Sir Anthony Kershaw RIP

Kyt · May 2, 2008

Sir Anthony Kershaw - Telegraph

Sir Anthony Kershaw, the former Conservative MP for Stroud who died on Tuesday aged 92, was a Tory loyalist, content, for most of his political career, to wield influence from the backbenches; a popular man and a witty debater, he won the respect of all sides of the House for his independence of mind and shrewd political judgment.

He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Edward Heath when he was leader of the Opposition and held a number of junior ministerial positions after Heath became Prime Minister in 1970.

His loyalty to Heath's successor, Margaret Thatcher, was unwavering; his support for her economic policies helped her to retain the support of party "wets" during difficult times.

Kershaw was, however, always too much his own man for her liking: his views on abortion (pro), on hanging (anti), on Europe (pro) and on electoral reform (pro) were often at variance with hers – a fact which, together with his laid-back patrician manner and association with the ancien régime, debarred him from ministerial office under her premiership. Instead, during the 1980s he wielded considerable influence behind the scenes as chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

John Anthony Kershaw was born in Cairo on December 14 1915, the second son of Judge JF Kershaw, of the Cairo Court of Appeal. From Eton he went to Balliol College, Oxford, to read Law, and he was called to the Bar by Inner Temple in 1939.

At the beginning of the war Kershaw served briefly with the Thames River Police, before being commissioned in May 1940 into the 16th/5th Lancers; the following day he received a postcard from General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough, whom he had met just before the outbreak of war. "Glad to hear you have joined the Regiment," it read. "Ride straight, ride hard, watch your flanks and you will be all right."

Kershaw served in tanks in North Africa, where he was awarded an MC for his conduct during an action north of the Kasserine Gap, in Tunisia. After the wireless in the brigade's scout car failed, Kershaw ran between his own tank and his brigadier's to take orders for transmission from his own radio, all the time under intense shell and machine-gun fire.

On the next day, February 22 1943, he volunteered to man his (by now disabled) tank at the fore of the brigade's position when an enemy attack appeared imminent and he was under constant artillery fire.

On a later occasion, near the Bon peninsular, Kershaw was standing on a track with his brigadier and General Bernard Freyberg, VC, when a group of captured German soldiers approached, four abreast, singing a military song. Freyberg waved them off the track to pass and they stepped straight into a minefield; some were killed, more were wounded. Kershaw and his brigadier flung themselves to the ground; Freyberg took absolutely no notice, and carried on talking as if nothing had happened.

Kershaw landed in Normandy on D+3 and was in action near Caen and in Belgium before being posted as an instructor at Staff College Camberley. He remained a serving officer in the Territorial Army after the war and during the 1950s became Colonel of the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars. At the same time he resumed his legal career and became involved in politics, serving during the late 1940s on the London County Council and Westminster City Council.

Kershaw entered the House of Commons as MP for Stroud after the 1955 general election and made an effective maiden speech supporting the continued maintenance of National Service. In 1956 he became private secretary to Antony Head, Secretary of State for War; in 1963 he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ted Heath, then Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development and President of the Board of Trade.

After the Conservatives' defeat in the general election of 1964, Kershaw was active in Heath's successful campaign for the leadership of the party following the resignation of Sir Alec Douglas-Home. Between 1964 and 1966 he served as a member of the 1922 Executive and in 1967 was appointed as Heath's second PPS, working with James Prior.

During this period Kershaw was a representative on the Conservative Group in the assemblies of the Council of Europe and the Western European Union, and did much to pave the way with European parliamentary opinion for Britain's entry into the Common Market.

After the Conservative victory in the 1970 General Election, he served for five months as Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works and was then appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office under Sir Alec Douglas-Home.

In 1973 he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defence responsible for the RAF.

After Margaret Thatcher took over the leadership following the Conservatives' defeats in the general elections of 1974, Kershaw attempted to act as a peacemaker between her and an embittered Ted Heath.

At the same time he became involved in the campaign for electoral reform. In 1974, when he convened a backbench meeting to discuss the issue, he said: "I feel that electoral reform is necessary if the country is to be run democratically and not against its wishes by a militant minority." In 1976 he joined the National Committee for Electoral Reform.

With his party in opposition, in 1974 Kershaw became a vice-chairman of the British Council, a post he held until his retirement from Parliament at the 1987 election.

As chairman of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs from 1979, Kershaw wielded considerable influence behind the scenes, though the committee's reports did not always sway government policy.

In one of its first reports, published in 1980, the committee was critical of the plans of the Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to patriate the constitution to the control of the federal government in Ottawa against the wishes of Canadian provincial governments. A subsequent report, published in 1981, rebuked the Canadian government for its claim that Westminster was constitutionally obliged to pass Trudeau's plan. In the event, the necessary legislation – the Canada Bill – passed after the collapse of the Canadian provincial opposition.

A report published in 1984 supported the government's general approach to the Falkland Islands, following the Falklands war, but argued that the government could adopt a more positive tone with Argentina.

In 1986 the committee rushed out a report on South Africa before a Commonwealth summit, warning of an imminent bloodbath but stopping short of recommending sanctions.

Kershaw was a popular and amusing companion with a bluff "country gent" style which belied a shrewd political mind. He had considerable influence on the backbenches of his party and served on the 1922 executive between 1983 and 1987.

He was a witty and laconic speaker with an engaging line in self-deprecation. In 1984, after he fell through an open drain in Green Park, tearing his ligaments, he remarked: "My constituents advised me to take it up with my MP, but I told them he's a useless old beggar." Instead he sued the Department of the Environment.

In 1987, following a gaffe-strewn trip to Washington by the Labour leader Neil Kinnock and his deputy, Denis Healey, Kershaw managed to raise the matter during prime minister's questions by asking Mrs Thatcher whether she would "persuade the Treasury to provide more money for trips abroad"; Kershaw succeeded in making Kinnock look ridiculous while skilfully avoiding the risk of being called to order by the Speaker.

In addition to his legal work, he worked as an adviser to British American Tobacco and the Association of British Marine Tools.

Anthony Kershaw served as a Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucestershire from 1989 and as Vice-Lord Lieutenant (1990-93). He was appointed KCB in 1981.

He married, in 1939, Barbara Crookenden, with whom he had two daughters and two sons.
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