Christopher Soames

The Right Honourable
The Lord Soames
GCMG GCVO CH CBE PC
The Right Honourable The Lord Soames GCMG GCVO CH CBE PC
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Governor of Southern Rhodesia
	In office; Template:En dash range
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	Humphrey Gibbs; as Governor of Southern Rhodesia; Josiah Zion Gumede; as President of Zimbabwe Rhodesia
Succeeded by	Canaan Banana; as President of Zimbabwe
Vice-President of the European Commission
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President	François-Xavier Ortoli
European Commissioner for External Relations
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President	François-Xavier Ortoli
Preceded by	Jean-François Deniau
Succeeded by	Wilhelm Haferkamp
[[Her Majesty's Ambassador to Template:CountryPrefixThe\|Her Majesty's Ambassador to Template:CountryPrefixThe]]
	In office; Template:En dash range
Preceded by	Patrick Reilly
Succeeded by	Edward Tomkins
Prime Minister	Page Module:Infobox/styles.css has no content.
Ministerial offices
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Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council
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Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Page Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content. The Lord Peart (Lords); Michael Foot (Council);
Succeeded by	Page Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content. The Baroness Young (Lords); Francis Pym (Council);
Shadow Foreign Secretary
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Leader	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Reginald Maudling
Succeeded by	Alec Douglas-Home
Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
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Leader	Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded by	Peter Thorneycroft
Succeeded by	Enoch Powell
Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
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Leader	Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded by	Fred Peart
Succeeded by	Martin Redmayne
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
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Prime Minister	Page Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content. Harold Macmillan; Alec Douglas-Home;
Preceded by	John Hare
Succeeded by	Fred Peart
Secretary of State for War
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Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	John Hare
Succeeded by	John Profumo
Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty
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Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	George Ward
Succeeded by	Robert Allan
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Air
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Prime Minister	Anthony Eden
Preceded by	George Ward
Succeeded by	Ian Orr-Ewing
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Parliamentary offices
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Member of the House of Lords
	Lord Temporal
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Member of Parliament; for
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Preceded by	Thomas Skeffington-Lodge
Succeeded by	Brian Parkyn
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Personal details
Born	Arthur Christopher John Soames; Script error: No such module "person date".; Penn, Buckinghamshire, England
Died	Script error: No such module "person date".; Odiham, Hampshire, England
Resting place	St Martin's Church, Bladon
Party	Conservative
SpouseScript error: No such module "Detect singular".	Page Template:Marriage/styles.css has no content. Mary Churchill (m. 1947)Script error: No such module "Parameter validation".
Children	5, including Nicholas, Emma and Rupert
ParentScript error: No such module "Detect singular".	Arthur Granville Soames (father)
Relatives	Winston Churchill (father‑in‑law)
Education	Eton College
Alma mater	Royal Military College, Sandhurst

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File:May Churchill, Bestanddeelnr 902-0428.jpg

Christopher and Mary Soames in Lenzerheide, February 1947

Arthur Christopher John Soames, Baron Soames, GCMG, GCVO, CH, CBE, PC (12 October 1920 – 16 September 1987) was a British Conservative politician who served as a European Commissioner and the last Governor of Southern Rhodesia. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Bedford from 1950 to 1966. He held several government posts and attained Cabinet rank.

Early life and education

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Soames was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, England, the son of Captain Arthur Granville Soames (the brother of Olave Baden-Powell, World Chief Guide, both descendants of a brewing family who had joined the landed gentry) by his marriage to Hope Mary Woodbine Parish.^[1] His parents divorced while he was a boy, and his mother married her second husband Charles Rhys (later 8th Baron Dynevor), by whom she had further children including Richard Rhys, 9th Baron Dynevor.

Soames was educated at West Downs School, Eton College, and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.^[2] He obtained a commission as an officer in the Coldstream Guards just before World War II broke out. During the war, he served in France, Italy, and North Africa and was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for his actions at the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942.^[3]

Political career

After military service during the Second World War, Soames served as the Assistant Military Attaché in Paris.^[1] He was the Conservative MP for Bedford from 1950 to 1966 and served under 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.^[1] In the 1955 Birthday Honours, he was invested as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).^[4]

In 1958 he was sworn of the Privy Council. He served under Macmillan as Secretary of State for War (outside the Cabinet) from 1958 to 1960 and then in the cabinets of Macmillan and his successor Alec Douglas-Home as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from July 1960 to 1964. Home had promised to promote him to Foreign Secretary if the Conservatives won the 1964 general election, but they did not.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.

