Ian Gilmour, Baron Gilmour of Craigmillar

Ian Hedworth John Little Gilmour, Baron Gilmour of Craigmillar,

Gilmour was educated at Eton College and read history at Balliol College, Oxford. He served with the Grenadier Guards from 1944 to 1947. He was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1952 and was a tenant in the chambers of Quintin Hogg for two years.^[3]

He bought The Spectator in 1954 and was its editor from 1954 to 1959. He sold The Spectator to the businessman Harold Creighton in 1967. The Daily Telegraph wrote that his editorship had livened up the magazine "publishing new writers such as Bernard Levin and Katharine Whitehorn and taking a strong liberal reforming stance on moral issues such as the death penalty, abortion and homosexuality; he also castigated Eden over Suez."^[3] He had written an editorial denouncing the invasion of Suez as an "act of aggression".^[4]

Member of Parliament

He was elected as Member of Parliament for Central Norfolk in a by-election in 1962, winning by 220 votes.^[1] He held this seat until 1974, when his seat was abolished due to boundary changes, and he stood for the safe Conservative seat of Chesham and Amersham, sitting as its MP from 1974 until his retirement in 1992.^[1]

In parliament, he was a social liberal, voting to abolish the death penalty, and legalise abortion and homosexuality.

Gilmour espoused the Arab cause when it was less popular in progressive circles than it later became and supported it throughout his years in the House of Commons, where his chief ally was Dennis Walters who was chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council.^[4]

In government

He served in

Gilmour did not enjoy good relations with Margaret Thatcher. He was a moderate who disagreed with her economic policies, and became the most outspoken "wet". During a lecture at Cambridge in February 1980, Gilmour contended, "In the conservative view, economic liberalism à la Professor Hayek, because of its starkness and its failure to create a sense of community, is not a safeguard of political freedom but a threat to it."^[6] Thatcher remarked in her autobiography, somewhat sarcastically: "Ian remained at the Foreign Office for two years. Subsequently, he was to show me the same loyalty from the back-benches as he had in government."^[7] Gilmour survived a reshuffle in January 1981, but was sacked in September of the same year.^[1] He announced that the government was "steering full speed ahead for the rocks", and said that he regretted that he had not resigned beforehand.^{[citation needed]}

Gilmour remained on the

In 1999, he publicly endorsed the Pro-Euro Conservative Party in the European Parliament elections, and was threatened with expulsion from the Conservatives as a result.^[9] At Question Time on 23 June 1999, Prime Minister Tony Blair described the party's reaction as a demonstration of how right-wing and anti-European the Conservative Party had become. Gilmour later said that he had stopped paying membership fees in the party after becoming a peer.^[10]

Gilmour was president of Medical Aid for Palestinians from 1993 to 1996, and was chairman of the Byron Society from 2003 until his death.^[1]

Writings

Gilmour was known for writing coherently from the

His book, Inside Right (1977) is an introduction to conservative thought and thinkers. He also wrote the books The Body Politic (1969), Britain Can Work (1983), Riot, Risings and Revolution (1992), and The Making of the Poets: Byron and Shelley in Their Time (2002).[11]

Personal life

On 10 July 1951, Gilmour married Lady Caroline Margaret Montagu-Douglas-Scott, the youngest daughter of the

His grandson is the British historian Tim Bouverie.

Death

Lord Gilmour died from complications of a stroke and pneumonia on 21 September 2007, aged 81, at

• Gilmour was portrayed by Pip Torrens in The Iron Lady, a 2011 biographical film of Margaret Thatcher. In the film, Gilmour voices his concern over the decline of manufacturing in the UK.

Arms

Coat of arms of Ian Gilmour, Baron Gilmour of Craigmillar

Crest A dexter hand holding a scroll of paper within a garland of laurel Proper. Escutcheon Quartlery 1st & 4th Azure three writing pens Argent (Gilmour) 2nd & 3rd Sable on a saltire Argent a crescent Gules (Little). Motto Nil Penna Sed Usus (Not The Pen But Custom)[13]

References