Geoffrey Stewart-Smith
(Dudley) Geoffrey Stewart-Smith (29 December 1933 – 13 March 2004) was a British Conservative
Family
Geoffrey Stewart-Smith was born on 28 December 1933 in Ceylon, the only son and youngest child of Dudley Cautley Stewart-Smith and Phyllis née Luson. He was educated at Winchester College and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He subsequently served as an officer in the Black Watch regiment (1952–1960), including time in Nigeria and Germany.[2] His marriage in 1956 ended in divorce in 1990. There were three sons of the marriage.
Entry to politics
In the 1960s, Stewart-Smith was active in anticommunist circles, was a supporter of Edward Martells's Freedom Group and worked on The New Daily. Apart from his numerous publications, in 1965, he recommended a form of recreation of the wartime Political Warfare Executive and the Special Operations Executive to "counter subversion". The following year, he became an advisor to British Military Volunteer Forces, a group who had planned to send at least a battalion of British volunteers to fight with the Americans in the Vietnam War. Stewart-Smith had lengthy discussions with Colonel Frederick Lash, the US Military Attaché in London on this issue. The British government, however, opposed the plan.
In 1967, he organised an interdenominational service at the Royal Albert Hall to commemorate all who had died at the hands of communists. His estimate was that the total was then about 95 million, which was printed on the back of the programme of the service. More than 4,500 refugees from behind the Iron Curtain attended it. He was disappointed that only two MPs and two peers attended and said that to be "typical".
Publications
In 1962, Stewart-Smith founded the
Stewart-Smith later founded the Foreign Affairs Publishing Company, which continued East-West Digest,
Parliamentary activity
Stewart-Smith was selected as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Belper, Derbyshire, in 1966, and spent four years actively campaigning in the constituency to build up his profile. The constituency had been held by the Labour Party, but their hold grew increasingly tenuous, with prosperous suburbs of Derby encroaching on the seat. At the 1970 general election he sensationally ousted George Brown by 2,124 votes.[4]
Regarded as a good constituency MP by fellow members, Stewart-Smith demanded that Edward Heath's government raise their pay offer to miners during the crippling strike. He also attacked Margaret Thatcher on the end of school milk during the same administration. However, his work was not enough to prevent him losing his seat in the February 1974 general election after boundary changes removed a large area of Conservative strength and the national trend favoured Labour.
After Parliament
Stewart-Smith decided not to seek re-adoption but to concentrate on publishing
In 1974, he sought to distance his Foreign Affairs Circle from the
Stewart-Smith was a leading activist in the
Publications
- The Defeat of Communism (Preface by Salvador de Madariaga) (Foreign Affairs Publishing Co.,(FAPC), Petersham, Surrey, 1964)[7]
- No Vision Here (Foreword by the Right Honourable Julian Amery, M.P.) (FAPC, Petersham, Surrey, 1966)[8]
- Brandt and the Destruction of NATO (Petersham, 1973)
- The Hidden Face of the Labour Party (Petersham, 1978)
- The Struggle for Freedom (Petersham, 1980)
- East West Digest - Journal of the Foreign Affairs Circle (Monthly) (FAPC), published throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
References
- Notes
- Sources
- Obituary from the Daily Telegraph(20 March 2004)
- Robert Copping, The Story of the Monday Club - The First Decade (Current Affairs Information Service (CAIS), London, April 1972)
- Robert Copping, The Monday Club - Crisis and After (CAIS, London, May 1975)
External links
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| National | |
