he served in France, Italy, and North Africa and was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for his actions at the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942.[2]

Political career

After military service during the Second World War, Soames served as the Assistant Military

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).[3]

In 1958 he was sworn of the

Privy Council. He served under Macmillan as Secretary of State for War (outside the Cabinet) from 1958 to 1960 and then in the cabinets of Macmillan and his successor Alec Douglas-Home as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from July 1960 to 1964. Home had promised to promote him to Foreign Secretary if the Conservatives won the 1964 general election, but they did not.[4]

Between 1965 and 1966, Soames was

Franco-British relations. He was then a Vice-President of the European Commission from 1973 to 1976.[7] He was considered as a potential challenger to Edward Heath in the 1975 Conservative Party leadership election. The eventual winner Margaret Thatcher would have withdrawn if he had stood.[8] He was created a life peer on 19 April 1978 as Baron Soames, of Fletching in the County of East Sussex.[9]

He served as the interim governor of Southern Rhodesia from 1979 to 1980, charged with administering the terms of the Lancaster House Agreement and overseeing its governmental transition into Zimbabwe. From 1979 to 1981, he was Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords under Margaret Thatcher, concurrent with his duties in Southern Rhodesia.[10]

Outside politics

Soames served as president of the

Nat West Bank 1978–79.[11]

Family

Christopher and Mary Soames in Lenzerheide, February 1947

Lord Soames married

Mary Churchill, the youngest child of Winston and Clementine Churchill
, on 11 February 1947. They had five children:

Death

Christopher and Mary Soames' grave at St Martin's Church, Bladon, in 2015

Lord Soames died from pancreatitis aged 66. His ashes were buried within the Churchill plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire.[citation needed]

Honours

In date order:

Arms

Coat of arms of Christopher Soames
Crest
In front of a rising sun Proper upon a lure Gules feathered Argent fesswise a falcon belled Or.
Escutcheon
Gules a chevron Or between in chief two mallets erect of the second and in base two wings conjoined in lure Argent.
Motto
Vilius Virtutibus Aurum[16]

References

  1. ^ a b "The Papers of Baron Soames". Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge. Archived from the original on 4 October 2021. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
  2. ^ "Britain's Man for Rhodesia". The New York Times. 13 December 1979. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  3. ^ "No. 40497". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 June 1955. p. 3269.
  4. ^ Jago 2015, p. 401.
  5. ^ "No. 44723". The London Gazette. 26 November 1968. p. 12676.
  6. ^ "No. 45876". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 January 1973. p. 480.
  7. ^ "A.Ch.J. (Christopher) Soames". europa-nu.nl (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 12 November 2017. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  8. ^ Campbell 2010, pp. 318–319.
  9. ^ "No. 47519". The London Gazette. 24 April 1978. p. 4731.
  10. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39861. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  11. ^ a b c d Mosley 1982, p. 1435.
  12. ^ "Lord Soames of Fletching". MPs and Lords. UK Parliament. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  13. ^ "No. 45713". The London Gazette. 27 June 1972. p. 7689.
  14. ^ "No. 45554". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1972. p. 4.
  15. ^ "No. 48212". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 1980. p. 5.
  16. incomplete short citation
    ]

Bibliography

External links

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