{{Short description|British politician (1913–2007)}} {{Similar names|William Deedes (disambiguation){{!}}William Deedes}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = The Lord Deedes | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KBE|MC|PC|size=100%}} | image = William-Francis-Deedes-Baron-Deedes.jpg | office = Minister without Portfolio | term_start = 13 July 1962 | term_end = 16 October 1964 | prime_minister = {{ubl|Harold Macmillan|Alec Douglas-Home}} | predecessor = The Lord Mills | successor = Eric Fletcher | office1 = Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government | term_start1 = 18 October 1954 | term_end1 = 20 December 1955 | prime_minister1 = {{ubl|Winston Churchill|Anthony Eden}} | predecessor1 = Ernest Marples | successor1 = Enoch Powell | office2 = Member of the House of Lords | status2 = Lord Temporal | term_label2 = Life peerage | term_start2 = 23 September 1986 | term_end2 = 17 August 2007 | parliament3 = United Kingdom | constituency_MP3 = Ashford | term_start3 = 23 February 1950 | term_end3 = 20 September 1974 | predecessor3 = Edward Percy Smith | successor3 = Keith Speed | birth_name = William Francis Deedes | birth_date = {{birth date|1913|06|1|df=y}} | birth_place = Hampstead, London, England | death_date = {{death date and age|2007|08|17|1913|6|1|df=y}} | death_place = Aldington, Kent, England | party = Conservative | spouse = {{marriage|Evelyn Branfort||2004|end=d}} | children = 5 | education = Harrow School | relatives = {{ubl|Wyndham Deedes (uncle)|Drummond Money-Coutts (grandson)}} Sophia Money-Coutts (granddaughter) <!--Military service--> | module = {{Infobox military person | embed=yes | allegiance = <!-- United Kingdom --> | branch = {{army|United Kingdom}} | service_number = 90126 | service_years =World War II | rank = Major | battles = | awards = 35px Military Cross }} }} '''William Francis Deedes, Baron Deedes''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|KBE|MC|PC}} (1 June 1913 – 17 August 2007) was a British Conservative politician, army officer and journalist. He was the first person in Britain to have been both a member of the Cabinet and the editor of a major daily newspaper, ''The Daily Telegraph''.
==Early life == Deedes was born in Hampstead in 1913, the second child and only son of landowner Herbert William Deedes and his wife Melesina Gladys, daughter of Philip Francis Chenevix Trench.<ref name = Worsthorne>{{cite ODNB|title = Deedes, William Francis [Bill], Baron Deedes (1913–2007), journalist and politician|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/99004|last = Worsthorne|first = Peregrine|authorlink = Peregrine Worsthorne|date = 2011}}</ref> His younger sister Margaret Melesina married the 21st Baron FitzWalter.<ref name="burke">{{cite book |title= Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood|publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry |editor= Mosley, Charles |editor-link=Charles Mosley (genealogist) |edition=107 |year= 2003 |page=1067 |ref=Burke |isbn=0-9711966-2-1}}</ref> He was brought up in the family home of Saltwood Castle until it was sold in 1925. He was educated at Harrow until after his father, who had struggled to manage the family's wealth for years, suffered heavy financial losses from the Wall Street crash of 1929 which eradicated their remaining fortunes.<ref name = Obit>{{cite news|title = Lord Deedes|url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/1560496/Lord-Deedes.html|newspaper = The Daily Telegraph|date = 18 August 2007|page = 27|url-access = subscription}}</ref>
==Journalism== Due to the lack of funds, Deedes was forced to leave school a year early and finish his exams with a tutor.<ref name="desert">{{cite web |title=Desert Island Discs – Lord Deedes – BBC Sounds |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p00948jc |website=Desert Island Discs |publisher=BBC Radio |access-date=15 March 2019}}</ref> After failing to get into a university, Deedes began his career as a reporter on the ''Morning Post'' in 1931, joining ''The Daily Telegraph'' when it took over the ''Post'' in 1937. Between 1931 and the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, he shared a home in Bethnal Green, with his uncle Wyndham Deedes.<ref name = Worsthorne/>
==War service== Deedes fought with the British Army in the Second World War, being based initially at Shrapnel Barracks in Woolwich<ref name="Deedes">{{cite book|last1=Deedes|first1=William|title=Words and Deedes: Selected Journalism 1931-2006|date=2013|publisher=Pan MacMillan|isbn=9780330541121|page=70}}</ref> as an officer in the 2nd Battalion, Queen's Westminsters, one of the Territorial Army (TA) units of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, into which he was commissioned in June 1939.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34637|page=4163|date=20 June 1939}}</ref>
