T. E. Utley
Thomas Edwin Utley
Early life
He was adopted by Miss Ann Utley and christened Thomas Edwin, although he was always known as Peter.
Ann Utley died in September 1940.[5]
Journalism
Leaving Cambridge during the
After the war, he also became leader-writer for
In 1964 he became leader writer for The Daily Telegraph and, together with the deputy editor Colin Welch, he recruited young Conservative journalists to the paper. He later became, according to The Times, the "spiritual father of the "Young Fogeys"".[2] In his 1968 study of Enoch Powell's political philosophy, he interpreted Powellism as an attempt to convert the Conservative Party to radical economic liberalism that would replace its paternalistic statism. Utley supported Edward Heath's moves in this direction but he was dismayed when Heath, as Prime Minister, moved back towards corporatism.[2]
After the beginning of The Troubles in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s, Utley began to focus on Northern Ireland. In the general election of February 1974, Utley stood unsuccessfully as the Ulster Unionist Party candidate for North Antrim, gaining 21.01% of the vote but losing to Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party.[7] His 1975 work, Lessons of Ulster, was described by The Times as "less a study of Irish politics than a brilliant dissection of the inadequacies of liberal statecraft faced with the intransigent passions of nationalism".[2] The editor of The Irish Times called Utley "the ghost of the Morning Post rattling his chains in the corridors of The Daily Telegraph".[2]
Utley was an early supporter of
In 1980 Utley was appointed deputy editor at the Daily Telegraph and in 1985 he began a weekly political column for the paper.[2] In 1987 he moved back to The Times, working as the Obituary Editor and as a columnist. This latter move was occasioned by a falling-out with Max Hastings, the then editor of The Telegraph, who disagreed with Utley's views on matters relating to Northern Ireland.[10]
He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1980.
Personal life
In 1951 Utley married Brigid Viola Mary (1927–2012), daughter of Dermot Morrah, a Times journalist, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and later Arundel Herald Extraordinary at the College of Arms.[3][11][12] Utley and his wife had two sons and two daughters. One son, Tom, is a columnist for the Daily Mail.[citation needed]
A chain smoker and heavy drinker, Utley's financial situation was often precarious.[8] He died in London on 21 June 1988.[1]
Assessment
After Utley's death, The Times acclaimed him as "the most distinguished Conservative journalist of his generation. He was an important influence on the thinking of the Tory Party, an intellectual precursor of Thatcherism, and throughout his life a mentor – revered, consulted and endlessly quoted – to the young".[2] Margaret Thatcher also paid tribute to Utley:
Few people have possessed such a complete understanding of the central tenets and principles of Toryism as Peter Utley. Certainly no one has articulated them with more eloquence. He stood in the tradition of the great Tory philosophers—Hooker, Burke and Lord Salisbury. Drawing on that tradition, he delivered powerful and incisive judgments on leading political, social and moral issues over a period of more than forty years. Though his range was remarkable, questions affecting the Anglican Church and the unity of the nation always had pride of place in his work. He was, quite simply, the most distinguished Tory thinker of our time.[13]
Works
- Essays in Conservatism (1949).
- Modern Political Thought (1952).
- The Conservatives and the Critics (1956).
- Documents of Modern Political Thought (Joint editor, 1957).
- Not Guilty: The Conservative Reply (1957).
- Edmund Burke (1957).
- Occasion for Ombudsmen (1963).
- Your Money and Your Life (1964).
- Enoch Powell: The Man and his Thinking (1968).
- What Laws May Cure (1968).
- Ulster - A Short Background Analysis (1972).
- Lessons of Ulster (first edition: 1975, second edition: 1997).
- Charles Moore and Simon Heffer(editors), A Tory Seer: The Selected Journalism of T. E. Utley (1989).
References
- ^ a b "T. E. Utley" in The Annual Obituary (1988), p. 304
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 'Obituary: Mr T. E. Utley. Defender of traditional values in politics and religion', The Times (23 June 1988), p. 16.
- ^ a b Who was Who: A Companion to Who's Who, A. & C. Black, 1981, pg 773
- ^ National Registration Act 1939, Stybarrow, Windermere, Westmorland, ancestry.com, accessed 6 December 2021 (subscription required)
- ^ "UTLEY Ann of Stybarrow Windermere Westmorland spinster died 12 September 1940" in Wills and Administrations (England & Wales 1941 (1942) p. 11
- ^ Politics Today (Conservative Central Office, 1980), p. 262
- ^ "Thomas Utley". ElectionsIreland.org. Christopher Took and Seán Donnelly. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-330-35410-3.
- ^ T. E. Utley, 'Monstrous invention', The Spectator (9 August 1986), reprinted in Charles Moore and Simon Heffer (eds.), A Tory Seer: The Selected Journalism of T. E. Utley (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1989), pp. 74–78.
- ISBN 978-0-330-35410-3.
- ^ "Brigid Utley". The Daily Telegraph. 4 December 2012.
- ^ "Morrah, Dermot Michael Macgregor : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - oi". Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
- ^ Margaret Thatcher, 'Preface' (17 July 1989), Charles Moore and Simon Heffer (eds.), A Tory Seer: The Selected Journalism of T. E. Utley (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1989), p. ix.