Timothy Garden, Baron Garden

Garden gained degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge universities. He was a pilot in the RAF for 32 years, retiring as an air marshal in 1996. He then moved to academia and was Director of Chatham House before moving to university defence research. He became an adviser to the Liberal Democrats and was their defence spokesman in the House of Lords. He was married to Susan Garden, who was made a life peer as Baroness Garden of Frognal in September 2007.

RAF career

Born in Worcester and educated at King's School, Worcester, Garden joined the Royal Air Force as a university cadet while at St Catherine's College, Oxford reading Physics.^[1] He was a member of the Oxford University Air Squadron from 1962 to 1965.^[1] He was a squadron pilot on No. 3 Squadron RAF flying English Electric Canberra B(I)8 light bombers in West Germany before becoming a flying instructor on Jet Provosts.^[2] He commanded a jet flying training unit, No. 50 Squadron RAF Avro Vulcan bomber squadron and a helicopter base.^[2]

Garden completed his staff training with the

Garden wrote widely on security topics,[3] and his publications include two books: Can Deterrence Last?^[4] and The Technology Trap,^[5] both written while he was a serving RAF officer.^[1] He wrote for a number of security-related projects, including developments in NATO, European defence, missile defence proposals and global security issues. He served as a member of the panel of experts for the UK government's 1998 Strategic Defence Review, and gave evidence to the Defence Committee on the new threats after 11 September 2001.

Liberal Democrat politician

Garden was a member of the team developing defence policy for the

In 2005 and 2006 Garden played a leading role in a cross-party campaign to facilitate electoral participation by armed forces personnel and their partners. According to his obituary in The Independent, cited below,

His great legacy is the Electoral Administration Bill, for which he secured cross-party support to overcome, in the face of dogged Ministry of Defence opposition, the problems of registration and voting for members of the armed forces and their partners.

Memberships

Garden was a Fellow and Council Member of the

Garden was son of Joseph, an engineer. He had two daughters with his wife, Sue, who stood for the Liberal Democrats in Finchley and Golders Green at the 2005 general election. Shortly after his death, it was announced on 13 September 2007 that a life peerage was to be conferred on Sue Garden.

His daughters are:

• Alexandra Whitfield (The Hon. Mrs Whitfield) (married Paul Whitfield)
• Antonia Rolph (The Hon. Mrs Rolph) (married Jon Rolph)

Death

Garden was diagnosed with incurable cancer a few weeks before his death. According to press reports, he adopted a very philosophical attitude to his illness, explaining to a friend how many of his fellow aircrew who had even less luck and were lost in their twenties and thirties.

The then Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell paid tribute to Lord Garden in a statement published on the party's website: "Tim Garden has been an outstanding member of the Liberal Democrat team in the House of Lords where his wisdom and top level military experience were widely recognised. His advice to Charles Kennedy and myself during the Iraq war was invaluable. We have also lost a close friend who was an unfailingly generous and warm-hearted man. The whole party extends its deepest sympathy to his wife and family."

Liberal Democrat deputy leader in the House of Lords, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, echoed Campbell's words: "Tim was both an expert and a radical, he offered invaluable advice on defence and foreign policy. He gave the Liberal Democrats depth in criticising the mistaken policy on Iraq, which was vitally important. He was also a very active parliamentarian, leading an all-party group on defence and conflict issues and on the delegated powers and instruments committee. We will miss him immensely."

Honours

Garden was appointed a