He gained the Military Cross near Hengelo, the Netherlands in April 1945.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=37172|page=3591|date=10 July 1945|supp=y}}</ref> He rose to the rank of major and was the only officer to serve in 12th King's Royal Rifle Corps (2nd Queen's Westminsters) for the duration of the war. His battalion served as the motorised battalion of 8th Armoured Brigade in the North-west Europe campaign.<ref name = Obit/>
==Politics== Deedes came from a family with a tradition of public service. He was very proud of the fact that there had been a Deedes member of parliament in every century since 1600.<ref name="guardian"/>
Deedes was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashford in 1950. First serving as a junior minister under Winston Churchill for three years, he later entered Harold Macmillan's Cabinet in 1962 as Minister without Portfolio. He left the Cabinet in 1964, as Minister of Information, and subsequently stood down as an MP at the October 1974 election.<ref name="guardian"/>
==Editorship and Fleet Street== Deedes was editor of ''The Daily Telegraph'' from 1974 to 1986 and, after he was replaced by Max Hastings, continued his career as a journalist. His tenure was noted for battles with the print unions.<ref name = Worsthorne/>
After the 1999 Australian republic referendum, Deedes wrote in ''The Daily Telegraph'': "I have rarely attended elections in any country, certainly not a democratic one, in which the newspapers have displayed more shameless bias. One and all, they determined that Australians should have a republic and they used every device towards that end."<ref>Deedes, Bill; ''The Daily Telegraph''; 8 November 1999</ref>
He continued to comment on social and political issues through his newspaper columns until his death. In his later years, he gained a cult fanbase after two memorable appearances on ''Have I Got News for You'' and was, at the age of 88, the oldest guest ever to have appeared on the programme until 2012, when Baroness Trumpington appeared at the age of 90.
He was also a stalwart member of the Carlton Club and was appointed as an ambassador for UNICEF in 1998, running high-profile campaigns against landmines. In 2006, he wrote in an opinion piece for ''The Daily Telegraph'' that Islam "is the only faith on Earth that persuades its followers to seek political power and impose a law – sharia – which shapes everyone's style of life" and added that Islam "forbids" Muslims from conforming with British society.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061020231723/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/10/20/do2003.xml Muslims can never conform to our ways] – Daily Telegraph. 20 October 2006</ref> He continued to write into his 94th year, with his final article, published on 3 August 2007, about Darfur.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080317032917/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/08/03/do0308.xml Darfur is as bad as Nazi Germany – and I know] – ''The Daily Telegraph''. 3 August 2007</ref>
==Personal life== Deedes was married to Evelyn Hilary Branfoot, who died in May 2004, by whom he had two sons and three daughters.<ref name="guardian">{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/aug/18/guardianobituaries.obituaries1 | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Richard | last=Ingrams | title=Obituary: Lord Deedes | date=20 August 2007}}</ref> A convinced Christian like his father, he lived very unpretentiously on the edge of Romney Marsh, Kent, where his wife, Hilary, kept a menagerie of farm animals. He was never particularly well-off, preferring to use public transport whenever possible.<ref name="guardian"/>
He was created a life peer on 23 September 1986, becoming '''Baron Deedes''', of Aldington in the County of Kent,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=50667 |date=26 September 1983 |page=12499}}</ref> but he always preferred to be addressed as "Bill", rather than "Lord Deedes".<ref name="desert"/> He was the subject of ''This Is Your Life'' in 1998, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6254876/|publisher=IMDb|title=This Is Your Life: S39.E15 Bill Deedes|accessdate=26 September 2023}}</ref>
==Death==
Deedes died from bronchopneumonia at his home in Aldington on 17 August 2007, at the age of 94.<ref name = Worsthorne/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=Margalit |title=Bill Deedes, Journalist in Britain, Is Dead at 94 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/world/europe/04deedes.html |access-date=15 March 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=4 September 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6952387.stm |title=Journalist Lord Deedes dies at 94 |access-date=17 August 2007 |format=webpage |publisher=BBC News | date=17 August 2007}}</ref> There is a residential street named for him in the village, called Bill Deedes Way.
==Popular culture==
===''Scoop''=== According to many sources, Deedes was the journalist used by Evelyn Waugh as the model and inspiration for the hapless William Boot, protagonist of the satirical novel ''Scoop''. Deedes himself said he "spent part of my life brushing aside the charge", but admitted "that my inexperience and naivety as a reporter in Africa might have contributed a few bricks to the building of Boot."<ref>W. F. Deedes, ''At War With Waugh'' (London: Macmillan, 2003), pp. 102–103</ref> The two had reported together in 1936, trying to cover the Second Italo-Abyssinian War; Deedes arrived in Addis Ababa aged 22 with almost 600 pounds of luggage.<ref>W. F. Deedes, ''At War With Waugh'' (London: Macmillan, 2003), p. 3</ref> Berhanu Kebele, Ethiopian ambassador to London, pointed out that Deedes's sharp journalistic instincts ensured Italian excesses were kept in the public eye.<ref>Letter to ''The Daily Telegraph'' on 27 August 2007(Issue no 47,347)</ref>
Barring the question of age, a more appropriate model for Boot is William Beach Thomas who, according to Peter Stothard, "was a quietly successful countryside columnist and literary gent who became a calamitous ''Daily Mail'' war correspondent" in World War I.<ref>The Times [http://timescolumns.typepad.com/stothard/2007/05/hay_we_got_it_w.html Hay, we got it wrong] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927141754/http://timescolumns.typepad.com/stothard/2007/05/hay_we_got_it_w.html |date=27 September 2007 }} 29 May 2007</ref>
==="Dear Bill"=== Deedes was close to Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis. The spoof letters "from" Mr. Thatcher which appeared in satirical magazine ''Private Eye'' throughout the Thatcher years were always addressed to ''Dear Bill'' – the "Bill" in question was usually assumed to be Deedes; however some instalments (e.g. 16 May and 28 November 1986) would suggest otherwise. The two men regularly played golf together, with Deedes saying it was a public service to take the spouse of the Prime Minister away from the stress of being married to the country's head of government. The ''Eye'' also based its long-running editorial comment, "Shome mishtake shurely?", on Deedes' distinctive slur.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/aug/19/pressandpublishing.dailytelegraph|title=The unassuming W F Deedes|date= 19 August 2007|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref>
==Publications== * ''Swift and Bold: The Story of the King's Royal Rifle Corps in the Second World War 1939-1945'', coedited with Sir Hereward Wake, Aldershot: Gale & Polden, 1949 * ''At War with Waugh: The Real Story of "Scoop"'', Macmillan, 2003 {{ISBN|1-4050-0573-4}} * ''Brief Lives'', Macmillan, 2004 {{ISBN|0-330-42639-7}} * ''Dear Bill: A Memoir'', Macmillan, 2005 {{ISBN|1-4050-5266-X}} * ''Words and Deedes: Selected Journalism 1931-2006'', Macmillan, 2006, {{ISBN|1-4050-5396-8}}
==Arms== {{Infobox COA wide |image = centre|150px centre|200px |escutcheon = ''Per fess nebuly Gules and Argent three Martlets counterchanged'' |crest = An Eagle's Head erased per fess nebuly Gules and Argent between two Wings expanded Sable<ref name="burke"/> }}
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071127233438/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/exclusions/deedes/nosplit/deedes.xml A tribute to Lord Deedes: ''The Daily Telegraph''] * [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6952578.stm "Gentleman journalist remembered" – BBC News Online, 18 August 2007] * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-william-deedes-1 | Bill Deedes }} * {{NPG name}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | before=Edward Percy Smith | title=Member of Parliament<br/>for Ashford | years=1950–1974 | after=Keith Speed }} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=Ernest Marples}} {{s-ttl|title=Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government|years=1954–1955}} {{s-aft|after=Enoch Powell}} {{s-bef|before=The Lord Mills}} {{s-ttl|title=Minister without Portfolio|years=1962–1964}} {{s-aft|after=Eric Fletcher}} {{s-media}} {{succession box | before=Maurice Green | title=Editor of ''The Daily Telegraph''| years=1974–1986 | after=Max Hastings }} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deedes, Bill}} Category:1913 births Category:2007 deaths Category:21st-century British journalists Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:Conservative Party (UK) life peers Category:Deaths from bronchopneumonia Category:Deaths from pneumonia in England Category:Deputy lieutenants of Kent Category:English male journalists Category:English newspaper editors Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Military personnel from Kent Category:Military personnel from the London Borough of Camden Category:Ministers in the Eden government, 1955–1957 Category:Ministers in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home governments, 1957–1964 Category:Ministers in the third Churchill government, 1951–1955 Category:People educated at Harrow School Category:Queen's Westminsters officers Category:Recipients of the Military Cross Category:UK MPs 1950–1951 Category:UK MPs 1951–1955 Category:UK MPs 1955–1959 Category:UK MPs 1959–1964 Category:UK MPs 1964–1966 Category:UK MPs 1966–1970 Category:UK MPs 1970–1974 Category:UK MPs 1974 Category:20th-century British male journalists Category:20th-century British newspaper editors