Between 1965 and 1966, Soames was Shadow Foreign Secretary under Edward Heath. He lost his seat in Parliament in the 1966 election. In 1968 Harold Wilson appointed him Ambassador to France,^[5] where he served until 1972.^[6] During his tenure as ambassador, he was involved in the February 1969 "Soames affair", following a private meeting between Soames and French president Charles de Gaulle, the latter offering bilateral talks concerning a partnership for Britain in a larger and looser European union, the talks not involving other members. The British government eventually refused the offer, and that for a time strained Franco-British relations. He was then a Vice-President of the European Commission from 1973 to 1976.^[7] He was considered as a potential challenger to Edward Heath in the 1975 Conservative Party leadership election. The eventual winner Margaret Thatcher would have withdrawn if he had stood.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He was created a life peer on 19 April 1978 as Baron Soames, of Fletching in the County of East Sussex.^[8]

He served as the interim governor of Southern Rhodesia from 1979 to 1980, charged with administering the terms of the Lancaster House Agreement and overseeing its transition to internationally recognised independence as Zimbabwe in 1980. 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 Southern Rhodesia.^[1]

Outside politics

Soames served as president of the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1973, was a non-executive director of N.M. Rothschild and Sons Ltd 1977–1979, and a director of the Nat West Bank 1978–1979.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.

Personal life

Lord Soames married Mary Churchill, the youngest child of Winston and Clementine Churchill, on 11 February 1947. They had five children:

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Arthur Nicholas Winston Soames, Baron Soames of Fletching (b. 12 February 1948), Member of House of Lords, former Conservative MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Defence;^[9]
Emma Mary Soames (b. 6 September 1949), editor of Saga magazine;
Jeremy Bernard Soames (b. 25 May 1952);
Charlotte Clementine Soames, Countess Peel (b. 17 July 1954), married to William Peel, 3rd Earl Peel, former Lord Chamberlain;
Rupert Christopher Soames (b. 18 May 1959).^{[citation needed]}

File:Bladon, Oxfordshire - St Martin's Church - churchyard, grave of Prime Minister Churchill's daughters.jpg

Christopher and Mary Soames' grave at St Martin's Church, Bladon, in 2015

Lord Soames died from cancer at his home in Odiham on 16 September 1987.^[1] His ashes were buried within the Churchill plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire.^{[citation needed]}

Honours

In date order:

Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) – 1942Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) (Civil division) – 1955Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) – 1972^[10]
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) – 1972^[11]
Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (France) – 1972^[2]
Robert Schuman Prize – 1976Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) – 1980^[12]

Arms

Coat of arms of Christopher Soames
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Notes

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^ Humphrey Gibbs' position as governor was abolished by the government of Rhodesia in 1965, but the abolition was unrecognised and Gibbs still legally held office until 1969
^ Josiah Zion Gumede was head of state of the internationally unrecognised government of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, which was formed following the Internal Settlement of 1978

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Script error: No such module "template wrapper". (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
^ ^a ^b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Papers of Baron Soames". Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge. Archived from the original on 4 October 2021. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Britain's Man for Rhodesia". The New York Times. 13 December 1979. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.[Script error: No such module "London Gazette util". "No. 40497"]. The London Gazette (Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".). 9 June 1955. p. Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".. {{cite magazine}}: Check |url= value (help); More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".
^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.[Script error: No such module "London Gazette util". "No. 44723"]. The London Gazette (Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".). 26 November 1968. p. Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".. {{cite magazine}}: Check |url= value (help); More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".
^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.[Script error: No such module "London Gazette util". "No. 45876"]. The London Gazette (Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".). 11 January 1973. p. Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".. {{cite magazine}}: Check |url= value (help); More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".
^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."A.Ch.J. (Christopher) Soames". europa-nu.nl (in Nederlands). Archived from the original on 12 November 2017. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.[Script error: No such module "London Gazette util". "No. 47519"]. The London Gazette (Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".). 24 April 1978. p. Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".. {{cite magazine}}: Check |url= value (help); More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".
^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Lord Soames of Fletching". MPs and Lords. UK Parliament. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.[Script error: No such module "London Gazette util". "No. 45713"]. The London Gazette (Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".). 27 June 1972. p. Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".. {{cite magazine}}: Check |url= value (help); More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".
^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.[Script error: No such module "London Gazette util". "No. 45554"]. The London Gazette (Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".). 1 January 1972. p. Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".. {{cite magazine}}: Check |url= value (help); More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".
^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.[Script error: No such module "London Gazette util". "No. 48212"]. The London Gazette (Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".). 14 June 1980. p. Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".. {{cite magazine}}: Check |url= value (help); More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)Script error: No such module "London Gazette util".
^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Debrett's Peerage. 1985.^{[incomplete short citation]}

Bibliography

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Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Campbell, John (2010). Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown. London: Vintage. ISBN 978-1-84595-091-0. OCLC 489636152.
Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Jago, Michael (2015). Rab Butler: The Best Prime Minister We Never Had?. London: Biteback. ISBN 978-1-84954-920-2.
Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Mosley, Nicholas, ed. (1982). Debrett's Handbook 1982: Distinguished People in British Life. London: Debrett's Peerage Limited. ISBN 978-0-905649-38-2.
Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Sanderson, Claire (2011). Perfide Albion ? L'affaire Soames et les arcanes de la diplomatie britannique (in français). Paris: Publications de la Sorbonn. ISBN 978-2-85944-665-9.