Edward Richard George Heath KG MBE (1916 - 2005)

Born 9 Jul 1916 in Broadstairs, Kent, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Died 17 Jul 2005 at age 89 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

Edward Heath KG MBE is Notable.

Sir Edward Richard George Heath, KG MBE, served as a British Prime Minister under Queen Elizabeth II.

Born Edward George Richard Heath, but known as Teddy as a youngster, Edward was born at 54 Albion Road, in the Seaside town of Broadstairs, Kent on 9 July 1916,^[1] the son of William Heath, a carpenter who built air frames for Vickers during the First World War, and Edith Pantony, a maid. His father was later a successful small businessman. At the age of four, Teddy welcomed a baby brother to the family, John, but Teddy remained the favored brother.

Edward was educated at Chatham House Grammar School in neighboring Ramsgate, and in 1935 with the aid of a county scholarship he went up to study at Balliol College, Oxford, where he became a leader in student polities.

Teddy soon shortened his name to Ted. A talented musician, he had tried for a scholarship at St. Catherine's College Cambridge, and Keble College. Oxford, before winning Balliol College's organ scholarship, which gave him the opportunity to stay at college for a fourth year, finally graduating with Second Class Honors BA in Philosophy, Polities, and Economics in 1939. During his time at college, Ted took a keen interest in politics and joined the Conservative Party. His first paper speech at the Oxford Union, in the Michaelmus term of 1936, wads in opposition to the appeasement of Germany by returning her colonies, confiscated during the First World War.

By June of 1937, Ted had been elected President of the Oxford University Conservative Association as a pre-Spanish-Republic candidate. Between 1937-8, during his 3rd year at university, he was chairman of the National Federation of University Conservative Associations, and later Secretary and then Librarian of the Oxford Union. At the end of 1938. he was defeated for the presidency of the Oxford Union by a fellow Balliol candidate, Alan Wood, on the issue of whether the Chamberlain government should give way to the left-wing Popular Front. Ted supported the government on this issue. His final year at university, Ted was president of Balliol College Junior Common room, an office held later by contemporaries Denis Healey and Roy Jenkins.

Edward spent late 1939 to early 1940 on a debating tour of the United States before being called up. On 22nd March 1941, he received an emergency commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. During the war he initially served with heavy anti-aircraft guns around Liverpool, and by early 1942 was a regimental adjutant with the war substantive rank of captain. He participated as an adjutant in the Normandy Landings, where he met Maurice Schiman, French Foreign Minister under Pompidou. As a temporary major commanding a battery of his own men, he provided artillery support during the Allied campaigns in France and Germany in 1944-45, for which he received a mention in dispatches on 8th November 1945.

Edward later remarked that although he did not personally kill anybody, as the British forces advanced, he saw the devastation caused by his unit's artillery bombardments. In September 1945, he commanded a firing squad that executed a Polish soldier convicted of rape and murder.

Edward was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, Military Division (MBE) on 24th January 1946^[2]. He was demobilized in August 1946 and was promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel on 1st May 1947. Edward joined the Honorable Artillery Company as a lieutenant-colonel on 1st September 1951, in which he remained active throughout the 1950s, rising to officer of the Second Battalion. A portrait of him in full dress uniform still hangs in the HAC's Long Room. In April 1971, as Prime Minister, he wore his lieutenant-colonel's insignia to inspect troops.

1945-1950

Before the war, Edward had won a scholarship to Gray's Inn and had begun making preparations for a career at the Bar, but after the war he was placed in joint top position in the civil service examinations. He then became a civil servant in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, but declined an offer to join the Foreign Office, fearing that foreign postings might prevent him from entering politics. Edward Joined a team under Alison Munro tasked with drawing up a scheme for British airports using some of the many Second World War RAF bases, and was specifically charged with planning the home counties. Years later, she attributed his evident enthusiasm for Maplin Airport to this work. Then much to the surprise of civil service colleagues, he sought adoption as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Bexley and resigned in November 1947.

After working as news editor of the Church Times from February 1948 to September 1949, he worked as a trainee at the merchant bankers Brown, Shipley & Co until his election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bexley in the February 1950 general elections. In the election he defeated an old contemporary from the Oxford Union, Ashley Bramil, by a margin of 133 votes.

He was knighted 23 April 1992.^[3]

There is a gravestone for Edward Heath in Salisbury Cathedral.^[4]

• Space Page: List of Prime Minister of England and United Kingdom. (https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Space:List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_England_and_United_Kingdom.&public=1)

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Sources

1. ↑ General Register Office; United Kingdom; Reference: Volume 2a, Page 1927
2. ↑ The London Gazette (Supplement) 6th November 1945, page 5437
3. ↑ https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/52903/page/7175
4. ↑ Salisbury Cathedral (Salisbury, Wiltshire). Gravestone for Edward Heath. Personally photographed by Aidan Bizony, 11 Aug 2019.

See also:

• Find A Grave, database and images (accessed 12 August 2019), memorial page for Edward Heath (9 Jul 1916–17 Jul 2005), Find A Grave: Memorial #11369383, citing Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury, Wiltshire Unitary Authority, Wiltshire, England ; Maintained by Find A Grave Cremated.
• ThePeerage.com: Sir Edward Richard George Heath
• Wikipedia: Edward Heath
• Wikidata: Item Q128967, en:Wikipedia