Arthur Christopher John Soames, Baron Soames, GCMG, GCVO, CH, CBE, PC (12 October 1920 – 16 September 1987) was a British politician belonging to the Conservative Party and the son-in-law of Winston Churchill. A European Commissioner and the last Governor of Southern Rhodesia, he had previously been the longtime Member of Parliament for Bedford from 1950 to 1966. He held several government posts and attained Cabinet rank.
Background
Soames was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, England, [1] the son of Captain Arthur Granville Soames (the brother of Olave Baden-Powell, World Chief Guide, both descendants of a brewing family which had joined the landed gentry) by his marriage to Hope Mary Woodbine Parish. His parents divorced while he was a boy, and his mother married as her second husband the 8th Baron Dynevor (a descendant of the 1st and last Earl Talbot), by whom she had further children including Richard Rhys, 9th Baron Dynevor. Political career
After military service in the Second World War, Soames served as the Assistant Military Attaché in Paris. He was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Bedford from 1950 to 1966 and served under Sir Anthony Eden as Under-Secretary of State for Air from 1955 to 1957 and under Harold Macmillan as Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty from 1957 to 1958. In 1955 he was invested as Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
He served in the Cabinet under Macmillan as Secretary of State for War from 1958 to 1960 and under Macmillan and his successor Sir Alec Douglas-Home as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1960 to 1964. In 1958 he was admitted to the Privy Council.
Between 1965 and 1966 Soames was Shadow Foreign Secretary under Edward Heath. In 1968 Harold Wilson appointed him Ambassador to France, where he served until 1972. In 1972 Soames was subsequently made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO), a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG), and a Grand Officer of the French Legion d'Honneur.[1] He was then a Vice-President of the European Commission from 1973 to 1976. He was created a life peer in 1978 as Baron Soames, of Fletching in the County of East Sussex, and served as the interim Governor of Southern Rhodesia from 1979 to 1980 between the Lancaster House Agreement and that country gaining independence as Zimbabwe. From 1979 to 1981 he was Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords under Margaret Thatcher concurrent with his duties in Rhodesia. In 1980 he was invested as a Companion of Honour. Family
Lord Soames married Mary Churchill, the youngest child of Winston Churchill and Clementine Hozier, on 11 February 1947. They had five children:
Death
Lord Soames died from pancreatitis, aged 66, and is buried within the Churchill plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire.[2], [3]
See also:
"New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2HQK-23X : 16 March 2018), Arthur C J Soames, 1953; citing Immigration, New York City, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication T715 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
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S > Soames > Arthur Christopher John Soames GCMG GCVO
Categories: Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George | Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order | Order of the Companions of Honour | Commanders of the Order of the British Empire | Privy Counsellors
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Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Companions of Honour
Privy Counsellors of the United Kingdom
Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur