Arthur Christopher John Soames GCMG GCVO (1920 - 1987)

Born 12 Oct 1920 in Penn, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Died 16 Sep 1987 at age 66 in United Kingdom

Biography

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:

1. The Rt. Hon. Arthur Nicholas Winston Soames (b. 12 February 1948) – prominent Conservative Member of Parliament and former Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
2. The Hon. Emma Mary Soames (b. 6 September 1949) – editor of Saga magazine
3. The Hon. Jeremy Bernard Soames (b. 25 May 1952)
4. The Rt. Hon. Charlotte Clementine Soames, the Countess Peel (b. 17 July 1954), is married to The Earl Peel, the Lord Chamberlain
5. The Hon. Rupert Christopher Soames (b. 18 May 1959).[2]

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]

Sources

1. ↑ "England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2NM5-MHT : 1 October 2014), Arthur C J Soames, 1920; from "England & Wales Births, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Birth Registration, Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, citing General Register Office, Southport, England.
2. ↑ The Papers of Baron Soames – Website Janus
3. ↑ "Person Page 10626". Thepeerage.com. Retrieved 5 February 2013.

See also:

• Stevan Pavlowitch, "Apologising for the Empire", Oxford University Press, England (1996)

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Christopher Soames
• Time:Festive Birth of a Nation (Zimbabwe)
• Maximilian Genealogy Master Database 2000
• Nicholas Soames – MP for Mid Sussex

• Wikipedia

• England & Wales, Birth Index, 1916-2005

• England & Wales, Marriage Index, 1916-2005

• Death Notices from The Times, London, England, 1982-1988 Author: Noonan, Barry

• England & Wales, Death Index, 1916-2006 Ancestry.com

"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.).